The Lord Himself Goes Before You....

... and will be with you.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.  (Deuteronomy 31:8)  

This is one of the many verses I keep meditating on, as I've vollyed between truth and eating too much ice cream.  

The past few months have been an exciting time as a family - we've had a lot of fun rearranging the house, staining toddler bunk beds, and traveling through the refiners fire. (Maybe not "fun" but worth every bit. :-))  

The 4 yougest will all be in a room down the hall from Mom and Dad.  

Travis built the girls' beds!

We (meaning Mommy :-))  also started packing.  Everyone got a good laugh out of this, since it didn't even include our clothes (or gifts, diapers, - you get the idea.)  This was where the ice cream came in....

We've taken advantage of Travis' new schedule and had  the opportunity to do some fun things that may be harder to do over the next year - a road trip to El Paso, visits from family and friends, swimming lessons, Attending the CHEC conference with the kids, Visiting the Denver History Museum, and painting the front of our church building!

Getting our garden ready

We've gotten updates on Reed and Grace and finally received our travel approval on June 19th - more quickly than expected!  We were thrilled, as it worked out perfectly for the dates our dear friend Liz was available to stay with our little people at home.

Getting ready to head to the rodeo.

 We are now at the peak of the rollar coaster my friend Mia says :-), and trying to wrap up the last details to depart!

Our itinerary is as follows..

July 9 - Depart Denver
July 10 - Arrive in Beijing around 10:00pm
July 11 - Tour Beijing
July 12 - Go to the Great Wall
July 13 - Take bullet train to Zhengzhou
July 14 - Get Reed and Grace!
July 15 - Reed and Grace become Polks!!!  Travel 2.5 hours to Pingdingshan to Grace's home city and orphanage to get passport and hopefully see where she was found.
July 16 - Go to Zhengzhou Social Welfare Institute (Reed's orphanage), get passport and hopefully see his finding place.
July 17 - Travel 2.5 hours to Maria's Big House of Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman's Ministry) where Reed lived for a time and had surgeries done.
July 18 - Paperwork day
July 19 - Fly to Guangzhou
July 20 - Free Day (I think!)
July 21 - Medical Exams and Visa Photos
July 22 - Free
July 23 - US Consulate Appointment
July 24 - Receive Visa's and fly to Shanghai
July 25 - Visit Shanghai Healing Home and Depart for OUR HOME!!!