Next Stop Addis Ababa

And we're off! Only 24 more hours until we touch down in Addis. I can't believe this is really happening. I keep thinking that I must have won the lottery. Meeting Myra on Thursday and getting to hold her a few days later is nothing short of pure pleasure!!! I wonder what she smells like and what her cry sounds like. I wonder how she likes to be held. And guess what....I get to find out!!!! (I know too many "!!" but I'm really excited).
For some reason it is fun to put all your bags together and take a picture, and I promise I'm only taking two pairs of pants ;). When we left yesterday I felt like I was traveling for the first time in my life. So much excitement and anticipation. I put Myra's picture in my passport so that I see her every time I show my ID. She makes me smile and the TSA people are not quite sure what to do with me. I love it!

When we got to the Denver airport it was pretty funny. 4 people and 11 bags got out of my Dad's Honda Fit - like a clown car. My Mom and I dressed the same on accident but I think we look cute in the same clothes. If I had only known, Noah would be in green too. I never really check my flight schedule so when we got to the airport the attendant could not find us in the computer. You know the excessive typing, ignoring your questions, asking for confirmation numbers etc. Well, my mom and I were not on the same flight??? Whoops. Our flight left two hours earlier. No worries, the airline thought we were really cool for going to Ethiopia to help children so they fixed my mistake free of charge. Here's another plug - I did not use Susan Parr for this trip and I SO regret it. USE SUSAN PARR!!!! She is amazing and you will not be sorry like I am right now.

The first leg of the trip to Minneapolis was fine. Noah did a great job and loved watching his DVD player. He wet his pants as soon as we got on the airplane. He told me later that he didn't think airplanes had potties. Did I mention he only has three pairs of pants for the trip. I only tell this part to encourage those bring children home from Ethiopia to bring a few extra clothes in your carry-on. I was NOT a believer but I have learned my lesson!

We leave the hotel at noon today and head for the airport again. 8 hours to Amsterdam. 4 hour layover. 10 hours to Addis. We get in a 10pm and head for the guest house. I can't wait!!! Let the adventure begin.

Happy Referral Day!

Yesterday morning was hard. I was struggling to come to terms with the fact that we did not have our referral. I thought we were really going to leave for Ethiopia without our referral. I was so sad that I made Noah wear his big brother shirt that I purchased for him to wear on our referral day even though we did not have our referral. I decided that since our referral was never coming he might as well wear his cute new shirt. I let my cell phone run out of batteries and took a three hour nap with Noah to help forget our endless wait. We woke up at 3:00pm and I decided to quick check my phone in case my Mom or sister needed something (or if by chance CHSFS called). Much to my surprise there was a message from Jaimee, and she wanted me to call her back as soon as possible!!! Noah and I called Jaimee and we listen to her share the wonderful details of our sweet daughter/sister. I started to cry and Noah got really concerned. When I showed him the picture of his sister he said, "nice baby. Can I watch Cars now?" I sent 5 emails to Brian with the subject "CALL ME REFERRAL." Finally he called me and we read over her referral packet together and then called Jaimee to accept! What a great moment.

Our daughter's name is Myra Selamawit. Her name means Fragrant Peace. I like to think that she will be a fragrant peace offering to her world! She is 2 months old, and she is 5 lbs, 19 inches. She has big eyes and lovely lips. She is working on eating and sleeping. She loves to be held and like to be around the other children. I cannot wait to hold her in my arms in a few short days!!!!

Here are a few fun pictures from the evening's celebrations:

Noah kissing his sweet baby Myra

We had dinner plans for almost two weeks at the local Ethiopian Restaurant in Boulder with our neighbors. The dinner turned into a Family Day celebration!!!!Brian looking at Myra's picture for the first time

We leave on Sunday!!!

Talk about a total freak out. I can't believe that we leave on Sunday for Addis Ababa. The details of our trip are mostly unknown to me and I'm starting to really like the idea of just going with the flow of things for a change. I know that we leave on Sunday night for Minneapolis. We stay the night right next to Mall of America and fly out in the early afternoon for Amsterdam and then Addis. Our bags are packed with over 300 lbs of donations including the super fab puppet theaters.

Every Sunday for the past month we've had a conference call with the other people going on this trip. Last night was awesome as people authentically shared their fears, dreams, and expectations for the trip. The trip leader shared a few of the details for the trip that have me really excited. For example, one of the morning we are going to wake up really early and meet with some of the street children as they are waking up. We will have breakfast with them and hopefully share the message that someone loves them and that they are important. Just thinking about this experience, let alone doing it, sends a wave of emotion over me. It's back to the whole place of privilege and the endless "why" questions I feel every time my place is juxtaposed to another less privileged one. Another example - we MIGHT get to meet with the president of Ethiopia to discuss orphan care and rights. Pretty awesome right!?!?

There is no new referral news to share. We are still waiting. Last week my Mom's sweet friends hosted a lovely baby shower for Baby O. It's delightful to have so many cute things for her to wear when she FINALLY gets home. Brian and I took our babymoon this past weekend in San Diego! The weather was amazing and we enjoyed every minute of it! I'm starting to drive my specialist crazy with the "when are we going to get the call?" questions. I've limited myself to three emails per week to help make sure she still wants to call me when in fact she does have our referral. So 11 months and 3 weeks might very easily turn into 12 plus months of official wait. I'm trying really, really hard to stay positive and remain calm but I just want to meet our baby already...

2 Weeks to Ethiopia

(Intense big brother boot camp to get Noah's muscles in shape for his little sister duties)

15 days and counting. We are in full donation making mode at my parent's house. Early this week, I took a bunch of donation letters to all the local businesses in my neighborhood, but did not get anything to be too excited about so we thought up a Plan B.

Today, my Mom, Sister and I worked, despite three small children, to create some pretty cool sock puppets. We finished about 20 puppets working together and still had time for the children's museum in the afternoon. My Dad designed a great puppet theater that will be transportable by plastic storage bin but totally awesome for both adults and children to play with. I hope to post pictures next week of the complete project. Thanks to all our hard work and the donations from friends, we now have more toys, supplies, and puppet stuff than we have luggage space!!!

Every time I tell someone that we are going to Ethiopia in late January to work with local orphanages and meet Baby O they ask, "O! Have you gotten your referral?" No, no you silly people. Why would I wait for my referral to plan, prepare and pay for a trip to Ethiopia to meet Baby O while having our referral? I much prefer the stress of wanting, waiting and desperately hoping for our referral before we leave on Jan 25th. It's so much more fun that way. The good news is we are now #1 on the unofficial wait list and our specialist told me that we will get our referral in the next batch. When o'when will the next batch be??? That is the questions. If my personal history is any testament to the way this will go, we will get our referral a day or two before we leave from Ethiopia causing great anxiety and causing poor Brian to prematurely age. But really there is no excitement in life if you don't create it for yourself.

Ethiopia in 3 weeks!!

Everyone (mostly just me) is overwhelmed with thoughts of Ethiopia. That's right folks, we leave Colorado on Jan 25th for our great Ethiopian adventure. I purchased our tour book and we checked out several books from the Library this week to really get into high gear with trip preparations. We start collecting the toy and supply donation next week, and I cannot wait to see what great things we are able to collect. We have 4 full size suitcases to fill and we are going to fill them with some great stuff I'm sure.

(Noah working on his Big Brother skills with cousin Tyler)

(The three girls at the Nutcracker...I really hate it when I'm not the cutest)

(Colorado on Jan 2nd at 6:00pm...no coats, no socks...does it get any better?)

In the meantime we are hoping and praying for our referral sometime in the next couple of weeks. There's only 24 days until we hit our 12 month mark and I think we might get the call before then or maybe shortly after then. Can you believe it? All the waiting is quickly coming to an end...or at least the waiting without her picture!

(not wasting anytime with my sewing Mom around to make sure Baby O is super cute when she FINALLY comes home)