Day #2

We had troubles sleeping last night. Jason was up about 5 and it wasn't long I followed and took my turn with the computer. We are having a good time, but really missing home. We both are teachers and live for snow days as much as the kids do. We have had one late start all year so far which isn't normal at all. Since we have been gone, we had a late start, early dismissal, and now no school. Seems hard to believe as we sit in our hotel room, window open, fan blowing, and wearing shorts. After some computer time, we were able to go back to sleep for an hour or two. We went down for breakfast. We were to go to HH from 9:30-12:30. When we got to HH, Kobe was very crabby. His special mother had to calm him down even. :( We sat our in the play yard with all of the kiddos that sit and play in the sun. We played with some of the other kiddos. Kobe fell asleep on me. So Jason got to play more than I did. The kids are SOOOOOO happy!!! They always are smiling and just so happy. I believe that is b/c of the great care they get from those special mothers at HH. So very neat. Kobe had 2 four oz bottles in about 2 hours worth of time. No wonder his belly is so big! He had just recently finished a bottle and was fussing as he wanted to go to sleep. So---I stuck my finger in his mouth. He sucked for a bit and out he went. :) I honestly thought at his age that there was no way he would take a pacifier when we got home, but I'm thinking maybe he will. Once the kids went in for lunch, we went to this family room and hung out. The special mothers do leave you alone when you are out with them, but it makes me nervous to be around them b/c I don't know how to take care of my own son like they do. We played dress up a bit. I seriously have no clue what size clothes to buy for him. We bought a 3-6 month old to take pictures in. That fit perfectly. (Which by the day he had on today) Then he was in 0-3 month pjs after that and they fit fine. I tried on two 6-9 month outfits. The one piece sleeper fit perfectly. The 2 piece outfit was a bit big. Good grief. We know he will grow lots right away when he is home so we will maybe have to hold out on buying some clothes. Wish I could get my hands on some rummage clothes before then. It was fun to see Kobe enjoying being around us more and more. More smiles today and coo-ing. So precious Seriously how much love can a person's heart hold for someone you just met? It is the same as when I gave birth to my girls. Love at first sight. A love so strong, words cannot describe it. I sure wish he was able to come home with us now. I know we are all anxious to be home TOGETHER!!! Tonight we go to our cultural dinner. That should be interesting. Until later...keep the prayers coming. COURT IS TOMORROW (MARCH 1) while you all sleep. We hope we can pass the first time with no glitches. We appreciate all of the love, support, and prayers. I can't wait to share pictures with all of you! God bless!

Day #1...Meeting our son!!! :)

I know some of you really want to know what is going on with us, so I'll sit down and try to recap things so far.  We were picked up at our hotel at 9:30 on Feb. 28. We went to HH. We knew we had paperwork to do, so we thought we might do that first. We were barely out of the vehicle and one of the special mothers said, "Do you want to see your baby?" Downpour of tears!! :) They were standing on the front step of one of the building. We both loved on him a bit. We got to feed him. Then we took him with us to do our paperwork. We went down for a nap so we went outside to play with the big kids. We were barely out there and it was time for lunch. By this time it was only about 11. Not much time there. :( Then Almaz said we could come back about 2:30. :) We got back to the hotel and ate lunch with our friends that are here with from SD picking up their kiddos. At 2:30 we went back to HH. Kobe was getting a bath. I held a couple of the babies that were crying and loved on them. When Kobe was done with his bath, his special mother put on the outfist we brought to take some pictures in. Jason fed him a bottle. We went to a room off all by ourselves and took some pictures. He peed on his outfit so we took him back upstairs to get him changed. We then went back downstairs to this family room again. He had another bottle. He fell asleep with me and woke up when I tried to share him with Jason. It was amazing to see the smiles and the coos that came in the afternoon, but not in the morning.  We got back to the hotel about 5 and took a short nap. Meet our SD friends for supper. We went back to our room. Our friend "T" came and used our internet. That concludes our first day in Ethiopia. Nothing could ever describe the feeling of meeting a child you have hoped for, dreamed for, prayed for, and goo-gooed over his picture. He is a true blessing and we already can't wait to get him home.

We are in Ethiopia!!!

Well....we are here with very little glitches. Yeah...praise God!!! We are excited, but it still doesn't seem very real. We got our intinerary and I'm sad to see we only go to HH once a day. I thought it was once in the am and once in the afternoon. We will see. I did very well through the trip. Now I'm a bit more in a tizzy. We had to ask for our intinerary which they should have given us without asking. There is supposed to be bottled water in our room from our agency that isn't here. We need to exchange money. I'm not sure if that needs to be at the front desk or with our driving tomorrow. I don't know who all gets tips. Friday we are at HH until 1:30, but our plane doesn't leave until 11:25 pm. So many unknowns. This is where I have a hard time going with the flow especially in a foreign country where what you do can make or break things.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures for you tomorrow. It is almost midnight here and I need to get some sleep. I hope this makes sense. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. Please continue them. We are thankful you are walking this journey beside us.

Leaving on a jet plane

Yesterday we drove from Bowdle to Huron. We spent the night at the Jason's parents' house. We ended up leaving Huron earlier b/c of the blowing snow not knowing how the roads would be. They were hit and miss on being good/bad. I'm glad we left when we did. We went to Walgreens when we got to SF to get some compression socks to wear on the plane to help with circulation. We got our bags checked. The donation tubs were cleared and we didn't have to pay for them. Thank you God! We went through security and then to eat. Time to get off of here and get ready to get on that plane. This still doesn't seem real. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. Keep praying!!!

Calm....so far

I don't know what to say. We leave TOMORROW to go to Jason's parents and leave on SUNDAY to travel half way across the world to meet our son. Shouldn't I be freaking out more than I am? :) Seriously it still doesn't seem overly real. Yes I have suitcases packed, but you must understand that I've had things piling up for months now that were going to be used for travel. This week at school was so super crazy and busy, I think it is nice to sit and just breathe. Being so busy maybe was a nice gift from God as then I didn't have so much time to dwell on our trip or get worked up over it.

Update on the back....I didn't get my 3rd chiropractor appointment in today. I didn't go due to the roads. It didn't seem to make sense if I was going to be all stressed driving.  I went to the clinic yesterday and got some muscle relaxers. I did take some already b/c I wanted to know if they would loop me up or not. So far, so good. While it isn't great, it is better than it was. I can move now without being in great pain. The muscle relaxers take the edge off. Thanks for the prayers. I do not want this back issue to get in my way of the super important things we will be doing in the upcoming week.

The level of calm is kind of scary. I thought I'd be freaking out, but I'm not. Tomorrow and/or Sunday will probably be a different story. Through the adoption journey, I have really mellowed out. I know you probably can't believe that, but it is true. I will say that the emotions since referral hasn't been anything that I thought it would be. Crazy! I'm anxious to see how this all plays out.

I will try to update from Ethiopia, but no promises. The internet is hit and miss. I don't know how much computer time I will have or how much energy I'll have to update. Feel free to email me or shoot me a message on FB if you need/want. It would be nice to still hear from others when we are so far away. I don't plan on texting either b/c I don't know if our phone has the capacity to use international and the costs are so much higher. Just know....I will do my best to keep you informed b/c I know it is important to you. If you are following this blog, then you must care what is happening with us.

Again...I thank you for your thoughts/prayers/support throughout this journey. We are so glad to have you walking this journey with us. We can't wait until we are all HOME as a family of 5.

Prayer request

I didn't want to ask for prayers already, but they are needed. We leave on Sunday for ET. I'm having some serious lower back issues. I have had back/head/neck issues before, but nothing like this. I'm in lots of pain. I went to the chiropractor today. Since we are running short on time to get my feeling good by the time we leave, I'm going again tomorrow and possible Friday. He said if that didn't help he would advise that I see our regular doctor. As much as the chiro is against drugs, he said I might need muscle relaxers and prednisone. This isn't good! I want to hold my baby and enjoy this one in a lifetime experience without being in so much pain.

Overwhelemed

I'd say I did a pretty good job making it until almost one week out to start getting overwhelmed. :) Wowzers!! There is ONE night that I do not have any plans until we leave. AHHhhhh. Every night I have something going on. How can I get anything done to be gone for a week if I'm not home? Our house is disgusting! I need to get that back into living conditions before we have someone stay at our house for a week. The school days are crazy too! We have LOTS of extra activities going on next week. Seriously, next week out of all weeks?! I know I wanted to be busy. Yes it will help to pass the time until we travel. However there are too many things going on right now. One day at a time. One thing at a time. On top of trying to get my school stuff in order to be gone for a week, then I'm trying to get stuff ready for the week after we get back. Next week out of all weeks, I have an education major observing in my room for 2 days next week. Again...out of all weeks....really?! I wanted to be busy AFTER we got home. ;) It won't be long until we are on that plane. :) It will go so super fast with all that is going on right now. FINALLY----reality is starting to hit. Things have seemed so unreal for so long. It is slowly sinking in. This IS happening! One week from tomorrow, we will leave Bowdle. One week from Sunday we leave the US!!! Thanks so much for following us on this journey. We know there will be some hard days ahead. We also know the best days are ahead! :)

I stand in AWE!!!

So we have these friends from Sioux Falls that are also adopting from Ethiopia.They were just cleared by Embassy yesterday...meaning they get to go on trip #2 and get their kiddos. (They are adopting siblings) Normally within a week the family gets to travel. They have to wait a little bit longer. Bummer! However God has His hand all over this. Get this...we will overlap our trips. We will both be in Ethiopia AT THE SAME TIME!! Oh my goodness!!! Not only is this family going to be in Ethiopia the same time as us, since they are from our agency they will be at the SAME HOTEL as us! Ahhhhhh.....super cool! So super cool!!! I think about all of the special things that we will get to share together. Jason and I will get to be the first ones to meet their new kiddos. :) They will be at the hotel when we get back from visiting our little man. We can show them pictures of our little man and tell them all about our day. We might be able to have a meal or two with them (depending on how things go) It will be so special to share these things with such great friends. Thank you God! I'm just floored. God is in control and this was too cool not to share!

2 weeks and counting!

Two weeks from today we will be leaving the comforts of our home and traveling to Jason's parents' house to spend the night before we leave the country! TWO WEEKS!!! I totally can't believe this. It seems soooooo unreal!!!  Today I did a little more research on our flights. I packed some of our donations. I read through travel tips. Earlier in the week, I tried some clothes on and got a good idea of what I'm going to take. The bags are laying open with this and that in them. It still doesn't seem real. I'm trying to be happy/excited that we are going to be holding our little boy in a little over two weeks. However, the government has stepped in once again and is creating troubles. More than likely it will be at least two months between our two trips. How can I look forward to meeting our son KNOWING we will leave him for so long? I'm trying so super hard to live in the moment and not think into the future, but I'm human and it is hard. However, we are thankful that we have a little boy that is waiting for his mom and dad. :) At least we are to this stage of waiting.

More room updates

Jason got the cornice boards done in the bedroom. I think they are so super cool so I thought I should share.