Off to Seoul

For those of you who know me, you know there is never a short story with any of my adventures. Well...I've got a new one for you!

Four years ago my sister, Kim, began the adoption process with her husband to get a daughter from Nepal. It's been a rocky road in that country, with many pitfalls and dead ends, so about a year ago Kim changed her focus from Nepal and put it on Russia. Well, that's not altogether accurate. She let the Nepal adoption wane while she began to aggressively search in Russia.

You can imagine where this is heading. Both adoptions are finishing...at the same time! About five weeks ago, Kim and her husband Fred went to Russia to begin the finalization of their adoption of Nina, the little girl in the picture above. Their trip was actually delayed because Nina was very sick, but now she is ready to travel. They knew they would be in Russia for about five weeks, so they packed up and headed over. In the meantime, the Nepal adoption was back in motion and there was a possibility that both would come to fruition at nearly the same time. So Fred stayed with Kim for two weeks, then jumped on a plane and headed to Katmandu where his sister met him to finalize the adoption in Nepal. My mother joined my sister in Russia for a week and then headed back home, and though there were minor blips in the processes (confusion over the return of a little boy by an American mother which stalled the court system and a riot in Nepal which shut down the Embassy for days), both adoptions moved ahead.

Kim has been in Russia for about ten days alone with Nina in a hotel room, waiting for final travel documents for her new daughter. Both adoptions are finished, both little girls are in their parents' possession and both parents have gotten sick. This is most likely due to their stay in Russia, but Fred has his sister to help with Justine in Nepal. Kim however is alone with Nina and though she is on antibiotics, the bacterial infection is settling in her knees, swelling them and making them stiff.

This leads to me. Kim emailed me and asked if I would meet her in Seoul to help her bring Nina home. Because you need visas to enter Russia and they take some time to acquire, Kim will fly to South Korea on Saturday morning, where Aunt Kristen will be waiting for her with a smile and a hug and a bag of goodies for her new niece! I will then fly back to LAX with her (over 11 hours) and then on to Chicago, where we will drive home on Sunday afternoon. I think Kim is doing a bit better, but with her frail health and a four year old who doesn't speak English, an extra pair of hands is just the medicine she needs. That and a bottle of Baby Benedryl to "help" Nina sleep on the plane!

So I am off on Thursday morning for about 17 hours of plane rides to Seoul. I'll arrive on Friday afternoon, spend the night in the airport hotel, bum around for the day and then meet them for our flight back to the states.

Please pray for my sister's health, as well as her husband's health and trip home from Nepal. I think we're all arriving home within a day of each other. Pray also for the adjustment that comes from adding a three and a four year old to their home. Pray that God would use me to encourage my sister and that our time together would be a blessing to each other!

Have a great weekend and I'll let you know about the adventure on the other side!