May the God of Peace Equip Us for What Lies Ahead

dobro utro!  That is how you say good morning in Bulgarian.  Even though I am awake, I did get 5.5 hours of sleep, something I am grateful for after being awake for over 24 hours.  As it turns out, no matter how tired I am I cannot sleep on planes.  We are so grateful and humbled by your prayers.  All of our flights were smooth and without incident.  However, when we landed in Sofia tired and hoping for a nice shower and an evening of getting of settled in our room while in our pjs, to our dismay our luggage did not arrive.  We checked 3 bags and 1 stroller and none of it made it to Sofia.  If you read my previous blog post you will know that the bible verse for Friday was "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes".  Ephesians 6:11  A bible verse we are clinging to and praying today because it is so tempting to fret over the fact that all of Sam's clothes, medicines, toys, blankets, and food are in the missing bags.  Not to mention I would love to soak my contacts that are now glued to my eyes and change into some clean clothes after showering with my own shampoo and body wash.  However, this is more than likely one of Satan's schemes to try to shake us and distract us from God's will.  Please pray that our luggage will arrive TODAY and that Gracie and I would not waste time worrying about "what if our luggage is never found . . ." We need to spend all of our energy praying and preparing for Sam's transition from the orphanage.  Which leads me to today's bible verse,   "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, though Christ Jesus, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen".  Hebrews 13:20-21.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures I have taken on our journey to Sam.

During our layover in Munich, Germany I was on the lookout for anything distinctively German to photograph and came upon this hummel store. 

Another store carried these dolls . . .

and clocks that fit my criteria of  "German enough to photograph".

Once we arrived in Sofia and suffered the long ordeal of filing a baggage claim, our guide took us to exchange our American money for lev.  He & Grace went inside to make the transaction while I was instructed to stay in the car since we were in a "no parking" zone.  While I waited (albeit a little nervously) I snapped a few pictures from the car window. 

The following are pictures of the buildings lining the street that our hotel is on.  A stark difference between the United States and Bulgaria is the state of the buildings.  In American everything looks new while in Bulgaria all of the buildings are old and show lots of wear.

A Cable Car

Today we are planning to walk around and scope out the sights and sounds of Bulgaria, specifically looking for things to do with Samantha.  Please continue to pray for us as we are tired and a little weary.  Please pray that God would change my attitude so that I can be a joyful companion for Grace who has far more important things to think about than our missing luggage. God will find it.  :)  We are humbled by your prayers.  For those of you who are wondering how I handled the flying; I did great! Instead of crying and trembling as I've been known to do in the past I read while enjoying complimentary coffee.  I was also able to watch an in-flight movie, The Lucky One, after recently finishing the book ( a fact that Steven will be so relieved to read because it means he will no longer be subjected to watching it with me).  For now, I am going to try to get some more sleep.  dovizhdane! (that's Bulgarian for good-bye).