Walking With Faith: Overloaded.......

Sorry I didn't post last night. We came in from dinner just EXHAUSTED! Yesterday was a pretty good day. We got up, had breakfast and headed over to the health clinic to have the kids TB skin tests read. It took only about 10 minutes at the clinic, and all 6 kids were cleared! After that we headed back to the hotel.

Greg graciously agreed to stay in the room while Annabella napped, and I headed back to the Pearl Market with our group. I picked up a few gifts, and a few pieces of jewelry for myself, and grabbed a taxi back to the hotel.

After Annabella woke up we headed over to McDonald's and grabbed a quick bite of lunch before heading back to the hotel for a good long bath. We all got cleaned up and then met everyone in the lobby for our CCAI travel group pictures. Once pictures were made, we hung around for awhile as the kids played, and then made plans to go back to the Irish Pub for dinner. We got super tickled on the way out, as we had all crammed into the elevator, and it kept alarming. Greg was last in so he stepped off, and the doors immediately shut and down we went. apparently we were overloaded weight wise, and we were all so tired, we just got so tickled that we laughed all the way down, and were still laughing when he made it down the next ride. We even laughed halfway back to the hotel! Today we are still re telling the story and laughing!

After dinner, we came back and crashed. We had a 7 A.M. wake up call today to grab a quick bite of breakfast before heading to the U.S. consulate to take our oath. The oath basically states that we have given the government everything true to the best of our knowledge, and that we promise to uphold the laws of the U.S. We take it on behalf of Annabella, and that is what allows her to become a U.S. citizen when we touch U.S. soil. The whole trip to the consulate for 6 families and 7 children took just 2.5 hours from the hotel and back again.

When we got back most of the kids were fussy and in need of a nap since they'd all gotten up so early. Several people in our group are getting sinus problems, so we've been helping with dosing and giving some of the meds we brought. While we were at the consulate we noticed that Annabella had developed a rash all over her neck and the trunk of her body. We believe that she is having an allergic reaction to the soap Greg used to get some stains of of her dress when he washed it. We had a different outfit with us so we changed her and immediately went into the tub when we got back. We've given her some Benadryl, and another family has brought us some oatmeal bath to use when she gets up if she still looks rashy. Please be in prayer that she will wake up looking and feeling MUCH better!

If she is doing better our plan is to grab a cab and go to Shamain island. It's rained every day that we've been here, and so we have not been able to go there to go shopping. We are just going to bite the bullet and pray for the best and head over there this afternoon. Hopefully we will be able to get a cab back! I will try to take some more pictures today and upload more tonight. Tomorrow we have a free day, other than getting Annabella's passport back at 4:15. We will do the final shopping tomorrow morning, and then prepare to leave Saturday morning after breakfast for Hong Kong. We will have a one night stay in Hong Kong and then will board our flight for HOME!!!!

We are scheduled to arrive in Memphis at 5:58 P.M. Sunday night. If anyone would like to meet us at the airport you can email me, post here or to Facebook and I will get you the flight information. Thanks as always for your prayers and for following our journey.

Time here has been so many different things, difficult at times, wonderful, sad, exhausting, joyful, intriguing...and I wouldn't change it for the world. This trip has fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine, the dream to adopt. It has given me a daughter, and has brought so much of a sense of fulfillment and joy to both of us. We can not wait to see our boys and family and friends back home, who we've missed terribly. We would love for all of our friends to come and meet Annabella when we get home, but we would love to have a few days to just settle in first. Please understand that this will be another HUGE change for Annabella, and be in prayer that she and her brothers will all be able to transition easily into our new "norm." Thanks and God Bless!