One week!!

We've got one more week until we leave to bring home our beautiful boy! Time has really flown by much faster than I thought it would. We have just been so busy! The biggest two events were my daughter's 7th birthday and our 8 year anniversary, however there have been many other things that have helped pass the time. I think I've got just about everything I need for our trip, other than some formula and wipes. I was waiting to buy formula until I knew how much room we had. Last night I bought the 18 gallon Rubbermaid tubs that we will be bringing our donations in and once I packed them with all of the donations we have, I was happily suprised to see that we have quite a bit of room left for formula! We're bringing 3 tubs of donations, 1 suitcase for Malachi Eyob(mainly full of diapers!), 2 carryon's for Ian and me, a backpack with stuff to entertain us on the flight, and maybe my purse...I haven't decided on that yet! So, wish me happy packing and I'm sure I'll post again before we leave. Hugs!

Plane Tickets!

My awesome friend Kelli reminded me that I never actually posted when we're going to Ethiopia... So I thought I should probably do that!

We have booked our travel to leave Thursday, August 6th at 7:30pm and we will return Sunday, August 16 at 4:15!

While we are in Ethiopia, we are planning on traveling to Lalibela and Dire Dawa. After that, we'll go stay at the agency's guest house and hang out with our baby and all of the other amazing kiddos. We are SO very excited and have been having fun making all sorts of lists and buying baby stuff.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent donations. The pile just keeps growing. We are continually amazed at the generosity of so many people.

And now we're just counting down...3 more weeks!

Joy

Happy Tears

We have a phrase in our house we call "Happy Tears." When my mom was in the hospital and had been for a while, I took my daughters to visit her. She was so overjoyed to be with them that she had tears streaming down her cheeks. My oldest daughter, Emma - 3 1/2 yrs at the time - didn't understand why her Grammy was so sad. But then Grammy explained that she was just so happy and the happiness was filling her up so much that it was coming out of her eyes as tears.

Today I had happy tears. 4 days ago I blogged about us traveling to Ethiopia and asked for donations. Today, I opened my door to find two packages from two people in different parts of the country who I have never met, and never even talked to before last week. I was shocked. And just thinking about it now starts my happy tears again. There are such generous people in this world, and particularly in the small world of Ethiopian adoption. My heart has been pulled so many different directions throughout this entire process but to ask for donations and then have them at my door 4 days later just shocked me. I know that these donations aren't for me, but I can't help but feel grateful for the generosity that was shown to me today. I know there's more in the mail coming, and I want to thank you all so VERY much, especially Lindsey and Estee. You made my day, thank you!!!

We have travel dates!!!

Our Embassy interview appointment is set for Wed August 12!!!

We haven't booked our travel yet, but we'll get there a little before the 12th and leave a little after... and at least now we know when we'll see our baby boy!

And now that we have pretty definitive plans, we'd like to ask for some specific donations. We are planning on packing as light as we possibly can in the hopes that any other packing room will be full of donations for the children and babies at Layla house and Wanna house. PLEASE please please choose one or two of the following and send them with us!

• Kirkland(Costco) infant formula - 2 pack
• Lego - basic bricks or Duplo bricks
• NEW Socks and underwear, boys and girls all sizes(up to about 14 yrs) including small size bras

None of these things are very expensive and if everyone who reads this blog would go out and buy one of those items, we would have plenty to supply the kids with. If you need my home address, please leave your email address as a comment(I'll delete your addy as soon as I read it). Otherwise, feel free to drop things by our house any time!

Also, thank you so much to those of you who have already bought formula to send with us. And thank you ALL for your prayers. It seriously meant so much to us and I KNOW those prayers were not only heard, but answered.

Yay for travel dates! Woohoo!!!