Court Trip Day Three- Meeting Day!

Wednesday, April 18th: After Becky dreams of being chased by dogs in the Hunger Games because of the incessant howling/barking we heard all night, we head down for coffee!, breakfast, and MEETING THE KIDS!! It went beautifully. J4 greeted me with a hug, and called me "mom" right from the start. We played lots of soccer (he's really good!), he sung the alphabet, and told me he wants to be a pilot when he grows up. He is very active, but I was able to hold his attention for many short periods of time. He would give me good eye contact, especially when looking at pictures or playing soccer. He can name every animal in the book in English. His accent is perfect, and he sings like a dream. G5 is a chubby bundle of love! She came to me cautiously, but once she latched on she was VERY happy being held by me. She enjoyed looking at pictures of Daddy & siblings, blowing bubbles, and looking at books. She also gave good eye contact and let me feed her.  We went to Metro Pizza which was delish, and after the meeting time going so well, my appetite was back in force! We visited Abenezer and KVI orphanages and ate a relaxing dinner at the Guest House. I talked to my home team via Facetime for iPhone with no delay.

Court Trip Day 2

Tuesday, April 17: After riding in a row next to 4 babies for the last flight to Germany, I was feeling disgruntled that a cyanide pill was not included free with every plane ticket. While awake on the same flight, we note that there is a new European pony tail style (with the bottom banded also) that we feel certain will catch on in the US if we embrace it wholeheartedly. (Look for it soon in Glamor magazine!) After landing in Frankfort, we have no clue what time or day it is because there is a 7 hour time change, it is bright outside, 3 degrees (Celsius), and we realize that we have to take an even longer flight next. Becky orders water & I order the only coffee drink that I can understand since the menu is in German. It costs around $16. Starbucks is beginning to look pretty darn affordable right now. Imodium is starting to be consumed in bulk. On the flight to Addis, we have almost-Tiramisu,  Becky watches a movie about people being kidnapped, while I toss, turn & take more Imodium. Then we land in the Sudan. The capital city was very reddish brown (like Georgia clay) but we were only able to look out the windows. At different points of the journey Becky starts begging the pilot to land. Anywhere. She starts naming random countries she would rather be in than in our plane seat. We arrive in the capital city of Ethiopia around 9 pm (Addis time), which is exactly 24 hours after we took off from the capital of Louisiana. Finally in the city with my children, I am excited. We stand in a LONG line for visas, then customs, then luggage, then meet our driver/guide. The Yesabi Guest house (where we also stayed with our adoption in 2009) is lovely. We are told to be downstairs the next day at 9:30 am to meet the driver who will take us to meet the children. How you are supposed to rest after being hyped up with that amazing news, with dogs barking loudly, and club music pounding in your ears, I'm not sure!

Court Trip Day One

Monday, April 16th: Fly out of Louisiana. Becky & I leave combined 2 husbands & 7 children behind. There were tears. Pretty sure the kids' were mainly of joy that they were going to eat cereal, pizza, chicken nuggets, and pancakes all week since that is the sum of Daddy's culinary expertise. Flights were delayed. There was some panic that a domino effect would take place, causing us to miss all of our connecting flights. Houston was crazy stressful and we had to run & while Becky is athletic, I have a strict "no running unless being chased by someone with a knife" policy.  We were smelly, but made our flight on time.

Court date assigned & tickets booked!

We will go to court for the adoption of our two on April 20th!! Another family with our agency (I met her at Created 2 Care retreat) has court April 19th, so we will have travel buddies!! My friend from our church, Becky is going to be traveling with me to Ethiopia. The flight is 24 hours on the way there--Louisiana to Texas to Germany to Sudan (refuel) to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On the way back we take the reverse route, but including layovers and going against the jet stream it is a short 32 hour trip. Are we there yet?

REFERRAL!!! REFERRAL!!!

Today is our day!!! I woke up this morning thinking "today is a beautiful day for a referral!" and it was! After 5 pm, my phone rang it's special tone for AWAA & I stared at Dear Hubby like a dummy. At first I was paralyzed with shock, then raced to the mirror (not sure why I wanted to check my no-makeup face/ crazy hair for the phone call), while begging hubby to find my missing hot pink cell phone. Elise was there with the news we had been waiting 17 months and 3 days to hear. Are you sitting down? It's a girl. And. It's. a. boy. SIBLINGS! He is 4 and she is 1. They are beautiful. Can't wait to pinch their cheeks in person.

Created to Care Retreat

Home from the Created to Care Retreat! What a wonderful time celebrating the beauty of adoption with so many wonderful Christian moms. Favorite things: the sunrises, the fellowship, the worship (check out Gungor's "Beautiful Things" & Matt Redman's "Never Once"). Loved hanging out with my "adoption whisperer" friends, Into the Streets of Ethiopia's champions, fellow paper pregnant AWAA moms, moms of MANY (they drive the ever-so-cool conversion vans that scream "I homeschool!"), and getting helpful hints for healing my children, and living days with joyful hope and purpose.

Renewing fingerprints, home study, & sanity

We're "celebrating" 16 months DTE today. This wait has been brutal. Our USCIS fingerprints have now been renewed (good thing the office is in New Orleans sooo close to Cafe du Monde) & we are updating our home study so that it does not expire. Our new approval is for up to 2 children, 0-5 years old.