AHHHHHHH! Can you believe that the time has come for us leave and finally go meet our children Jack and Hayley. A time that once seemed so distant is finally here. Pause. Deep Breath. The last few days have been a whirlwind of emotions of being excited, nervous, anxious, scared, impatient, and EXCITED!
We are all packed and ready to go. Here is our itinerary of events. Tomorrow morning we will go to church, pick up Sam's mom to come over to our house to watch our dogs and house and then we are off to the airport at 11:15. Our flight leaves at 3:30 and we will arrive in Amsterdam at 6:00 am (11:00 CST). We are hoping for early check in so we can catch a nap before we venture into the city. We will be in Amsterdam for Thursday and Friday and then we fly out to Ethiopia on Sat. morning.
Once we arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia very late on Sat. night, we are supposed to be picked up by a member of the Guest House where we will be staying. We will stay at the YGF, a guest house affiliated with Toukoul, on Saturday night. Sunday we head South to Awassa, Ethiopia for a 1 night trip. The orphanage is closed to visitors on Sunday so we figured we would take advantage of seeing some of the country. We will arrive back to Addis on Monday evening. The soonest we will be able to meet our kids would be Monday night, but likely it will be Tuesday morning. We will meet with the kids one more time before court on Thursday, St. Patrick's day. We will get to visit the kids one more time after court on either Friday or Saturday. We fly out on Saturday evening and will arrive back in MN on Sunday.
Over the next week and half I am going to do my best to soak it all in and just live in the moment (which is hard for me to do). I am always looking ahead to what is next and not just 'being'. This trip will be like no other and I am sure life changing. It will be terribly hard to leave, knowing we are leaving behind Jack and Hayley and not knowing yet when we can return to bring them home for good. Please pray that wait is quick and we have the strength to make it through this challenging time. The one thing that I remind myself of that will help me to get through it, is that if Jack and Hayley can do it, then I don't really have anything to complain about as it is much harder on them.
While we are traveling we won't be making or receiving phone calls. However, I will have the ability to send out text messages. We plan to keep family and friends updated through texting. I also hope to update our blog from time to time to keep everyone informed.
2. I am thankful and grateful for the wonderful caregivers who are taking wonderful care of Jack and Hayley. I realize that resources are a bit limited, but they are doing the best they can with what they have. I cannot wait to meet the amazing women who are cuddling, hugging, kissing Jack and Hayley when we are not able to be there. I hope and I pray that everyday that they are held with a mothers love in mind. Thanks to these women who love and care for our children until we are able to.
I'll be thinking of you guys constantly! It will definitely be a life changing trip, and I'd love to get together with you when you are back and settled so I can hear all about it.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely try to live in the moment! I did a really poor job of that when I went, and now I regret it.