Day Before I Leave

Mike and I and the kids headed to the Windy City for a weekend of fun before I took off for Korea. We had such a good time today!! It is a weekend I will remember for a long time.
If you see Mike, ask him about "accidently" hitting the alarm in an elevator filled with people!
The only downside to the weekend is that I found myself teary-eyed at the thought of having to leave my family.

The picture above is the three kids at the Shedd aquarium looking at a lizard. They all loved the aquarium and we were there for over 4.5 hours! Then we headed to Gino's for deep dish pizza--yum! I really put the picture up to practice uploading to a blog!!

Well, it's midnight and I am beat.

A couple of prayer requests:
1. Safe travel
2. Missing my family
3. My back and leg is better. I had another injection on Wednesday.
Please pray they hold out for 13 hours on the plane.
4. Kari and Austin get off on their mission trip OK.

Well, good night.
Peg

PS. Let me know if you got this. I didn't have chance to check with anyone b/f
I left. You can leave comments if you have a gmail account, otherwise just send an
email.

I will be checking my email as often as I can--hopefully daily.
I would love to hear from y'all!

Tikkul moa tae-san ~~Korean Proverb

"One can build a mountain by collecting specks of dust."


Meaning: Since you can build a mountain by collecting dust, even if it might take a long time, if you work hard, you might be able to obtain your goal.

I thought it might be fun to put a Korean proverb for the titles of this year's Koreapeg blog. I really wasn't going to blog again this year but have been encouraged to do so by several people, so here goes. Hope you enjoy it.


I leave in short 12 days. This year my emotions are so different than last year. I am very excited but not nearly as anxious. Although--I just read through all my old blogs and found myself wishing for that trembling excitement again. I am very excited to go, but this year I go with so much more understanding of what my role will be and what to expect. Certainly not a "been there, done that" feeling, but not a totally new experience type of feeling either.


I pray that I will be able to help the families of this year navigate through their journey. I also pray that I will be open and loving to the new group of people. Last year's bus was so much fun. (In fact, I am getting together with a few of them a week from tomorrow, and I am so excited to see them!!)

I have already been praying for the families and once again I can't wait to put a face to the names. I will be meeting several of them on Sunday, June 24th in the Chicago airport. I am not going early, but rather flying in with the group. I remember sitting in the international terminal when we took our family and seeing all these families with Korean-born children; thinking to myself that I would be spending the next 2 weeks with them and wondering nervously how it would go. I remember wondering what their personal adoption journey had been. It is a privilege to be able to go as a staff person, travel alongside them, and become a part of their adoption journey.

A few prayer requests I have for you as I travel:
1.) I was just diagnosed with a herniated disc in my back today. The pain has been intense and I am extremely concerned about being able to perform my duties as needed. I was given an injection today (that was NOT fun!!) and was promised that if it didn't give my the relief I felt was needed they would squeeze me in for another one next week before I leave. They doctor was very gentle, kind and understanding as he also suffers from this problem.

2.) Kari and Austin will be in Ontario, Canada for a week on a mission trip while I am in Korea. It makes me a little nervous having them gone at the same time. If they have any mishaps, it will be up to Mike to take care of everything. Not that he can't do it, it's just that we usually do everything thing together and my leaving puts more responsibility on him. And, being a tad of a control freak when it comes to my children--I just don't like the idea of being in Korea while they are in Cananda. I think this is a good lesson for me to remember that I am not in control anyway!!! So I ask for prayers for that mission trip as well.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!
Peg