THE Trip, Homecoming: Six Month Reflection

It was a wonderful feeling to make it home!  We had been traveling for about 27 hours and were ready to crash into friendly arms and then start life together in our home as a family.  We made the decision to only have family at our homecoming to minimize the stress of too many new faces for Mikayla.  It wasn't an easy decision because we wanted our support system to share in the joy of our homecoming (and let's be honest...who doesn't love a good airport homecoming)?!  In the end, we feel like it was a good decision for us because our sweet little one was completely overwhelmed with the few people who were there!  We were so blessed to have our good friends Sara and Justin come to photograph and video our homecoming though.  Sara even put together the following video and slideshow...enjoy!




On a funny note, we made it to baggage claim and Justin was helping me gather bags, and I was sort of in space because finally Justin asked me if I was still waiting for something.  Apparently we had been watching the same bags go around for quite a while, and we were missing one final bag.  We were so exhausted that we crashed right after dinner and didn't hear the THREE calls from the airline letting us know that they had found the missing luggage.

Lessons Learned from this Day:
-If you are going to have your luggage lost, losing it on the way home is the way to go.  You're home, so who cares about luggage? :)
-If you are traveling when it is chilly, pack the car with coats for everyone and ask someone to bring them into the airport for you.  Thank goodness my mom was there because she actually had to tell me to put on my coat!
-Make sure whatever car you are riding home in has the appropriate car seat/booster seat for your kiddo.
-If you are able and have space, make several freezer meals to have ready to go.  These were a really nice supplement to the meals that our church family and friends made for us.  I didn't have to cook for a long time, and we could focus on spending time with Mikayla.
-We also had stocked some food/drink that would have been good if either/both of us had a stomach bug.  Brian was really sick when we got home from our first trip, and we had to stop at the gas station on the way home from the airport.

THE Trip, Day 5: Six Month Flashback

On Thursday, we again spent the day at our guest house because our flight didn't leave until around 10:30pm.  We packed up our things and played for most of the day.  We also looked forward to our agency dropping off Mikayla's Ethiopian passport and paperwork allowing her to enter the United States.  Let me tell you, a baby's passport is just so stinking cute!  I especially enjoyed it because we got to see a picture of Mikayla  that I had never seen before.  So we got our passport and big, official envelope which they (meaning EVERYONE) tells you that you are not allowed to open.  You are to guard it with your life and then hand it over to the customs official when you make it back into the states.  Let's just say we followed those directions and didn't try to find out what would happen if we opened it...

Before we left, we had a mini photo session on the roof.  (I honestly still think about the roof and really miss it sometimes.  It was awesome being up there)!

Our family.  Mikayla is dressed in PJs with hope that she would sleep lots on the plane :)

The Mitchells and Mummerts.  This trip would NOT have been the same without them.

We arrived at the airport and made it through customs and security with almost no line, which is the complete opposite of our last trip when we waited in line forever.  That was a total answer to prayer with a little one.  We finally boarded the plane and played musical seats about 50 times so that we would be able to sit together .  We were originally assigned a bassinet seat in the bulkhead and the second seat was a couple of rows back.  We were ok not sitting together if that meant we would have a bassinet for Mikayla.  We were thankful that it ended up working out that we got to sit together for most of the flight.  I have to say Mikayla was a complete trooper on this flight.  She slept a lot (Brian and I not quite so much), and wasn't too fussy considering the crazy new experience.

Out like a light in the bassinet.  Whoever invented these things is a genius and a gift to parents traveling with infants internationally.

We didn't need movies on this flight for entertainment.  Silas took care of entertaining us!

After an incredibly long flight, we were thrilled to touch down in D.C.  We got our luggage and made it through customs without a hitch.  What a great feeling it was to know that when we made it to U.S. soil our baby girl was a citizen.  We were both pretty emotional at this point.  I almost lost it while eating breakfast when an Ethiopian gentleman came up to me after Brian left to go change Mikayla and said, "God bless you."  I must have given him a confused smile at first because he continued, "God bless you for what you have done with your child.  She is Ethiopian, correct?"  I nodded and he went on, "I thank you for what you are doing for that child and I pray God's blessing on your family."  Such sweet, soothing words to hear from this man who shares the same beautiful heritage as our daughter, especially when our 2 year journey was coming to a close...

Our Ethiopian Air plane

Our new little citizen

Lessons learned from today (oh, I could write a book, but I won't)

-If you have a baby, some kind of carrier is so crucial.  We have a Baby Ergo that we love.  It works great for babies that are a little heavier and you can put the kid on your chest, on your hip, or on your back.  

-Securing a bassinet took a lot of confirming/hounding people.  We reserved it with our travel agent at booking, we called the airline the day of our flight to confirm, and we confirmed it again when we checked in at the ticket counter.  Honestly, they are first come, first serve and it sort of felt like the luck of the draw as to who actually got them.  If you need a bassinet, when arriving at the airport, earlier is better!

-Take a change of clothes for the parents as well as the kid (we didn't need to change on the plane, but know parents who needed to change and didn't have clothes accessible).

-I also had just a few toiletries that were easy to get to in our checked baggage since we knew we would have access to them in the customs area.  During our layover, I changed and actually felt mostly human on the last leg of our flight.

-So you've clearly picked up on the fact that Mikayla was having digestive problems during the whole trip and the flight was no different.  We took tons of diapers and wipes on the flight and used all but one diaper.  We also were prepared with one change of clothes in the diaper bag, but she ended up going through 3 outfits.  We were glad we had made a couple of extra sets easily accessible in our checked bags that we could get to when we went through customs.

-Just keep in mind that even though the flight is WAY long, it has to end at some point!

I'll share our homecoming tomorrow, so stay tuned!

THE Trip, Day 4: Six Month Flashback

We woke on Wednesday with the whole day ahead of us and no real plans other than to hang out with Mikayla.  It was a relaxing day of chatting with friends, playing with our kids, and watching our kids play together.  It was such a joy to watch Mikayla develop even in the short time that we were in Ethiopia.  When we first met her in November, she wasn't even sitting up.  By the second day she was starting to pull up on things, and by the end of the week, she was just beginning to do a cute little army crawl.  We say that her buddy Silas taught her those cool tricks!

At first Mikayla didn't just use her arms to help her pull up, she also used her mouth.

We spent quite a bit of time up on the roof.

A photo op with the two littles up on the roof

I'm so glad that our little suite at the guest house had this coffee table.  It was PERFECT for the 11 month olds!  How cute are they together?!?

We actually ended up having a yummy lunch from another one of our favorite places to eat in Ethiopia, Zebra Grill.  This little gem of a restaurant was only a couple of blocks away so we sent Brian and Phil to pick up burgers for everyone.  There were also a few things left on our "buy" list that we wanted to get before we left.  Since we couldn't take the kiddos out in public, Brian and Phil headed out to the Alert Colony.  This is a place where people with leprosy live, and they also create goods that are sold in a little shop.  Brian did a great job shopping and we have a few gifts we will be able to give Mikayla as she gets older, and we have a few more decorations that bring a bit of our little girl's culture to our home.  While the guys were out, Mikayla had her first melt down during nap time.  Of course it happened while Brian wasn't there!

Lessons Learned from this Day:

-Do absolutely as much as you can during the first trip because there just isn't a good time to be out and about once you have custody of the kids.

- We brought small bags for dirty diapers, but the Mummerts told us about Arm and Hammer bags.  I honestly think that we were changing Mikayla's diaper constantly, and when you are stuck in a fairly small/hotel type space, the effects just seemed to linger constantly.  The Arm and Hammer bags are nice because they actually do seem to absorb some of the odor (not just cover it up).  Have you noticed we learned a lot about diapering our first week as parents?  Mikayla had LOTS to teach us!

-Alert was a good ways away from where we were staying, but Brian said it was totally worth going there

-If you need to take a taxi somewhere, ask the staff at your guest house to negotiate the rate to your destination and back before you leave.  Our guest house had one lady in particular who was quite the negotiator! 

THE Trip, Day 3, Six Month Flashback

Our second trip to Ethiopia was much more low key in some regards.  On one hand we were living the craziness of being parents for the first time in a foreign country.  On the other hand, our agency requests that once you take custody of your child, you stay at your guest house with the exception of official appointments.  This meant a lot of spending time in our room, in the courtyard, and on the roof of our guest house.
Tuesday was, however, embassy day.  This meant that we had our official appointment to visit the United States Embassy.  The embassy appointment was really important because this is when we received final approval to have Mikayla's visa issued so that we could bring her back into the States.  We honestly don't have many pictures from this day because we spent the morning in our room at Yebsabi and then had our appointment at the Embassy in the afternoon.  You aren't allowed to take any kind of photographs at the embassy, and we didn't even take one of us before or after our appointment.  Oh, well!  We had heard different things about the embassy, but it was a fairly easy process.  The room reminded us of a drivers' license office.  We sat in chairs and waited to be called up to a window where a very kind man asked us questions.  We were the last out of our group to be called, but fortunately Mikayla had slept for a decent amount of the wait, and she was fairly content to be held at this point.  Of course Mikayla had a dirty diaper that needed to be changed right before we were called up to the window.  The man behind the window was MORE than happy to wait a few moments for Brian to finish with the diaper before coming with Mikayla.  After a few questions, we were on our way back to the guest house.

On our balcony at Yebsabi

This picture just makes me laugh.  We have lots of fun stories about Mikayla's bodily functions, and once again Laura was on the ball and captured her mid spit-up.  Haha!

Mikayla and her partner in crime, Silas.  These two are only a couple of weeks apart in age and were roomies at Acacia Village (with several other babies as well).  It was a blast getting to watch them together.  They enjoyed seeing who could be the loudest and taking each others' toys!

This was our first time giving Mikayla a bath.  She LOVED the water (and still does).

Lesson Learned from Today:

-Double check your bag BEFORE you leave for the embassy to make sure you aren't taking any prohibited items.  We stuffed what we needed in our backpack (which was our carry-on for the plane).  We forgot that we had our travel cell phone and a couple of sets of headphones still in the bag from the flight.  Whoops.  The workers at the embassy were insisting that we had a cell phone (NOT ALLOWED) and we were sure that we didn't.  We were totally the clueless Americans that I'm sure they rolled their eyes about.  Even though we totally held up the line and were so embarrassed, they were extremely gracious and kind to us.

THE Trip, Day 2: 6 Month Flashback

We woke early on Monday morning after having a full night's sleep.  We both noticed and were really excited that we didn't hear dogs or roosters at night on this trip.  We think staying on the other side of the guest house made a huge difference in noise.  We ate breakfast and got our things together.  Our driver was scheduled to pick us up early to go get our sweet girl.  We piled into the van with the Mummerts and headed out on the 25 minute drive to Acacia Village, where Mikayla had been living since October.  They took us up to the second story patio and when we stepped outside all of the babies were getting some outside time with the nannies.  We looked at each face and didn't see Mikayla among the 10 or so babies.  We looked at each other and wondered if this was a test!  Then around the corner came the staff with the Mummerts' boys, and Mikayla arrived shortly after.

Mikayla being placed in our arms for good!  This moment was so surreal, and I don't think we stopped smiling for hours after this.  The sweet nannies had even given Mikayla some tiny little braids!  Precious!

Who are you people?

We spent a bit of time relaxing with our kiddos, enjoying the beautiful Ethiopian weather.

Then we got to see the new room where Mikayla had been living since our last visit.  Remember how it was just after the Ethiopian celebration of Christmas when we were there?  We had to take a picture by the Christmas tree!

Feeding Mikayla solids for the first time while we talked with the nurse and social worker about details of Mikayla's schedule, personality, and behaviors.

Helen, the social worker for Acacia Village.  You could just feel how much she loves all of these children.  She had tears in her eyes when we left!  It was impossible to express our gratitude to all of the people who took such wonderful care of our daughter when we were not with her.  How can you say thank you for that?

In the van leaving with our sweetie

After saying our goodbyes, we went to CWA's office to finalize paperwork for the embassy.  Then, we set off to find the same formula that she had received while at Acacia Village.  Our kind driver, Z, drove to THREE grocery stores before we were able to find what we think was the correct formula.  Then, we headed back to Yebsabi for lunch and parenting :)

We quickly realized that Mikayla was having tummy trouble, which lasted until after we made it back to the States.  Almost as soon as we arrived back to our guest house, she needed a diaper change.  Let's just say our first diaper changing experience as parents was exciting/tragic/hilarious enough that Laura grabbed our video camera as I was calling for Brian's help and taped the whole experience (be thankful that I'm vetoing Brian's request to post that video on the blog)!

We managed to get Mikayla fed, down for a nap, and then tucked safely into bed later that evening.  We went to bed fairly early, expecting Mikayla to wake for one feeding during the night according to the schedule we received.  We were surprised when she woke for the first time at 11pm and then every three hours after that.  Unfortunately for Brian and me, once we woke up that first time, we never really fell back asleep thanks to the time difference.  We ended up talking and laughing in bed until it was time to get up with our early riser the next morning.

Lessons Learned from this day:

-A true friend is someone who will videotape your first diaper-changing-experience-gone-wrong

-Tummy troubles are likely, so don't be shocked!  I took what I thought was WAY more diapers and wipes than what we needed based on advice from friends.  We definitely used more than what we thought we would.

-Stopping at the grocery store for extra water and snacks/easy food to make made the rest of the week easier.

-Have a doctor appointment scheduled for your kiddos before you leave. We ended up emailing my mom to get her to call the doctor and have an appointment scheduled for us as soon as possible when we got back home.  

THE Trip, Day 1: 6 Month Flashback

Life six months ago was WAY too busy to record our thoughts and memories of our 2nd trip to Ethiopia.  But it is definitely something that we would like to have documented.  So, I am flashing back on the 6 month-iversary to share the details of our trip to pick up our daughter.  Enjoy the reflections over the next week!

We arrived in Ethiopia around 9:00 (Sunday, Ethiopian time) in the morning after traveling for what seemed like ages.  Our trip began with waking at 3:30am (Saturday, Eastern time) and a VERY early flight to Washington, D.C.  I was as nervous as could be driving to the airport, but relaxed some as soon as we got checked in and at the gate.  We met a few very sweet people at our gate and chatted until we boarded.  I knew that we were in for an emotional trip when one of the ladies whom we had just met handed me a bit of cash to buy something for our daughter because she was so touched by our story.  It wasn't even 6am and I was already crying!

We arrived in D.C., had breakfast and walked around the terminal waiting for our friends the Mummert family and the Diaz family to arrive.  We were so excited to see the Mummerts again and to actually meet the Diaz family face-to-face since we had only met virtually.  Knowing that we were going to experience this part of our journey with these two families was so reassuring to us.  Our weeks of emailing each other and talking about preparations were finally coming to a head as we boarded our plane to our children. 

The highlight of our travel day (other than meeting up with friends, of course) was seeing Rob Lowe in the airport.  Let's just say it was a LONG day of travel.  We were definitely hoping to sleep quite a bit on the plane, but each of us only slept a couple of hours, which made the flight seem that much longer.  We were thrilled when our plane touched down in Africa!

The driver from our guest house met us at the airport and it was such an amazing feeling to have our feet on Ethiopian soil once again.  We checked into our suite with the Mummerts at Yebsabi, and it felt like we were home again.  We had high hopes of doing something fun Sunday afternoon, but our goal quickly became to just stay awake so that we would sleep through the night.  We were all absolutely exhausted.  In fact, we barely made it out to eat at Makush art gallery and restaurant.  This was one of our favorite places to eat in Ethiopia.  The food was good, and seeing the artwork was cool as well.  We made it back to Yebsabi, and Brian and I finally gave up on staying awake and crashed at 7pm and slept like rocks for the whole night.  We knew that we would be traveling to pick up Mikayla first thing in the morning!

We only have 3 pictures from our travel day and first day in Ethiopia.  They are ALL of Brian on the plane.  To be quite honest, we were too tired the entire two days to think of taking pictures, and Brian's face pretty much sums up how we were feeling!

Lessons Learned from this day:

-If the connecting flight to make your international flight is REALLY early in the morning, fly up the night before and stay in a hotel so you are starting the trip well rested.

-Check out carry-on luggage restrictions for specific airlines (especially foreign airlines that might have different regulations).  We sat at the gate and totally reorganized our carry-on bags because we learned that we had to check one of them because of size!

-Think about taking something to help with sleep so that you arrive at your destination well rested like the lady sitting next to you that slept for 10 hours out of the 12 hour flight :)

-If you ask for enough refills of water in a short period of time, the flight attendant might have mercy on you and just give you the whole huge bottle of water.

A Different Kind of Christmas Miracle

Well, friends we have what one calls an Ethiopian Christmas miracle on our hands.  Christmas is celebrated on January 7th in Ethiopia, and we are LEAVING TO GO PICK MIKAYLA UP ON JANUARY 8th!!!  Originally we thought that our Christmas miracle was traveling to pick her up for our Christmas, but we are celebrating that God works everything in His timing.
If you live anywhere near us, the noise you heard this morning were my shouts for joy, songs of praise, and general freaking out from excitement when Brian called to share the news. Our agency collected our additional documentation, translated it, and submitted it to the embassy in what I think is record time, so we are cleared to travel for the January 11th embassy date.  We serve a mighty God, and miracles happen. 

Prasing Him as I pack and prepare to fly around the world in TWO days to be united as a family.

Day 5: The Last Day

Oh, boy was this an emotional day!  We woke up excited to see our sweet girl on Tuesday.  We had been told that we would have a couple of hours with her, but thanks to Z, our driver, we ended up with about five and a half sweet hours with Mikayla Tamir.  We were so thankful that he took his time and did everything else on his schedule before coming back to pick us up!  She was sick and on medicine this day, so for a good bit of the time that we were there, we watched her sleep and cuddled her while she slept.  Poor thing!

When she was awake, we loved playing with her, talking to her, and reading to her.  It was a beautiful day, so we spent a little bit of time with her outside as well. We even got to hear her giggle a couple of times.  What music to our ears.

This was a strange day because while we were trying to be "in the moment" with our daughter, we also knew that our time with her was short and at some point we would have to hand her back to the nannies and say goodbye.  It even brings tears to my eyes as I think about it today.  Towards the end of the day, I knew I would have to let Brian hold her because I wouldn't be able to put her down when it was time to leave.  When it was time to go, we prayed over Mikayla and Brian handed her to one of the nannies.  This nanny was so sweet as we walked out of the door (me sobbing, of course) she called mama and had Mikayla Tamir "wave."  The nanny also worked her magic to get one last smile from our little one.  Priceless!  We said our goodbyes to the staff and started a very tearful journey home.  Leaving Mikayla at Acacia Village and boarding a plane for the US was the hardest thing we have ever had to do.  It is amazing how she is totally knit into our hearts, and it hurts to not have her with us.  We are so thankful that it is a matter of days until we will be back with her.  Please pray with us that we would get confirmation this week that December 28th is our official embassy date.  Part of our hearts is in Ethiopia, and we NEED her!

Day 4...Court

This post will be brief because this day was both nerve wracking, emotional, and anticlimatic all at the same time.  We ended up having the morning at our guest house before we were picked up for our court appointment.  Before we made it to the court building, we had been told that some of our paperwork wasn't there as of the morning, but it was anticipated that we would be fine and pass court at this hearing.  We waited in a large room with many other families and watched as they went in to the judge's room and came out smiling less than 5 minutes later.  Finally it was our turn to appear before the judge.  She asked us why we wanted to adopt from Ethiopia followed by several yes or no questions.  Then, she paused and told us our case was missing some paperwork...we didn't pass, and in the moment we were stunned and heart broken.  All we could see at the time was another delay.  The staff from our agency assured us that we would pass with no problems, but we were still disappointed.  Fortunately our friend Laura had dinner with us, and after a couple of hours talking with Laura, who wouldn't feel better?

Postscript:  we passed court just 3 days later on Thursday November 4th.  I bet you remember that post!

Day 3...Entoto Mountain

So I admit it; I am the queen of bad bloggers.  We've been home a month AND we are almost ready to go back to Ethiopia, but I am just now finishing up posting about our FIRST trip.  Oh, well!  Better late than never.  You can catch up on Day 1 and Day 2 if you missed them the first time or can't remember because it has been so long :)

Sunday morning we woke up ready to see some more of the country.  We had an excursion planned with friends, but I wasn't feeling great, so Brian and I spent the morning hanging out together watching movies, chatting, and processing.  By lunch time, I was feeling better so we called Ayele and headed up for a half day trip to Entoto Mountain.  This provides an amazing view of the sprawling capital city.  In fact, before Addis Ababa was the capital, Entoto Mountain was the home to the emperor.  There is a neat museum, a beautiful church, and the home of the former rulers.  Brian and I were amazed by how intricate so many of the materials were- from the cloth in the robes of the priests to the thatching on the roof of the emperor's quarters.  Ayele told us so much about the history of the country and what we were seeing.



 A view of the church

 A View of Addis from Above

 Some of the Emperor's Quarters

After leaving Entoto, Ayele took us on a drive through the country.  The countryside of Ethiopia is beautiful.  The mountains surrounded us and looked like patchwork.  The whole time, we continued to learn more about Ethiopia, including the area where Mikayla was born.  Ayele also shared so much of his story with us that a friendship was born in his car!  Below are some of the views we saw as we drove through the small towns of Suluta and Chancho.

Other than the days that we spent with Mikayla, this was by far my favorite experience of our trip.  While we only got to see a glimpse of Ethiopia, I treasured to opportunity to hear more about this beautiful country and her people.  Ahhh...only a couple of weeks and we will be back!

Days 2...All Around Addis

Because of staffing, we were not able to see Mikayla Tamir over the weekend.  We took the opportunity to see and learn as much about Ethiopia as possible.  On Saturday we went with some new friends and their children to the Ethiopian Zoo.  The grounds were pretty, and while the zoo wasn't huge, the main attraction was impressive.  This zoo is known for its Ethiopian Lions.  There were LOTS of lions, and they reminded us of Scar from the Lion King, with dark manes.

After a morning at the zoo, we went to the market in the Postal District for a little bit of shopping.  We don't have any pictures from the market because it was so busy, and we were honestly just trying to figure out what was going on!  After the market, we had a yummy lunch with out friend, Trent and his son and our driver Ayele.  We went to Makush Gallery for lunch.  It is a delicious Italian restaurant and art gallery.  We all ended up with pizza, which was great.  We also really enjoyed checking out the wonderful artwork.  After lunch we managed to find some great coffee at Tocoa.  Brian has been enjoying it every weekend since we got home! When we arrived back at the guest house, we spent a couple of hours talking with our friends The Mummerts.  One of my favorite things about Ethiopia was having the time to get to know people.  It was so great to linger with new friends.

Day 1: The Journey Begins

Finally...the series of posts you've been waiting for!

Our journey began eventfully as there were serious storms in Atlanta (our international gateway) during the entire day on Wednesday.  Thanks be to God, the Atlanta airport opened for just long enough for our flight from home to arrive and our flight to Amsterdam to take off on time.  Brian and I are pretty easy-going, and we travel well together, so we passed the LONG flights with sleeping, watching movies, and chatting with each other.  After 24 hours of travel time, we arrived in Addis Ababa around 9pm on Thursday.  We navigated through the airport, got our visas, exchanged money, and collected our luggage with ease.  We managed to find our driver in a sea of people.  Tamu was the face with a huge smile holding a sign with Brian's name on it.  Finally, we had arrived!

We arrived at our guest house, Yebsabi, which means welcome in Amharic.  It was a lovely place with friendly and helpful staff.  We settled in our room quickly and tried to go to sleep because we knew Friday morning would be the time when we met our sweet daughter for the first time.  After a noisy night (other bloggers weren't exagerating about the dogs and roosters), I woke up nervous...in an excited kind of way.  We ate a quick breakfast and waited for our agency representatives to come and get us and take us to meet Mikayla.  A couple of weeks before our arrival, our daughter was moved to Acacia Village, which is our agency's transition home about 30 minutes outside of the city.  All of the children at Acacia Village have been matched to their families.  On the way, we picked up another CWA parent, Trent who was in country for his son's embassy date.  We connected right away and he offered to video and photograph the first moments when we met Mikayla.  What a precious gift!  In the video, you can hear Trent's sweet voice ooohing and ahhing over our new family-priceless!  We waited downstairs for Mikayla to be brought to us, and after what seemed like forever, we learned that she was taking her morning nap and that we didn't want to wake her up because she would be grumpy!  Brian and I were perfectly OK with going and staring at her sleep for a bit.  We were all for meeting a happy baby for the first time!  Here is the first time we saw Mikayla Tamir:

While she finished her nap, we enjoyed a coffee ceremony, we got a tour of Acacia Village and got to spend time talking with the director of Acacia Village, Haddush, a delightful man with an enormous heart for these children and their families.  Then, it was time to meet our daughter for the first time.  She was so alert and happy.  Shortly after waking up, I got to feed her.  Awesome!  Then we loved on her and played with her for most of the rest of the day.  We took a short break to have lunch with the staff.  Then it was back to spend time with Mikayla for most of the rest of the day.  We anticipated spending only about an hour with her during our first visit, but we were together for several hours.  It was wonderful!

Our first family photo. 

What a precious moment!

Asleep in Daddy's arms.  Can you tell she was playing too hard with the rattle and keys?

She was really taken with Brian immediately

More to come!



We Are Home!

We are back in the US after an amazing trip to see our sweet girl.  I was so hoping that we would be able to share our daughter's name and picture, but we aren't able to share quite yet because we didn't pass court while we were in Ethiopia.  While we are disappointed that a glitch with paperwork caused our case to be postponed, we have been told that our case will likely be heard at the end of this week or beginning of next week.  Please keep praying that this would happen quickly so that we can be assigned an embassy date, which is when we travel and get to bring her home!  Right now, it is still looking like we could have her home by the end of the year.  We took tons of pictures and did a lot of journaling while on this trip, so we will share more over the next couple of weeks.  For now, know that this trip was the most awesome thing we have ever experienced, and at the same time, leaving our daughter was the most difficult thing we've ever done!

Fast Forward...Like SUPER Fast!

A Little Refresher/Background Information:
With the recently changed adoption procedures in Ethiopia, families are assigned two court dates and an embassy date.  Adopting families do not typically travel for the first court date; it is for any biological family members and Ethiopian officials.  Our first date is scheduled for November 1st.  Families do travel for the second court date, which is when the adoption becomes legal in Ethiopia.  Our second date is scheduled for December 2nd.  The embassy date usually takes place 6-8 weeks after the successful completion of the second court date.  Families travel for the embassy date, and this is when the newest member of the family gets to go home with his/her new family.

The Exciting News:
We got word on Thursday that the Ethiopian judge who hears cases for the first court date has decided to allow families to travel for their first court date!  Since our first court date is so soon, we weren't sure that this would be allowed for our family, but we got the green light on Friday afternoon. This essentially combines the first two court dates, which means Brian and I are LEAVING ON WEDNESDAY for Ethiopia.  We will get to meet our daughter in less than a week.  Also, if our court case is resolved quickly, we will be able to bring her home sooner!  As you can imagine, Brian and I are thrilled beyond belief and running around like crazy all at the same time. 

To be honest, there have been no part of our adoption that has fit the estimated timelines that we have heard along the way, and we are OK with that.  We're so thankful that God's timing is perfect...through the times that seem slow and the times that seem out-of-control fast!  I've decided that adoption is predictably UNPREDICTABLE!!!

Now, we have a baby to get ready to meet, so I'm off to continue making arrangements, pack, etc!  Please pray for our FAST preparations, safe travel, and that our hearts would be prepared to meet our cutie pie!

Big News from Ethiopia

Yesterday we received word from our agency that the Ethiopian government has decided to require adoptive families to appear in Ethiopia for their court date.  While this is not a total shock (our agency had shared that this was a possibility being discussed), Brian and I are quite surprised that this new requirement has gone into effect so quickly.  Our minds are spinning as we process this information and wait for more details to come from our agency, but there are a few things that are in the forefront of our thoughts:

• Right now, we know that this means we will be travelling to Ethiopia twice, which will add significantly to our cost.
• We don't know yet how long we will be asked to stay in Ethiopia for our court trip.
• We will be able to meet our child before we bring him/her home, BUT we will have to leave our child in Ethiopia when we travel back home to wait for our second trip!!  We're not sure how long time between travel dates will be.
• Because we will meet our child before our court date, he/she will be issued a different kind of visa so he will be an American citizen upon arrival in the US, rather than another lengthy process that we would have gone through.

Would you join us in praying for this situation?  For our peace and strengthened trust and faith in our Provider?