In just over 24 hours we will be leaving Chicago airport to be on our way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to pick-up and bring home Elijah and Jonah!   Finally!!   But, at the same time-whoa!   This has been a lot of work preparing for this trip!   We still have much to do in the next 22 hours or so before we take off.   The hardest part for me is going to be leaving my two boys here at home!  I have never left Landyn and I have only left Evan for 3/4 days since he was born.   This is going to be very hard for me and a long time.  I know they likely won’t remember someday, but it’s that mom heart of mine that feels bad.   I know they are in good hands, but I feel like I need to type of sub plans for them while I’m gone (the teacher in me maybe).   I will miss them so much and have been crying for days now every time I think about leaving them.  But, Elijah and Jonah have waited so long for us and finally we can say- we are coming, sweet boys!   Can’t wait to have them and to be home on Christmas Day!

 Thank you all so much for your prayers, support, and encouragement this whole time- it means the world to us.

Please pray for the following if you have a minute:

*Leaving Evan and Landyn- for us and for them

*Safe travels

*Our first meeting with boys

*All four of our boys’ transition- for Elijah & Jonah’s transition to a new country, new home, new family, new everything!  And, for Evan and Landyn’s transition to two new brothers and to the attention being divided between more children.

Thank you and God bless!  We are hoping to be able to post/update from Addis- we’ll see!

It’s official!   We have our flights and lodging booked!!   We will be leaving from Chicago on my birthday, December 16th!   That is a Wednesday.  We wanted to leave on a Thursday, but there was nothing available.  Many flights and airlines were sold out, so we had to take what we could find and know that it was going to be more expensive than normal!   It will be hard to be away from our boys at home a few extra days, but at the same time, we’d probably have regrets if we went for the short amount of time that our agency recommends.   From Monday on, you are with your children mostly either at the transitional care center or at your guest house.   We figured, if we are going half way around the world and spending a small fortune, we might as well see some things!   So this is the plan:

We leave out of Chicago on Wednesday, December 16th in the late afternoon on KLM. We have a stop in Amsterdam to change planes.  We also have a stop in another African country to pick-up and drop-off some people and maybe re-fuel and then land in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) on Thursday night, December 17th around 10 p.m.

We already have a driver booked to take us on Friday, the 18th to Hosanna (the are where the boys are from) so we can see it for ourself and get some pictures to share with them and also a bit farther to Soddo.   In Soddo, we plan on going to an orphanage run by AWOP (the former partner or our agency; our boys came from an AWOP orphanage that is now closed).   We plan on meeting some kids that friends of ours are adopting and bring gifts for them from their families.   We also are trying to get it set up through Compassion International to meet our sponsor child that just happens to be from Soddo as well!   You can only do sponsor visits on weekdays, so leaving the day before we thought we would may just be perfect for this reason!  Meeting your sponsor is a big deal for Compassion children and their families.   We’ll stay in Soddo for a few hours and then head back to Addis, trying to get back by sunset, as we’ve heard they don’t like to drive at night (at least outside of Addis).

Saturday and Sunday we’ll rest and do some sight-seeing around Addis.  On Monday we meet the boys!!!    Tuesday is our embassy appointment, Wednesday we do a little shopping for souveneirs and also have a dinner out with our agency staff at a restaurant where they serve tradional Ethiopian food and have Ethiopian dancers.   Thursday, December 24th, we have a going away party at the transitional care center and then head to the airport.  We leave very late that night and due to the time change, arrive back into Chicago on Christmas Day at 1:30 p.m.   After going through customs and immigration, we can finally introduce the boys to Evan, Landyn, and the rest of our family that comes to pick us up!   What a Christmas blessing and talk about the best Christmas present ever!   We’ll probably be jet-lagged, exhausted physically and emotionally, and dealing with who knows what kind of issues.   So, we plan on celebrating Christmas when the time is right.

Evan and Landyn will stay at our house while we’re gone.   Between my mom, our sister-in-law, and Rick’s mom, we’ve got it covered!   We’re so thankful for them and for the fact that our kids can be in their own home.   Having us gone for 9 nights will be hard enough on them, at least they’ll be in a place where they are comfortable.

There is a lot to do before the big day, but I’m slowly crossing things off the to-do list!   We’ll get done what we can and just go with the flow.   It will be good practice for what we’ll have to do in Ethiopia (be extra patient, flexible, understanding, etc).

 Please pray for safe travels and for everyone’s transition, for Elijah and Jonah’s transition into a new country, a new home, and a new family, and for Evan and Landyn’s transition to two new brothers, as well as our transition to two more sons!

 We are blessed to have had your support, encouragement, advice, and friendship during this long journey.   Soon the adoption journey will be complete and the journey of living together as a family will just get started!    Who knows when it will be, but I’m pretty sure even after all we’ve been through, I will do this again someday!   There are so many orphans who need a loving home and family to be a part of- they are constantly on my mind and I know I can do something to help at least a few of them.