Hallelujah and Fasten Your Seatbelt! We're Headin' for Russia!

I can hardly believe the trip is tomorrow! It's been a long and glorious wait, with one blessing after another to fill a book! Thank you all so much for all your prayers, your financial support, the yard sale, and food (you know who you are!).

Our itinerary:
Friday June 15th Lv Dulles at 12:45p, Ar JFK 1:57p by Jet Blue Airways
Lv JFK at 6:40p AEROFLOT flight 316 to Moscow (for 9hr, 40 min)
Spend Saturday checking in hotel, resting up, shopping, spend night I PLAN TO TAKE SARAH"S SENIOR PICTURE IN MOSCOW. She is an architecture NUT! And what a unique place to have one's sr picture done, huh?

Sunday -church , check out, ride 2 hr by bus to Vladimir
check in hotel, get our separate assignments for the week,
we put all our gifts for the children togerher, inventory what we have and what each site needs, then make up gift bags.
Pray a lot, ask the veteran missionaries all kinds of questions, pray some more, put up mosquito netting at room window if nec.
Monday-Saturday: each day a different location
Baby and Toddler House; youth camp; orphanage; youth prison
Wed and Thurs night 3 of us will have dinner at a diff host's home (loooking forward to this: Pray I find out the special reason God t told me to take a HARMONICA to the man of the household that is not getting the quilt. (Ask Mitzy if you're confused.)
Sarah, Sacha, and I will have 2 more ladies in our small group.
We are on the ORANGE BUS. Ministry teams are split up by bus color.
You can read stories as they get posted on the GAIN website blog. www.gainusa.org
Sunday: Bus Back to Moscow

MOnday Fly home, leaving Moscow at 2:20 P, Flight 315..................arrive JFK around 5pm (Remember these are local times; the time differnce is 8 hours. If it's 8 am in Balto, it's 4 pm in Moscow. So pray before you go to bed cuz we'll be starting a new day!!!) We have a long layover till fly to Dulles , arriving 12:16 AM (wee early morning) PRAY FOR PAUL"S SAFETY and SANITY as he drives the Balto and DC beltways!!!

Pray we get to our destinations with peace. I won't say w/ o complications (they're in God's hands).
Pray we remember our mission. It's not about us. Pray we remember we're sharing in the sufferings of Christ. We're not on vacation.
Pray we remember we're not the Savior. Jesus is.
Pray our English words are properly interpreted to make sense to the hearers and are gracious to their ears.
Pray we don't offend anyone with our ignorance of their culture.
Pray we don't pick up or give any diseases.
Pray nothing gets lost or stolen, but if it does, that we will remember it's just stuff anyway.
Pray for good weather so we can play outside with the kids.
Pray I can adopt a baby without any paperwork and that Paul will be okay with that. :) What's one more child?
Pray our presentations are smooth and that they bear fruit.
Pray that people who had extra room in their suitcase as of this afternoon were able to pack in some last-minute requests for baby clothes (email came at 3pm).
Pray for perseverance, endurance, joy, and that we'd be moment by moment aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Pray for anything else God puts on your heart, even if it doesn't make sense to you.
Pray the gifts we bring will bring smiles and be just right for each recipient.
Pray JOel doesn't cry too much. Pray for special male bonding instead.
Pray my older boys actually miss me a little!
Pray for Paul as he mans the fort. He plans to take off and do some fun stuff like go to the beach.
Pray no one in my immediate or extended family gets sick enough that I have to be called.

Must go! Still not fully packed!!!! Love you all.
Please know I love to fly. There is nothing as thrilling as knowing you are totally at God's mercy. It's a rush to me to take off, stay up in the air, land. If we crash, I would hope to die and wake up seeing Jesus. But I really want to come back and tell you guys all about the wonders God has wrought and how much more in love we are with the Lord by having shared in his sufferings and been led all the way.