Family Night!

Since it is our last night at home for a while, we trekked to a nearby park to do some dancing on the stage followed by building of sand/dirt castles.

This kid loves playing with ANY kind of ball. He is getting pretty ornery these days and was trying to give his Daddy "flat tires" (where you step on the back of someone's shoe) on the way to the park. I have no clue where he learned this.

This is what Evan did when I asked him to bow - ha ha!

This is what Juliana's curtsy looks like...I always tell her Grandma Joy would be proud!

Last things

I finally feel as though we are winding down a bit. I had no idea the last few weeks would be so incredibly busy! I am hoping for a full night's sleep tonight and tomorrow to catch up a bit before we head into mega-sleep deprivation mode :) We will be finishing up our carry-ons tonight and double checking a few things. The lawn has been mowed the final time, I have grocery shopped and planned for when we get home, we have organized paperwork, vaccuum packed (well, sort of), done laundry, chosen clothes, and said many prayers for the Lord to help us on our trip.

I wish I had more time to think and to blog. Hopefully there will be lots of hotel/down time near the end of next week where I can get some of my thoughts journaled. I feel as if I have been in "DO" mode for a long three weeks or so and would love some time to be in prayer and meditation on what the Lord is showing us in this next incredible week. We get to meet our son, and possibly his birth family. Whoa. That is more than my mind can wrap around right now. I am still praying fervently that they will agree and be available to meet us, but we won't know until we actually get to Durame whether they will have come. Crazy as I am, I am looking forward to 30 hours of travel where I am confined to a seat and can't get up and do much at all. Remind me of that in, oh, about a day and a half :)

Crunch Time

We moved the kids seats in anticipation of installing . . .

LEVI's SEAT :)

I'm finishing up the bag for the kids and chuckled as I put together some definite necessities for most every 3 year old girl.

Friday

We continue to chip away at our list of to-do's before travel. 5 more days until we hop on that plane! Yesterday I did laundry and worked on picking out clothes for the trip. I realize it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I still have lots of questions. I don't want to be inappropriate (style) or uncomfortable (weather) so I have a medium size pile of prospects that will hopefully be wittled down to only what is necessary. We look forward to a conference call with Holt and the other traveling families late this afternoon. Craig and I have a short list of questions on various things and I will surely ask about clothing recommendations. The biggest question I have is whether jeans really are appropriate. I see people wearing them in pictures, but if you look at recommendations elsewhere jeans are not included and it says that most women in Ethiopia wear skirts...and is calf length appropriate or do they need to be ankle length? Hopefully this topic will be more clear after today. The weather in Addis yesterday was hot and humid (80's but felt like upper 90's) but the end of next week is expected to be cool (70's) and rainy. This morning in Nebraska is sunny and beautiful. The ducks at the park are calling our names!

Today's accomplishments

Wednesday means one thing at our house: Story hour day at the library. I and the kids love our small town library. This was the last story-hour before we travel!!!!!!!!

Craig's job this week has been to try to figure out how we are going to connect by telephone with family at home while we are gone. He bought an international calling card and has been trying for several days to call the hotel in Addis where we will be staying. Today around 1:30 pm he successfully reached someone at the hotel desk and had a conversation that had us giggling for quite some time after he hung up. Communication will be a challenge for sure! I asked Craig to write down his conversation because it was so funny and I'm not sure where he put it. I will definitely post it later.





I finished some t-shirts for Juliana and Evan that, simply due to sleep deprivation, have been more of a challenge than they should have been. Well, I remembered ALL the steps this time and "viola" special big brother and big sister shirts for our arrival home!

Keeping busy

This is what I came up with for the kids to countdown the days until we get home. Each day has a ring and a special message telling them what we will most likely be doing that day. I cried while I made them knowing that I will miss them so much!

Juliana and Evan worked on Levi's crib this afternoon. They said they got it "fixed".

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!!!!