February 11th - two days out of thirty

Courthouse in Goshen

      We have hit the ground running, after a mostly uneventful airline journey. The plane was not totally full so we each had a couple of seats to relax in, that was an unexpected blessing. We were then picked up right on time by our friend Angie who then drove us back to Goshen and dropped us off at our residence for the month. It is really a place of peace, we have much physical room in the house and the opportunity for head space/relaxation really easily. That is an aspect of this kind of trip that probably could be underestimated but with so much happening it is great to have a place to crash that's all ours. There was some food in the pantry, Angie had some already prepared food for us, there's fast Internet and even a treadmill so we can exercise indoors as it's cold outside. That was Monday taken care of and then it was down to Indy on Tuesday after having our fingerprints done again, I guess bio-metrics in the US and UK is not enough, we're still not criminals and don't plan on turning that kind of life any time soon or anytime at all for that matter.
     The drive to Indy was one that took us by surprise, we are used to rolling hills of Southern England, the busy roads, old beautiful buildings etc... on this group of roads it was farmland to the right and left, a little town once a half-hour, gray skies, brown ground for the 2 1/2 hours until just outside of Indy. It was easy driving so we'll take that but can't say too much for the scenery or lack thereof on this particular drive.
We found our destination without any trouble at all, highways here are so wide, for the most part empty and easy to navigate. With a little time to burn, where else but a coffee shop, in this instance a Starbucks they're not too hard to come across, simply open your eyes when in a large city. The meeting we attended was a panel meeting where we heard from a couple who has attended, their stories of sadness, excitement, bad news and joy all rolled into one package of adoption. This was somewhat informative but then there was a panel of three mothers who had given birth and placed their children with adoptive families. This was very moving, the bravery they showed was immense, they remarked as too how difficult it is to give up your child, but that in every case they knew what was best for the baby. These mothers were inspirational and we walked away from that meeting with some new questions but also much excitement ourselves.
     One area of this process that we find difficult is not letting our excitement level grow too high too quickly, this is a road to walk down not a road that we drive a racing car down. Finding that balance is some of what this trip is about, and in the next couple of days we'll face some new questions and conversations which are all part of this journey. It seems like much has happened on our trip already, that was only the first couple of days more to come in later blog entries, so check back in on after the weekend.