Waffle House and Sweet Tea -- we are almost 'home'

Bryant and I left this morning for Clinton, SC. We are driving! Not quite 1000 miles from door to door. We had a great drive today -- made it to Lebanon, TN (over 600 miles down!) It was fun to drive through Missouri (saw the Arch in St. Louis from the road), then Illinois, Kentucky and into Tennessee. Amazing to see this beautiful country! Of course, Bryant's favorite part of the day was stopping for dinner in Clarksville, TN at a Waffle House! I would have bought a gallon of their sweet tea if I could have -- yummy!

The main purpose of this trip is to spend time with Marcus. We can't wait to see him. Here's a quick update on the adoption process: On Tuesday, June 2, we received a call from Ruth at Child and Family Services in Leavenworth. We were thrilled since we didn't think we would hear from anyone until later this month or even July. Ruth will be our case worker in KS. She was wonderful! She is the first person in this whole process to say "Marcus needs to be placed with you ASAP so he can start attaching and adjusting to his new family and new life". That was music to our ears! As soon as all the legal proceedings/rulings are completed in SC, he can come home with us. Still not 100% sure when that will be, but we are starting to see the faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. We are so excited that we even put Marcus' new car seat in my car for this trip to Clinton! We figured he can try it out and get used to riding in it -- and I guess I have to admit that we have a slight hope that we may be able to bring him home to Kansas by the end of this visit. We'll see!

Bryant will fly back to KS on Friday. He has a fishing invitation for the weekend, and he has to report to Fort Leavenworth on Monday the 15th. I am staying in Clinton until the end of June. My Mom may make the drive back to KS with me.

Stay tuned for highlights of our trip! We look forward to seeing friends and family and hopefully introducing Marcus to some of you during this trip.