My mind is full of the excitement of what this week Friday will bring to us, and getting into the frame of mind for traveling to bring K home.
After a successful court hearing, we have to wait ~2 weeks to get travel dates which will be ~2-4 weeks after that, so we're looking at likely being in K's country one of the first three weeks in September to bring him home.
Which brings me to some rather mundane parts of this adventure (which I should know better than to think of as "mundane" since nothing that we do with God before us is "mundane"!) There are a few things that we need to be able to bring K home, and are asking God to provide these for us.
We are going to need a car seat for K. We would obviously like to have this before he comes, partly just to be ready, and also because I would like to bring it along on the trip, both for travel by car in his country as well as the plane ride home. He is too old/big to be held on my lap on the airplane during takeoff and landing, but does not sit unassisted well enough to be just buckled into his seat. We would love to not have to purchase something brand new, so are asking if anyone we know has one they are no longer using that is still current and in good condition. Based on the last information we have on him, which is not very recent, he is about the size of a small 4 year old or a tall 3 year old, so we're looking at a full height seat (not just a booster) that has a five-point harness.
We would like a temporary bed rail for K's bed. He has always slept in a crib, but when he comes home, he will be on the bottom bunk of Owen's bed. I have no idea how well he's going to make this transition, so both for his comfort and for our peace of mind during the night, we would like to start out with a rail.
Plane tickets. This is a big one. We have money that will likely cover K's ticket home. (I actually have no idea exactly how much his ticket will cost, but back in late spring we were given a very generous gift of $1000 by an internet friend who has had a special place in her heart for K since the first time she saw his photo, but was unable to adopt him herself, and our guess is that this will be roughly what we need to get him home.) But that leaves tickets for me to get there and back, and for Owen, my luggage boy/ native English speaker to get there and back. AND, Matt has said that he would feel more comfortable if I had another adult with me, so Owen and I may possibly be accompanied by a friend of ours who has a teenage son with cerebral palsy. She would be an obvious asset because of her experience with K's condition as well as for her enthusiastic personality. ;) But that's another ticket there and back.
Her coming at all is another point we would appreciate prayer on. There are so many things still up in the air about this trip. One obvious one is what the actual travel dates will be! We could very possibly be traveling during what is the first week of school here in MN, and our friend has three children, two of whom will be starting at new schools this year. Her husband also travels a lot for work, but on an unpredictable schedule. Last week late one night Matt and I actually thought of what would have been a nearly certain deal breaker - does she have a passport??? Because it would be *really* tough (not to mention expensive, if it was even possible) to get one quick enough at this point. So we asked and found out...she does!!!
And the last piece that's on my mind is that we will need money to pay for our hotel for the week we're in K's country. The hotel in the capital, which is where we have to be for the whole week, is more expensive than the hotel in K's city where we spent most of our days last time. And if we have four of us staying there (me, Owen, my friend, and K) we'll likely need a bigger, more costly room than when it was just me and Matt. Along with that is food. When Matt and I were there last time, we stretched our budget by doing most of our eating from the markets instead of going to the restaurants (though, really, the prices at the restaurants were VERY reasonable) and plan to do that this time, but again, we'll be feeding four instead of two.
I realize I know very little about who reads this blog. ;) But I know that many of you who do are people who pray, so if God directs you to pray for us, these are some specific things that we are asking for from him, knowing that he will supply all of our needs, and as you join us, you can share in the joy of watching him meet those needs and get this boy home!!
We use booking.com quite often for hotels, especially last minute (we booked our hotel in Sofia about 5 hours before we showed up and checked in). You can often get good deals for last minute bookings there, since hotels want to fill up their rooms.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend looking for a hostel-type place if they have them in Bulgaria (I would expect Sofia would). Not only is their base price cheaper, but you can generally get rooms which house multiple adults/kids (the hostel we stayed in in Chicago the night before we flew back had a double bed, a single bed, and a bunk bed with a single on top and a double below). Not only that, they almost always have kitchen facilities, which means you could cook meals there rather than having to go out for every meal.
Most major airlines offer reduced prices for kids < 12. When you're booking your flights, if you don't see an option to specify the ages of your children on the website, you might consider calling the airline. Additionally, many airlines have special fares for medical/family emergencies and deaths, e.g., when something bad happens and you need to leave the next day to get there. While an adoption isn't really an "emergency" it is a short-notice family-related major event. Again, it might be worth calling whatever airline you're looking at and explaining the situation to see if they have any special fares for this sort of thing. You never know until you ask.
Hi! I found your blog when I heard someone had court this Friday! Congratulations! Our dossier just hit the court on Tuesday and we are hoping for the same friendly judge that you got ;) My husband and I are adopting from the same orphanage your son is in. We are adopting "Alyssa" and "Beacan" on RR. I saw your post about the bunk bed and thought I'd comment because we had the same situation with another child we adopted. If your bunk bed sits against a wall and if it has a full, long rail on the top bunk it can often be put on the front of the bottom bunk. For us, we had to rearrange some of the mattress supports so we had screw holes in the front on both top and bottom but it worked for our son with CP. Good luck on your trip! I'll be watching for Gotcha pictures :)
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