Travel is Booked!

Mabuhay (welcome/hello)!

The past two weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster for us! Let me bring you up to speed.

Shortly after my last post two weeks ago, we were informed we would actually need 2 additional travel approvals (bringing us to a total of 3 travel approvals from the Philippines). The second approval came late last week on Friday evening (after waiting about 1.5 weeks) and I quickly submitted it onto the appropriate department, so they could begin requesting the third approval. We went into the weekend bracing ourselves for another at least week-long wait for the third approval. However, God is great and showed up in a big way. We received our third travel approval on Monday morning (after only waiting the weekend for it to be processed)! Praise God!

Upon receiving the third approval on Monday, I immediately began the process of booking flights and getting a hotel reservation. These items were required in order to send in our visa application. We were able to successfully get everything booked on Monday and send our visa applications in the mail that day, after about 6 hours of me scouring flight sites and calling hotels in Manila. We went to bed on Monday planning for a trip on May 6^th, a mere 1.5 weeks away at the time.

Unfortunately, hiccups started arising on Tuesday. From Tuesday through Thursday this week, we have had to overcome issues with our hotel, our flights, and other arrangements. Most notably, Thursday morning I woke up to an email that our flight to Manila on May 6^th was cancelled due to continued restrictions on how many people can fly into Manila on any given day. As such, on Thursday, I essentially repeated everything I did on Monday. Needless to say, it has been a bit of an exhausting week.

But we end this week with a renewed sense of encouragement and peace from God. We continue to see how His plan is so much better than our own. Even as I continually shifted our trip plans around this week, God showed me how blessed I am to be self-employed and in a position that I can set aside my work responsibilities to focus on our family needs even at a moment's notice. Throughout this week, God has used numerous people in both Ben and my lives to minister encouragement and prayers. My Women's Bible Study showered me with gifts and love for JP! We even announced to our clients at work that we will have extremely limited work availability due to our adoption trip and were overwhelmed by the support and encouragement they poured out for us. We feel so blessed for all the support we have received.

So, here is where we are at now.

• Flights are booked for us to head to Manila on May 14^th! We are praying without ceasing that this flight does not get cancelled.
• We have confirmed our hotel reservations for the entire stay.
• Our Philippines travel visas arrived in the mail today.

To summarize, at this point in time, we are all set for our trip to begin on May 14^th on our end. Please continue to pray for us that there are no more delays. While to some a week delay may seem so little, to this momma's heart, an additional week feels like such a long time to wait to see my son face-to-face in person. Needless to say, Ben and I are both getting antsy!

At a high level, assuming all goes well, we will be gone for 2 weeks. Next update I will provide some more insight into what our trip will entail. Unfortunately, like so many things, it will look different than originally planned due to COVID. However, we are just oh so thankful for the ability and opportunity to travel even amid continued restrictions.

Our prayer request – Lord, please minister to our anxious and antsy hearts. Holy Spirit, calm our worries and help us to enjoy every moment of this experience. Be with JP as we continue to wait. Help use these final weeks to continue opening his heart to the transition to come. Holy Spirit, give him your peace about all the changes. Help him to see and know our love. We cannot wait to see our son face-to-face in-person, Lord. You are so good in bringing us this far. We continue to surrender our plans to Your perfect plan, Lord.

As I wrap this up, I am reminded of part of my Bible reading yesterday with Ben. Such a timely reading we had. I pray it speaks to you, as it definitely spoke to us after the week we experienced. 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." 

• Isaiah 55: 8-9