My heart, my love, my life

My heart, my love, my life

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

3 Days and Counting!!!






Oh my goodness! I am so tired but about to burst out of my skin with excitement.... My precious little (yes I said little, not my littlest :-)- but still little brother) haha-- came over today to help Jared and make more sense of our mess of donations. I thought that I had all of our stuff packed yesterday- until one of my dear friends called this morning and said, "Kris, I have more!" So off we went, to meet her to fill up the back of my truck once again with clothing and formula. Praise God! I should have counted all the cans of formula (large and small) When I empty the bags in Ethiopia, I will try to remember to do that. We are able to take 8 bags with us, all but one are filled with donations of clothing and formula and all of it was donated... More than 350lbs worth of donations... Praise God!!! and.... there is still some leftover for Elaine to take with her when she goes to get her little girl :-) Thank you to everyone- everyone who has prayed, provided (in any way), worked and been there. When I saw my friend Tina today, we shared a few tears at the craziness of all of this. In January, it was a feeling that Jared and I had that we were supposed to do this- praying all the way that we were doing the right thing and that God would open the doors if this was His will and close them if we had misunderstood- well, He threw every door open and I can't begin to even describe all of the ways that has happened... but we are almost there-and then we will start on an entirely new journey full of twists and turns and lots of unknowns- but one thing that I am sure of is that God will be there. It almost makes me laugh at my stupidity to think that I doubted the God of the Universe- how silly is that????? The sad thing is that as much as I would like to say that I won't do it again, I will..... probably later tonight..... when I can't wrap my brain around something and I start worrying and doubting before I even realize that I am not trusting... the reality of my human flesh... My desire is that I longer I walk with Jesus, the more I will trust and the less I will doubt... He gave me a verse right before our spaghetti dinner out of 1 Samuel- "stand still and watch this great thing I will do before your eyes." Amazing!!!! He always does what He says... I pray that our children will be able to look back at this journey and be willing to walk wherever God leads, no matter how illogical and irrational it may seem to their human minds. Anyway- I wanted to post the pictures of some of the donations all over our bedroom and to say that I feel like I can maybe do this whole blogging thing- I figured out how to put a playlist of songs on here- Yeah!!!! We have last minute items to pack but other than that we are pretty much done.... My step-mom and dad come in tomorrow at 2pm- they are coming to care for our little girls while we are gone. I feel so sad to leave them, but am excited for next Friday, October 9th- when all 8 of us get to be together as a family!!!!

4 comments:

Kimmie said...

What an encouraging and God filled post dear sister.

Praying for you details!

What a blessing those 8 plus bags will be. Please let us know how it goes at the airport with your bags...are you getting a letter (from the agency) to say that it really is for orphans. The last time we went (Jan.) it was recommended that we do this, hoping they would sway the cost of the extra bags (and they did!)

Have a wonderful journey, thank you so much for sharing it with me.

(((hug)))

Kimmie
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted

Bekah Nelson said...

Kris and Jared Itinerary! Ethiopia Trip – October 2009

Little Rock ---> Dallas
(American) AA2746
DEP: 5:50 am
ARR: 6:45 am

Dallas ---> JFK
(American) AA0172
DEP: 11:48 am
ARR: 3:41 pm eastern [2:41 pm our time Saturday]

JFK ---> Dubai
(Emirates) EK/UAE 0202
DEP: 11:19 pm eastern [10:19 pm our time Saturday]
ARR: 7:16 pm Sunday UAEST [10:16 am our time Sunday]

Dubai ---> Addis, Ethiopia!
(Emirates) EK/UAE 0723
DEP: 8:25 am UAEST Monday [11:25 pm our time Sunday]
ARR: 11:30 am Ethiopia time [2:30 am our time Monday]


Coming Home! - Thursday, October 8

Addis ---> Dubai
(Emirates) EK/UAE 0724
DEP: 7:35 pm Ethiopia time [11:35 am our time Thursday]
ARR: 12:45 am UAEST [3:45 pm our time Thursday]

Dubai ---> JFK
(Emirates) EK/UAE 0203
DEP: 2:38 am UAEST [5:38 pm our time Thursday]
ARR: 8:23 am eastern [7:23 am our time Friday]

JFK ---> Cincinnati, OH
(Delta) DL 6466
DEP: 1:30 pm eastern [12:30 pm our time Friday]
ARR: 3:53 pm eastern [2:53 pm our time Friday]

Cincinnati, OH ---> Little Rock!
(Delta) DL 6136
DEP: 4:50 pm eastern [3:50 pm our time Friday]
ARR: 5:37 pm – They are home!!

Deborah Ann said...

God bless you for your work with orphans! We need more people like you in the world. BTW, I LOVE that quote on your blog...

Kimmie said...

Hi Krista and Jared...

Welcome home! I am so excited about hearing about your journey. I was praying for you the whole time...can't wait to see how He poured His goodness out over your lives.

CAN'T Wait...!!

I am so excited for all of you!

Kimmie
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted