Movin' Along

This is the new laptop we were given :) It will be especially great to take it with us to Durame and be able to journal and upload pics.

I'm crossing things off the list left and right the last few days. Yeah!!! This is the gift we have for the nannies at the care center in Addis. I pray it will be an encouragement to their hearts as they continue to care for the fatherless. The lion picture is AMAZING and was actually painted by my neighbor, Emily, who is a sophomore in high school. The Lord has blessed her with talent indeed! I finished the canvas that has the verse on it tonight. I hope they like it!

It is almost Tuesday, so I will already say officially "7 more days" until we hop on that plane! Other things crossed off the list recently are:

• haircuts for 3 of us.
• Buying diapers and picking out clothes to take for Levi.
• Buying food for Levi.
• Arranging for a photographer to meet us at the airport.
• Gathered some pics for a few photo albums of Nebraska to give to various people. I still have some to take and get developed.
• Made a countdown "calendar" for our kids to have at home.
• Wrapped up their books and labeled them by day. We bought them a few new books for that they will get to open and enjoy for each day we will be gone. We LOVE books at our house and I hope this makes them smile while we are away.

The last weight we have on Levi was from February so really I have no idea whether he is wearing 3-6 month stuff or 6-9 months stuff. I'm beginning to wonder about how packing will go. We have it done very roughly, but the last few days I have added to it considerably. I suppose that if I have room I will take more of a variety of sizes and if I don't we will make do with what we can fit. I am planning on trying the vacuum packing method sometime soon. We found out that we will be able to take our Compassion International boy a gift so I bought a backpack and loaded it up with some good stuff: a shirt, sunglasses, school supplies, work gloves, and some yummy treats. I still don't know if we will be able to meet with him but I'm not counting on it. I don't know the final itinerary for the week in ET and it would be nearly impossible for me to pick a day that I knew we would be available. We have a conference call with Holt on Friday for final questions before travel so I will be able to ask then...but it might be too late to arrange. We'll see. For sure we can drop our gift off at Compassion's Office in Addis.

This week is going to fly by! Levi we will get to hold you in 8 days!!!!