Itinerary for Travel

Everywhere we stay in Lithuania advertises free WiFi.  I am hoping it is true and as long as it is, I plan to update the blog about our events- visiting twins, sightseeing, going to court, the court ruling, and hopefully an eta on our arrival as well as what you really want- pictures of the twins!!

There are only a handful of dates that are set- and I will share those. (I don't mind sharing these dates as a State Trooper lives across the street from me and all my amazing neighbors will be watching my house- so bad guys, you aren't welcome and will be found)

January 1st- leave Richmond for Lithuania- fly from RIC to Dullas, Dullas to Frankfort, Frankfort to Vilnius.  Our connections are fairly tight- super tight in DC and only about 2hrs in Germany.
January 2nd- we land in Vilnius around 1:30pm.  Our in-country rep, Elona, will meet us there and take us to the lawyers office.  We will meet with them- and I hope that we will be coherent.  That evening we will check-in at our hotel (the only hotel we will stay in, actually).  At 8:30pm, my sister, Rebecca, lands in Vilnius!
January 3rd- leave the hotel around 7am and drive to the twins town- it is about a 2.5-3hr drive.  10am we meet the twins for the first time (just writing this gives me goose-bumps!).  If you are awoken at 3am on the 3rd- it's because of this meeting!  Pray that it will be peaceful and full of connections.

We are allowed to meet with the twins every day 10am-noon, and 4:30-6:30pm.  We are going armed with stickers, balloons, crayons, cars, paints, toys to play with them and hopefully during these times will earn their trust and love.

January 7th- Al and I will leave the twins city early in the morning and drive back to Vilnius.  We will meet with the lawyers again.  At 2pm Lithuanian time, we meet with the judge assigned to our case (7am on the 7th, pray for us!).  This is the first time our lawyers have worked with this judge so we have no idea how she typically works- meaning will she waive our 30-day-waiting period?  We hope and pray that she does.  The judge can take up to two weeks to make her decision.  Some families have heard in as little as 20min, some 2 days, some the full 2 weeks.  We simply do not know.

Regardless of the judge, Al and I will head back to the twins city after court.  Rebecca will have stayed there with Adeline and Alden- so prayers for her would probably be a good thing, too!

Once we hear of the judges ruling, we will have 2 courses of action:
If the waiting period IS waived- we will go to the orphanage and be awarded the twins- and I will then be allowed to post pictures of them!!  We will "host" a small going-away party- buy pastries at at the local bakery, and we have brought some little souvenirs for them to "share" with their friends.  We will then head to Vilnius!  Once in Vilnius we will start the paperwork at the US Embassy.  Hopefully this should only take approximately 5 days.  Once we make it to Vilnius we will have a date that we will be coming home by!  I hope that LOTS of people come and welcome the twins at the airport in Richmond!  More on that later....

If the waiting period is NOT waived- we will all come home as soon as we know.  We will return to school/work, and when the 30 days is up, just Al and myself will travel back to get the twins and start the paperwork at the Embassy.  We will still need people to welcome us at the airport!!

Regardless of the day, the flight that we will be taking home has us landing in Richmond at 6:30pm. We hope to see lots of friendly faces at the airport- meet at the bottom of the escalators by the baggage claim.   This will be your only chance to meet the twins for 2-3 weeks.  Experts recommend "cocooning" with your adopted children and limiting their exposure to other people.  They need to learn what a family is- that Al and I will meet their needs, not a steady stream of people.  We have heard from countless people that this is crucial.  So, despite my people-driven personality, we will go into cocoon mode- but at the airport, please come and see our sweeties for yourself!

It's a lot- I know.  Please use these dates to think of us and pray for us.  It's a massive change for us all- but His mercies are new each day.  God knew that the twins would be in our family- and we are excited to see what He has in store for us all!