Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (Literally!)

We have our travel itinerary! In two weeks, we'll be getting on a plane and traveling half-way around the world to meet our precious (yet-to-be-named) son. Amazing! On Saturday, I called the airline to schedule tickets using some frequent flier miles donated by some dear friends. I anticipated being on the phone a long time while she searched through all of our options. After about five minutes on hold, she came back and let me know she had found tickets that would work! If we'd had to purchase these tickets out of pocket, they would have cost $2500 each. We are so grateful to our friends for providing in such a clear and helpful way. (A side note: our family coordinator told me today that we are her first family that's actually been able to use frequent flier miles to get tickets. Because of the short notice, no one else has been able to make it work. Thank you Lord!)

So, here's our crazy schedule:

March 17
five-hour drive to Atlanta
7:25pm Leave Atlanta (8 hour plane ride)
March 18
7:25am Arrive London Gatwick
take shuttle across town to London Heathrow
12:25pm Leave London Heathrow (4 hour plane ride)
7:30pm Arrive Moscow
go through customs, take one-hour taxi ride into town
11:50pm take overnight train to Nizhny (8 hour train ride)
March 19
8:00am Arrive Nizhny
hopefully find somewhere to freshen up :-)
appointment with Ministry of Education
first visit to orphanage if there is time that day!
March 20
visit orphanage
take train back to Moscow
March 21
in Moscow
March 22
8:55pm Leave Moscow (4 hour flight)
10:15pm Arrive London
March 23-25
Celebrate 10th anniversary early in London! Because they're frequent flier tickets, it didn't cost any more to stay in London for a few days. So we decided to spend a few days enjoying the sights and having one last vacation before we bring home our son. I recently learned that this is called a "babymoon." :-)
March 25 5:25 pm Arrive Atlanta
five-hour drive home
crash!

I imagine we'll be coping on very little sleep on running mostly on adrenaline! But it will all be worth it when we get to lay eyes on our precious son and hold him in our arms for the first time. Bring on the travel! (Oh-and please check out the updated prayer requests on the right.)