One Year Ago (Part 1)

"'My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD" (Isaiah 55:8).

One year ago from today.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that we would be traveling to Ethiopia to bring home our sweet, baby girl. I thought I had my life all figured out, but God had other plans for my life and He used certain events in my life to make those plans come to fruition. I am so thankful that God included adoption in those plans! We feel blessed beyond words that God has chosen Deborah to be our daughter.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

One year ago from today.

We left our house at 7:15 p.m. with a van FULL of suitcases. I somehow miscalculated, and we had 11 suitcases for the 5 of us, rather than 10. Oops. We didn't have to pay for the extra one in Toronto, however we weren't so fortunate in London.

It was a rather quick good-bye to my sister, my mom and our sweet, Curtis. I didn't want to get all emotional in front of Curtis, but it was darn hard to leave him behind (a good choice, though and he was in very good hands).

One year ago from today.

My heart still flutters and I still get butterflies in my stomach as I look back at these pictures. We had waited so long (especially for Deborah's Visa), and it seemed like forever that the day would arrive for us to see and hold our baby girl for the first time and for a life time! I tried to remain calm as we began our travels, but inside, I was a bundle of nerves. It was hard to prepare Jesse and Nicole, because we didn't know what to expect ourselves. We were blessed to have Paul's sister, Trish join us as she always added laughter, fun, and a positive/sensible/Christ like perspective on things (and she took lots of pictures for us).

One year ago from today.

We began our trip of a life time and a trip that I will never forget. We were going to bring home our beautiful baby girl!!