i'll let bailey tell you the news...

we were riding in the car earlier this week...bailey had a friend in the backseat with her...i started listening to their conversation in the middle so i missed the beginning but this is what i heard:

bailey: "i'm getting 2 more brothers."
grace: "really?"
bailey: "yup! from africa!"
grace: "have you been to disneyworld?"
bailey: "no."
grace: "i'm going to fly on a plane to go to disneyworld."
bailey: "they give you food on planes. i'm going to go on a plane to africa to get my brothers."

we are taking Rebekah, Joshua and Bailey with us to bring their brothers home!

when we started the adoption process we didn't even think about it.
it was just pat and i going and we were counting on our parents to help us by watching the kids while we were gone.

as time went on, both our hearts started wondering if we should take Rebekah with us...since she "gets" it so well...so we started talking about it...praying about it...asking others that had traveled to Rwanda with kids about it...and feeling more and more like we should take her.

and if we should take her, why wouldn't we take Joshua?? he'll be 6 years old and would totally remember it!

and if we take him, why wouldn't we take Bailey?? she's only 18 months younger than Joshua and would remember being left behind {she has a fear of being left behind...she's always yelling as she's getting her shoes/coat on, "don't leave me!" i just can't do that to her...}

we will leave Sawyer.
he won't remember and he's too young.

we just feel like this is a once in a lifetime experience and we should do everything we can to make it happen.

it's been a process getting to this point.
the money was (is!) a big factor...but we feel strongly that this is the right decision so we aren't going to let money be the deciding factor.

selfishly, i want it to just be pat and i on this big adventure...but that's not really the stage of life we are in...we are a family and we do things as a family and we will go to Africa to get the rest of our family together.

feel free to ask questions :-)
or offer encouragement.
or send money {just kidding...kind of...}