No passport and trip pics

We still don't have a passport for J. It makes no sense to me. It would be depressing if I let it be. I've seen so many others who started the process way after we did who are close to bringing their kids home or are already home and I don't understand why we are still waiting. We are at 46 months now of waiting. I have to believe that God has a plan and that He has it in control. My job is not to understand the "why's" but to praise God anyway.

I was obviously sad and frustrated when we got the "no passport yet" email. But I decided to be thankful about the good stuff. So here's a thankful list. I'm thankful that we had a nice little camping trip. I'm thankful that T is so resourceful and smart about fixing things, specifically the camper. I'm thankful for the nice time we had to spend with family and friends. I'm thankful for the little bit of rain last night and this morning as we really need it. I'm thankful for the kids who played in the "mostly music" worship service this morning. They did a good job and blessed many people.

Okay, here are the trip pics. We camped in NE Georgia, near a Swiss Alps inspired town called Helen. Nice area. It is close to a state park and national park and also to Dahlonega, which was a very interesting place and had a cute town square. This first pic is of me and Wilbur. Isn't he cute?

My parents in one of "those" things. Aren't they cute? BTW, they also had an old timey picture taken. It was their first and they enjoyed having that done.

Ahh, 22 years and still looking at the love in each other's eyes. Oh wait, we're wearing sunglasses.

The youngsters, R and her bf (his name starts with J too so I refer to him as R's bf so as not to confuse with our son, J).

Helen, GA.

We did a lot of driving one day hoping to find a place to picnic and hike to a waterfall. It turned out that we did a lot of driving and very little hiking but we did find a nice little picnic spot. Then we started our 1/2 mile hike and came to this river.

Here are the teens in a clump of trees.

Oh yes, the waterfall was beautiful and worth all the driving and the little hike.


R's bf is going into the army and he found a great army store that he liked. Several of the stores had airsoft guns. He bought a few of them. (T bought one too) Here is R and bf posing with the guns.



Another little falls on the side of the road.

The campground had a stocked fishing pond and everyone did a little fishing. There were a lot of little fish. T caught one and couldn't get it off the hook so he stuck it back in the water while I got a pliers. When I came back with the tool he was trying to reel the little guy back in and said it was giving much more fight than before. Then he said he thought he'd caught another one. I was like, yeah right. But the pole was bent over quite a bit and he was struggling a bit. This is why.

Yeah, a large mouth bass swallowed the first fish and T caught a nice one. Here is the little one in the mouth of the big one. How weird is that?

Well, that's our trip in pics. Please keep praying for a passport for J. Tomorrow would be a good day to get a passport. I'd be just fine with that.