two more days

Life is crazy busy around here this week. Brad and I have both been a little under-the-weather, and he just went to the doctor this morning to get medicine for a nasty sinus infection. I’ve been running around purchasing last minute things we’ll need for little man as well as things the grandparents and big boys will need while we’re gone.  I’ve been typing out lists for the grandparents and letters for the teachers and packing lists, etc.  Our little guy’s bed is covered with suitcases and things to be packed in them.  I think I’ll just be glad to get on the plane and sit for a while on Saturday (I’m sure I’ll eat those words when we’re about 15 hours into the trip & I’m sick of sitting on that airplane)!  I’ve got so much to do before we leave, but at the same time, I’m so ready!

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!