The Journey Begins

This was an incredible beginning to our journey. Are we being taken care of as we venture out into the unknown? I believe so. My mom and her friend, Del, were to drive us to San Francisco.

One of Linda's innumerable jobs was to find a San Francisco map and be prepared to navigate to the Burlingame area but, due to packing problems -- which was a higher priority -- she was not able to procure the map and determine the best way to get there.

As "luck" would have it, Dell lived in Burlingame for 11 years. She said she used to believe her car could drive there by itself, she had done it so often. Isn't it great how God set us up with a person who had the directions to Burlingame embedded in her mind? How convenient that we didn't have that part of the journey to worry about. At this point, it begins to look as if the entire journey may be under the guidance of God and His angels in many forms. We believe that we are doing His will in going to China and retrieving Kristina from the state run orphanage there in Nanning. We know that He will send to us everyone we need to accomplish this. We can hardly wait to hold Kristina in our arms and love her.

We had a wonderful dinner halfway to the city by the bay. The sun was setting as we pulled into the Hungry Hunter. We all had wonderful conversations and were entertained by a young, Asian couple who were sitting at a table adjacent to ours. We think it was a first date. He kept dropping things on the floor. First it was a bowl of bacon bits for his salad and later I saw a piece of sourdough bread come rolling toward our table. They both laughed as he fumbled with his food. Kristina, too, will drop things. I'm certain many pieces of bread will come rolling my way (if the dogs don't get to them first). She, too, will be laughing and joyous in her new home.

My heart is full of anticipation as we take the shuttle to the airport tomorrow and board United Airlines for the 15 hour flight. The first leg of our journey to hold Kristina in our arms is at hand. At last we are underway. Finally, we are actually on the road. It is no longer just an idea, a thought of some future event. It is now. It is here.