Update On The Plans

Preparations are coming along, and all is going well so far. There are two other families with Holt who will be at the Thai adoption board meeting with us. It has been fun emailing them as they get ready too. Their travel approvals were a total surprise, and they are scrambling to get everything done by the time we leave. We, on the other hand, would have been surprised if we had NOT been called, so we're a little ahead of the game. However, that definitely doesn't mean we won't be scrambling the last week ourselves!

I booked our flights Sunday, and we are flying out of Shreveport at 6:55 am on Thursday the 21st. (My parents are coming a couple of days before to keep Ian.) We will meet Olivia for the first time Sunday morning, go to the board meeting on Wed, do some paperwork at the embassy on Thursday, and then have Friday through Sunday to travel or see more of Bangkok. I think all three families may try to go to the beach, which suits us since we have been to Bangkok before. We will leave to come home on March 5th. I have posted our flight itinerary (to the left) and will include a process schedule later. If you follow our trip, don't think we'll leave Dallas and be in Tokyo 4 hours later!!! I'll have to see how many hours ahead we'll be- should be around 13 or so.

For an update on Brian's dad, he was admitted into the hospital again yesterday. He finished his chemo in December, but began experiencing a lot of pain the week before Christmas. He was eventually diagnosed with shingles, but I'm not sure if everyone is convinced that is the correct diagnosis. Please pray the doctors can relieve is pain and find out exactly what is going on. He is a wonderful man, and I know he and Brian's mom want to come to Shreveport to help take care of Ian while we're gone and celebrate when Olivia comes home.

Also, I and another lady at church are coordinating the women's retreat again this year, so I am also working on that at the same time we are preparing for Olivia. It is a pretty involved project- overnight, out of town, catered meals, speaker from Nashville, etc. It's fun though, and I hated not to do it again. Booking the hotel and events center are the main things on my to-do list today.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Leah