He Knew

This was written by Christi while on our 1st trip to Kazakhstan- Nov 19,2010...we wrote our family and close friends while we were traveling and are going to post some of those entries on here for all of you to experience.

We were playing Yahtzee this afternoon and Brandon said "Wow, we're really here. Can you believe it?". We've been talking about that a lot. How we have been praying and planning and thinking about this moment in time for so long, and now that it's here, we don't want it to slip by without us taking it all in. Besides being in a foreign country, we are here to adopt 2 little precious girls. Girls that were only imagined before. We thought we knew what to expect. We thought lots of things.

But God knew.

He knew these girls would fit our family perfectly. He knew that I would sit and watch them color and just cry at the fact that they will be my daughters. He knew that we would talk to our 8 yr. old son on the phone and instead of telling us how much he missed us (which we know he does), that He would ask how the girls are doing.

He knew.

He knew this was our journey. Our path. He picked girls across the world to be a part of our family. Just like He picks us to be a part of His. How cool is that? It's truly amazing to see the picture He has painted for us. We are placed on the canvas at just the right time.

I love our Lord. Most of all I love that He knew and yet He waited until we could handle it before He shared with us His masterpiece that is now the Donaldson family.

~Christi~

Traveler IQ Challenge

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Friday Update (from Seattle)

Hey friends! We wanted to update you real quick. We arrived in Seattle and we are loving this city! Here are a few of the things we have been doing:

• Went to the beach and enjoyed the beautiful landscape
• Visited the Space needle (twice) and took lots of pics!
• Went to the Science Fiction Museum (not as boring as it sounds :) they had tons of movie memorabilia and also a ROBOT exhibit with about 200 robots
• Visited the "Experience Music Project" which was also a lot of fun. I practiced my "scratching" skills on an old album and Brandon got to drum and learn some Nirvana songs on the guitar.

Today we are heading out to Pikes Place Market. Tomorrow, we will be out whale watching, and then Sunday we are going about 3 hours north of here to take a boat tour and see a beautiful lake and the mountains will be our backdrop.

Hope you have a great weekend! We still haven't had time to upload the pics because we are wanting to fit in everything possible (but will probably add some this weekend).

A Beautiful World...Let's Dance!

No place like home!

We are home. After driving ALL day yesterday in the rain, we are finally back. Brandon is back at work. The boys and I are home getting re-acquainted with our things. Now it's time for laundry and bills- guess there really is no place like home :)

It's amazing how tired "vacations" can make you. It was nice to unplug from all the daily responsibilities. No Phone. Not much internet. Just us- UNPLUGGED from the world.

How do you unwind? What place do you go to to "unwind"? What kinds of things do you like to do on vacation that you might not get to do at "home"?

Heading out to Arkansas....

We are all packed up and ready to go. We are heading to Arkansas for Spring Break so will be out of the loop for several days. We'll be back to posting next Wednesday!! Enjoy the weekend :)