Travel Plans.... more waiting... I'm getting good at it.

Well, If I'm going to talk the talk, I gotta walk the walk. I said I trusted Him. I said I knew He'd put us in Korea when He wanted, and that I trusted Him to work all things for our GOOD!

I went from sheer bliss and excitement from the moment of our travel call to completely nauseous when the realization that getting Zoe home for Christmas was looking bleak. Here's the deal... $4,000 tickets (per person) is not an option. Period. Flying with 4 layovers, zig-zagging all over the country and not being on the same flight as Michael wasn't an option. Period. The cheapest we found, ended up being $2,500 and he couldn't secure us a flight home from Dallas, so I suppose we were supposed to hitch-hike back to Memphis from there. To complicate things even more, we had a very small window of time we could get there and receive her before the social worker in Korea was leaving for a personal trip out of the country. With the social worker in Korea being out from the 24th through the 1st, the week after Christmas was out too. I'm not sure if there is another social worker there or not, but this is what I was told. We had to get her before DJ left or wait until the new year.

I spent all morning on the phone with Lisa at Holt, Erle at Azumano Travel and googling flights from every possible airline that flies from the US and Canada. Travelocity, Orbits, FareCompare, etc. you name it, we tried it, when we actually attempted to push some tickets through on a quoted flight, it would kick back and say that flight wasn't available any longer or the rate would jump from $2,000 to $4,000. I was feeding Erle flight numbers and cities that we thought we could get out of... all SO CLOSE, but NOT CLOSE ENOUGH. It just wasn't doable.

I called and emailed several times with Lisa at Holt who encouraged us to look at booking in January after DJ got back and all the holiday travel was over and flights could open up. Back on the phone with Erle, we found some flights leaving from Memphis on Friday, December 31st and coming back home the following Friday, January 7th. We are actually thrilled with the airfare we could secure with the "New Year" rates and we're able to stay in Sweet Seoul a little longer than we would have been able to if we had flown over, picked her up and hopped back on a plane to come back home in time for Christmas. Talk about craziness, a 48 hour trip to Seoul would have been just that! I can't justify spending $6,000 on tickets to a country that we wouldn't have been in long enough to see. Since Seoul is 14 hours ahead of us, and flights are 14 hours from Chicago, leaving on a Sat, we will not actually arrive until Sunday, so we lose a day. But the cool thing is we leave on Friday night and come home on Friday night... ha!)

To add another whole layer to this complicated situation, my mom is having surgery the 22nd (next Wednesday) and I was really nervous about being out of the country during her surgery. Maybe this was God's way of ensuring that I'd be here for that. I don't know.

Maybe He has something special planned for us. Maybe He'll have us sit by a specific person on the plane. Maybe He'll have us meet someone in Korea that He wants us to. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am not in control. The more and more I try to spin my wheels to control a situation, the more and more frustrated I get. He's got this. He has a purpose. Maybe one that I'll never know, but what I do know is in 16 days, I'll be boarding a plane to Chicago that is bound for Seoul to meet my daughter and bring her home forever.

I've been really upset about this off and on today. I (of course) wanted to celebrate Christmas with my new precious daughter. I of course wanted her home 3 months ago, heck I wanted her home 8 months ago. I can wait 16 more days. 7 day trip to Seoul, sounds PERFECT to me. Oh, how much fun we'll have experiencing Seoul with Zoe.

Christmas presents will be waiting for that beautiful girl when she arrives home, and that beautiful Christmas dress too. Since her dress has the 3 wisemen coming to see Jesus.... I don't think they showed up right away, so I think it'll still be suitable for January. :) And don't think I won't put it on her and take her to get her pictures made in it either, b/c I SO WILL be doing that in January.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement and support today. It means a lot to us.

~Paula

P.S. Flights are leaving Memphis to Chicago on Friday afternoon, December 31st. Then we're headed Chicago to Seoul on Saturday, January 1st at 1AM. We will arrive in Seoul on Sunday at 6AM and we'll head back on Friday, January 7th. We'll be arriving back at the Memphis airport at 10:45 PM on Friday, January 7th!