We’ll arrive in Addis Ababa Sunday evening, and we’ll go to Hannah’s Hope to get him Monday morning.  Our Embassy appointment is Tuesday morning, and we’ll leave Ethiopia to come home late Thursday night.  We’re not allowed to go out in public much at all with him, so we’ll spend a lot of time at the hotel.  I’m sure that we’ll be very ready to start the journey home on Thursday.  We’ll arrive in Nashville Friday afternoon, and we’re inviting any friends and family that would like to greet us at the airport to do so (I’ll share all of those details in a later post).

When I think about the number of people involved in helping to bring him home, I’m completely overwhelmed with emotion.  There are literally about 300 people who have contributed financially, and so many people have prayed for us over the past eight months.  We will never be able to adequately thank you all.  Please know that every little donation and every little word of encouragement and support has been SUCH a HUGE blessing to us.  Our small group threw a “toddler shower” for us last night, and they gave so generously.  Now our little guy has plenty of clothes to wear and new, fun things to play with!  We are so grateful for all of you for partnering with us on this crazy journey God has taken our family on.

We know the real journey is just about to begin, so we would truly appreciate your prayers as we transition to being a family of five.  We know that there will certainly be tough days ahead as he grieves the loss of everything familiar.  There will possibly (if not probably) be times when he shuts down and rejects us, when he gets angry and frustrated, when he cries and we don’t know why or what to do.  There will be a language barrier for a while since he doesn’t speak English.  In many ways, the hard part is ahead of us as we learn to parent him well.

We’ll be “cocooning” for a couple of months while he transitions to being a part of our family.  I’ll do a separate post on that soon describing what that means and what we think it will look like for us.  Again, thank you all so much.  I CANNOT WAIT to show you his beautiful face and smile.  We are incredibly blessed to have the privilege of being his family, and we can’t wait to bring him home!

I’m not usually a big stand up comedy fan because I don’t particularly love crudeness or poking fun of other people.  Anjelah, however, has a very clean show & I would definitely go see her live again.  I didn’t realize how much I needed to just get out and have fun and laugh until I was there.  The past few months have been kind of emotional and a little more stressful than usual, and it was SO good to just laugh for 2 hours!

So . . . . in other news . . . . we leave for Ethiopia on SATURDAY!!!  Only SIX more days until we’re on our way to get our boy!  It will be a busy week, but we’re soooooo ready.  And guess what I got for my birthday?  This little gem!  Except mine has three heartstrings & all three of our boys’ names on it.  I love it & I’ve been wearing it ever since it came in the mail.  It came from Lisa Leonard Designs.  Her stuff is really cute.

Okay, I’m tired so that’s all I have for tonight.  I hope you all have a great week!

Of course Lucy Lane and her crew were there!

Riley & Cole were excited because I checked them out of school a little early to join in the fun.  I can’t get a “normal” picture of Cole for anything right now – he is just plain crazy!  I think it was good for them to get a little taste of what they’ll experience in a couple of weeks so they’ll know what to expect.

And here they come!!!!!  Vanessa was overcome with emotion, and who can blame her???  Their journey has been a long one filled with many unexpected twists and turns.

There was a big crowd there to celebrate with them (including the Peters family) . . .

Lots of love and attention . . .

Here he is playing peek-a-boo with Brad.  He remembered him from our time at Hannah’s Hope (who can forget that big goatee?!?!)  Welcome home little guy!  We love you so much & can’t wait for a playdate really soon!!!

Here I am with Mr. Gatluak Thach, the executive director of the center.  He is an amazing man with an incredible story.  His home country is Sudan.  Also pictured are two of my faithful students, Mrs. Esther (from Sudan) and Samsamone (from Laos).

After class, I headed to Hillsboro Village to eat lunch at Fido with my girlfriends, Jenny & Elissa.

Soon after I got home, the doorbell rang and a man was standing on my porch holding these from my mom & sister!

We’re about to head to small group where I’ll get to see some of my other favorite people!  All in all, I’d say it’s been a fabulous birthday!  I feel extremely blessed!

We don’t have the words to express our appreciation to everyone who donated and got the word out.  We knew going into this adoption that we would have to ask for help financially at some point.  It’s often humbling (especially in our society) to have to ask for help, but we know that God wants to use others and doesn’t want us to carry our burdens alone.  He hasn’t called all Christians to adopt children, but I DO believe that he calls ALL Christians to love and care for orphans and others in need.  So for those of you who contributed last weekend, you did just that – and we thank you.

We received an email yesterday from friends who are in Ethiopia right now picking up their little boy.  It read, “We saw [him] again yesterday.  I think he is definitely missing you guys.  Even Almaz said that he was missing his mom and dad when our group was there.  I think he will definitely be ready for you.”  As I read it, tears rolled down my cheeks.  On one hand, I was glad to hear that he remembers us and love us already and misses us.  At the same time, though, my heart broke for him (once again).  I’m praying that he really believes we’re coming back for him and that we love him so much.  We leave in ELEVEN days, and while there’s still a lot left to be done before we travel, September 4th can’t get here fast enough!

I’ll leave you with this verse because I really do believe it’s true – we’re living proof!

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:19

I hope you all are having a great week, and thanks for reading!

Our case manager called this morning and told us to go ahead and book tickets for our next trip to Ethiopia – which will be in TWO WEEKS!  We leave Nashville on Saturday, September 4th, go to our Embassy appointment on Tuesday, September 7th, and arrive back home on Friday, September 10th WITH OUR SON!!!

This weekend we’re doing a FACEBOOK/TWITTER/BLOG-A-THON to raise the money needed to purchase our airline tickets, and we could use YOUR help!  Here are the details:

Our goal is $4800 in 48 HOURS!
Begins TONIGHT at 11:59 and ends at 11:59 PM on Sunday.
If 480 people each contribute $10 . . . our goal will be met!
Donations will be run through the Paypal “Donate” button here on the blog (top, left-hand side).

***Please consider donating $10 or more & help us spread the word exponentially using Facebook, Twitter, blog posts & any other forms of social media you use!  It’s easy – just copy and paste this information:***

$4800 in 48 HOURS: Help bring a little boy in Ethiopia home to his forever family for only $10!  Visit www.dunlapadoption.com to donate online!  Re-post this to help spread the word!

Your help is GREATLY appreciated!  Check back here for progress updates throughout the weekend!

We can’t post {full} pictures of our son yet, but these will give you an idea of how PRECIOUS he is! . . .

**UPDATES:**
Friday 8/20 @ 9 PM: $800!!!
Friday 8/20 @ 11 PM: $1,045!!!
Saturday 8/21 @ 8 AM: $1,220!!!
Saturday 8/21 @ 2 PM: $1,510!!!
Saturday 8/21 @ 8 PM: $1,720 (one ticket down, two more to go)!!!
Sunday, 8/22 @ 8 AM: $2,175!!!
Sunday, 8/22 @ 1 PM: $2,535!!!
Sunday, 8/22 @ 9 PM: $3,030 (two tickets down & one to go)!!!
Sunday, 8/22 @ 10 PM: $3,445!!!
Sunday, 8/22 @ 12 PM: $3,500!!!
Monday, 8/23 @ 4 PM: $3,910 (donations are still coming in . . . WOW)!!!

Notice the hair products at the top . . . that’s definitely something new for me!  There have been multiple things recommended to me, so we’ll just have to play around and see what works best once he’s here.  He has really cute hair, though . . . see??? . . .

I’ve been wanting to blog the past couple of days but haven’t been able to come up with words for how I’m feeling right now.  Riley and Cole have started back to school, so I’ve been kind of busy (and somewhat distracted) with that.  I’ve really been trying to live in the moment and enjoy Riley and Cole, too.  But I miss him.  I think about him multiple times everyday.  It’s usually a random, fleeting thought, but in those moments my heart aches.  I miss his grin and kissing his cheeks.  I miss kicking the soccer ball with him and blowing bubbles.  I miss holding him and feeling his head rest on my shoulder.

Yesterday I was in the bank and noticed a little boy with his mom.  He reminded me of our little boy, and I asked how old he was and what country she’s from (thankfully the part of town we live in is very diverse, and there are people literally from all over the world that live close to us).  She said that she is from Ethiopia, and I got to tell her about our son.  I asked what area of Ethiopia she’s from, and she said “the Tigray region” (where little man was born!).  We talked for a few minutes, and then I went back out to my car with tears in my eyes.  Seeing her son made me miss mine terribly.  I was thankful, though, for meeting her and having a conversation with her.  It’s encouraging to meet Ethiopians in our area.

We’re still waiting to hear that we can purchase our airline tickets for the second trip.  We have an Embassy appointment on Tuesday, September 7, so we should travel September 4 – 10.  We’re waiting to hear the results of his TB test, and we should know something by the end of the week.  Please continue to pray that everything works out for us to travel then.  That’s only EIGHTEEN DAYS AWAY!!!  I can’t wait to see him again and bring him HOME!

The big boys and I were out doing some back-to-school shopping this afternoon when I got a call from our case manager.  She said the magic words we love to hear . . . “Well, I have some good news for you . . . ” and proceeded to tell me that we have an Embassy appointment on Tuesday, September 7th!!!  She told us to go ahead and start looking into flights for September 4th – 10th.  These are tentative travel dates at this point, and there are still a number of things that could slow the process and cause a delay.  Please continue to pray that everything goes smoothly and that we indeed get to bring our little boy home very SOON!  I just about broke into a dance in the middle of Target, and I’m completely overwhelmed with thankfulness this afternoon.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support!  To commemorate the occasion, we decided to buy him these! . . .

In other news, Riley and Cole started back to school today!  Riley is a FOURTH grader now & Cole is in SECOND grade . . . yikes!  They only went for half of the day, and their first full day is on Monday.  They both came home in good spirits and enjoyed their teachers and their classmates.  Riley’s excited because they have a hamster, some fish, a frog, a guinea pig, etc. in their classroom.  They get to be on “pet patrol” and even take one of the little critters home for the weekend every now and then – whoo hoo!  Cole said his teacher is cool because “she has good Legos and good books in her classroom.”  I’m praying that it’s a good year for both of them – especially with all of the changes going on at home with little man coming into the family.  I’m really proud of Riley and Cole, and they are going to be such great big brothers!

Well, I have to go get ready for 2.5 hours of “Parent Night” at the school.  Our sweet friend, Jessie, is coming to hang out with the guys last minute so we can both go . . . thanks, Jessie!!!  I just had to share our good news and a school update while I had a minute.  I am a lousy mom and didn’t even take pictures today (mostly because Riley would be mortified and completely embarrassed!), but I’ll try to sneak some in on Monday and post them (especially for the grandparents!).  Until then . . .

(For all listserv friends, the files I mentioned in a previous post are on the bookshelf on the left side of the first image.)

A couple of the “big” kids’ rooms . . .

This is the room where our son sleeps (below).  That’s his bed in the photo on the right side.  (Yes, it looks like a girl’s room, but there are some boys that sleep in there, too!)

This is the view from the upstairs balcony.  The facility is located in a newer part of the city, and there is a lot of new construction going on all around.

Some of the baby rooms . . .

It really is a GREAT place, and we’re so thankful for everyone who put in many hours making it so fun and kid-friendly!

In other news . . .

I spoke with our case manager today, and she said it will probably be late September or early October before we travel back to Ethiopia to bring our son home – which is a little longer than we were hoping.  The timing of that trip revolves around when our Embassy appointment is scheduled.  For an Embassy date to be given, a court decree & his passport have to issued, and some (more) paperwork has to be submitted.  Our agency is allotted two Embassy dates per month, so our travel plans will be affected by those assigned dates as well.  Lastly, since we’re adopting an “older” child, he has to go through TB testing (required by the CDC for him to enter the US).  Sometimes that slows the process as well.  The group that traveled prior to us got their Embassy dates REALLY quickly, so I had hoped we would as well.  They all adopted little babies, though, and the timing of their trip, etc. just lined up perfectly for an earlier Embassy date.

Please pray that God makes a way for us to bring our son home as quickly as possible.  This afternoon and tonight I found myself missing him so much.  I stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes and just had a little quiet cry.  I KNOW him now, and it breaks my heart to think of him wondering whether we’re really coming back for him.  It makes me sad to think about him sleeping in his little bed at night thinking about his time with us and being confused.  Pray that God will give him (and us) peace during this time of separation.