Last week we were told that our embassy date would likely be January 5th.  Our caseworker was out of town and her replacement told us this.   We were pretty surprised and I have to say, it’s not like me to be confrontational or fight for things, but I did call her and fight for an earlier date because we had been told it would for sure be in December.  It must have paid off!  

We were told we’d know the for sure date on Wednesday.   That day we got an email that said we’d hear on Thursday.  We never heard Thursday or Friday.   This afternoon we got an email with a confirmed embassy date for December 22nd!

Let’s start with the hard part- Rick and I have both never missed Christmas at home so that will be hard for us.   It is the first year Evan really gets it and we hate to miss out on seeing him so excited at all of our families’ festivities Christmas Eve and possibly Christmas morning as well.   The other thing we are slightly worried about is airfare costs- it may be quite a bit more expensive because it’s the week of Christmas, but we’ll have to see!

Now to the many great things!   First and foremost, we’ll be arriving in Chicago on Christmas Day!   What a Christmas blessing…and talk about the BEST Christmas presents ever!  

It will also work out nice with Rick’s work schedule- he’ll have to take a few days off prior to Christmas break, but then have all of Christmas break off and not have to use sick days/paternity leave since the kids have off school until after New Years.   He can start his paternity leave (2 days a week off) after the New Year!

We have so much to do now!  On Monday I will be looking into airfare, deciding what day we will leave (depending on if we can get a driver to take us to Soddo to see AWOP’s orphanage, waiting children, meet my Compassion sponsor child, and see the area the boys are from).    We will also need to get our plans straight for the care of our children at home, since this is now the 3rd time we’ve had to arrange this.   We need to book our lodging, buy the rest of the things we need for the trip, and finish packing.   Whew!  Time is going to fly!!

We are so excited though and can’t wait to finally meet the boys and to bring them HOME!   Our *TENTATIVE* schedule looks like this: fly out of Chicago on Thursday afternoon or evening, December 17th, arrive in Addis on the evening of Friday, December 18th, travel to Soddo and back on Saturday, December 19th (possibly stay one night there),  rest on Sunday, December 20th, meet the boys on Monday, December 21st, have our embassy date on Tuesday, December 22nd, do some fun things on Wednesday, December 23rd and Thursday, December 24th, leave on the Christmas Eve night, and return to Chicago on Christmas morning or mid-day!   WOW!!

Thank you Lord for answering our prayers!   What a special Christmas this will be!!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 9:19 pm While Dave was in Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.