In 24 hours....

we will be meeting our girl...we hope! We could not sleep last night....so many thoughts going through our heads. ( not to mention we are still all backwords on our body clock, and in order to talk to Kyra after school we have to stay up until 12:30) Once we finally did get in bed we could not stop thinking about all that is going on. The thought of this little girl being abandoned at birth just pulled at my heart last night. I just can't wait to wrap my arms around her and show her that she is worth loving and that someone wants her to be a part of their family. Some one traveled thousands of miles and over the ocean and left jobs and children and all that they know, to be able to show her that they want her to be a part of their family.

As we picture meeting her for the first time tomorrow we are faced with so many questions....
will she look totally different than this picture we have in our heads of her? will she be scared? will she want to come to us? will she speak? will she smile? What does her laugh sound like? what does she eat? what does she like to do?
So much of this experience still feels so surreal. To think that after all these months of staring at this one picture of her we are about to meet her in person!!!!!!! Soon she will not be just a face on my computer or in my wallet, soon she will be in my arms!!!!!

As I have thought about Kareen's birth parents I have been wondering what they may have gone through giving her up. On one hand my heart aches for them and wish they would have known what they would be missing out on, although maybe they wanted to keep her but couldn't because of the way things are here. Maybe they cried and cried leaving her at that orphanage, we will never know. On the other hand I feel gratitude to them for letting her live and for bringing her into the world because now I have the opportunity to be her mother.
A friend sent me this message the other day....
"I keep thinking she (Kareen) has no idea what her life will be now that you will be her forever family but in the same thought I keep thinking she does know because this was the plan all along. She knew and you knew that one day you were going to meet again! "
This perfectly describes how I am feeling right now. This whole journey has been miraculous and we have been guided by the Lord through it all. I know that it is not coincidence how this is all playing out and the timing of finding this little girl. We did not go searching her out, we were lead directly to her. It is much more than chance that she is going to be part of our family, it is meant to be! Which is making it even harder to wait to meet her!
We are all packed and waiting for our driver to come take us back to the SDA to pick up our referral and then we will go get tickets for the train and be on our way!
Here are a few pictures from our lunch outing today. The traffic thing is hilarious to watch! There is no rhyme or reason to any of it! You just do whatever you want and drive wherever you want!









Next stop, Kareen's city!!!!!!!