When God is your travel agent.

We are officially one week away from leaving for China for our trip to get Maeleigh. It has been a long, long process. There have been many nights of tossing and turning, but never about the decision to adopt Maeleigh, always about the paperwork and finances. Over the Christmas holidays, I had a particular night of tossing and turning as I crunched the numbers to make the travel expenses come together. Our agency had been using a travel service that was charging per person, and the costs were higher than we could handle. Exhausted from worry and lack of sleep, praying the rosary in between numbers churning in my head, I took a deep breath and said "Lord, Maeleigh is your child. You have brought her to us, we need your help. Help us to figure this out."

The very next day (no exaggeration) we got notice that the agency was changing their travel provider, and costs would be much more manageable. We also received our Travel Approval that day.

We have been so blessed by the generosity of so many friends and many people we have never met. I have been truly humbled by donations that came at the exact time that I owed a payment.  I was planning on leaving Sophie home because of the high cost of airfare...within a half hour of telling the agency I could not bring her, I received a phone call that someone was giving us $600, and walked to the mailbox to find a card from a dear friend with a check for $500.  I emailed the agency...Sophie was going.

I contacted a wonderful travel agency and told the woman I needed to book the flights to China. Mary Jane from Vantresca travel was so excited about our story, and she gave me a quote for the flights that ranged right around $1100...exactly the donation we had been given. We didn't book that day because I wanted to have the passports in front of me, so I told her that I would stop in to the office. One thing led to another for the next few days, and I never made it in. Almost 5 days later, I called her back to book over the phone. I was a little sick in my stomach at the time lost, and the knowledge that the closer you get to travel, the higher the cost. But there was nothing I could do about it. when Mary Jane pulled up the information, she hesitated, gasped. "Oh, my" she said, incredulous.

  "Mary Jane, what's wrong?" I asked her. There was a another pause.
  
 "MaryAnne, the price has gone down...by $200 a person. Flights never go down, they always go up. I don't know who you have working for you!"

I laughed out loud. "I do, Mary Jane, I absolutely know who is working for me!"