Blessings and Challenges

To explain the day in one word I would say it has been LONG. We woke up this morning and Grace started having diarrhea. She had two dirty diapers before we went downstairs to get breakfast. Nathan and I had an argument about what to do for her. We had our visa interview at 8:30 AM so we had to leave our hotel for the Embassy by 8:00. We called the social worker to let her know that Grace was sick but that we would be at the interview on time. She suggested that we take her to the "hospital" (which was fortunately just a doctors office) after our interview. I would have not worried too much about her upset stomach except she has had a bad cough for two weeks and kept pulling on her ears. Anyways, our visa interview went very well. We were called quickly and had the NICEST man who processed our visa. For all who were praying for her visa approval today we have her visa and passport! Thank you for praying. More about picking up the visa below. So where was I? Oh, so after the visa interview our sweet social worker (and new Facebook friend) went with us to see the doctor. The doctors office was very nice. The doctor gave us new cough medicine, some Kaopectate and a prescription for her cough/ears. I was SO glad we went to the doctor. I would have hated to get on the plane to come home with her ears bothering her. Especially since we cannot explain her ears popping to her. After the doctor's office we came back to the hotel and ate lunch. Grace slept with her head in my lap in the booth seat that we had. (She has done that for the past two days every time we eat.) She took a short nap before we headed to see if her visa was ready. We found out today that she actually becomes a US Citizen when we enter the US. It sounds like we should have already known that but both of our social workers told us differently. After we had the visa in hand we headed back to the hotel to try to change our plane tickets. This was an unbelievable experience. It took us 45 minutes on the Internet and 2 hours on the phone to even come up with an option. We almost had tickets for 1:35 AM Friday (just a few hours after we were on the phone). Just as we were about to book them, call our parents and pack so we could head to the airport the lady on the phone told me that she did not realize that Grace and I have paper tickets. She said that there was nothing she could do to help us change a paper ticket but to give us the address of where we need to go here in Bangkok to have them changed. You would think we could go to the airport but there is not a Delta counter at the airport here. I actually started crying on the phone with the lady because I was so frustrated. She gave me this random address and told me we would have to go there tomorrow to try to change our tickets. The good news is that we have tickets held (whatever that means) leaving here at 1:35 AM on Sunday (Saturday night). The schedule is not quite as direct as our original tickets are/were but we get home two days earlier and we have a brief layover in CHIGAGO. Chad and Steph be sure you read that. We will forward our itinerary once we have it...if we have it...and maybe we can meet you at Argo Tea. It is only a three hour layover and we pass through customs there but even 30 minutes face to face would be sweet. I'll get Mom and Dad to let you know when we know more.

I did not mention yet that the whole 2 hours I was on the phone with Delta Nathan was on the terrace with Grace SCREAMING. She has attached to me and has been livid with Nathan tries to do anything with her. Fortunately I think that finally she might have bonded with him a little bit tonight. I mean the child has been crying for most of the past 50 plus hours...eventually she has to give up right? I am glad that she has bonded to one of us but am trying to figure out how to respond to her wanting to be held all the time. She does okay when we are out but when we are in the hotel room she pretty much screams all the time. Hence we have been on the go constantly and are all exhausted.

In the event that any of you are still reading here are the things we would love prayer for:
1) Tickets to get home as soon as possible. We know that the Lord knows what is best for her in terms of time here before we leave but it kind of feels like we are just going from shopping center to shopping center letting her walk around. I am ready to have more than one room to live in. (That statement just made me miss the Snaders!)
2) Praise the Lord that we got her visa and passport! She has about 25 pages in her passport making it thicker than Nathan's and mine.
3) For health for Grace. Her stomach seems to be better tonight but we have had trouble knowing whether to give her formula or not. She still has not eaten any solid food with us (since Tuesday). The social workers told us that she has not eaten on any of their outings but would "binge" once she got back to the foster home. Because she is not getting any other food we decided to still give her formula and just dilute it.
4) For Grace to bond with Nathan. We have been praying through out the day today that she would "give up". She has so much fight in her!
5) Praise/prayer in regard to finding the Delta office here. After I got the address from the Delta lady today I just sat wondering how in the world we were going to find this random place. I got out the map we have been using and just asked the Lord to help us if it was his will for us to get home early. I looked down and noticed in tiny print the exact building I was looking for. Turns out it is on the Air Train line and should be easy for us to get to.

So to bring this to a close it has been a long and tiring day but we are very grateful for the Lord's provision for us in the midst of these challenges. Despite the screaming we are attaching to this little girl and just loving the way God has grown our family. We are missing Caleb like crazy and are so excited that we are a little closer to getting home!