T - 2 days!

Almost packed! And Tom installed the infant car seat in the van
tonight. I think we are officially ready to bring Joy home!

Now I have to throw a few things in a bag for Seth, Megan, and Gabe!

Gabe tends to get a little emotional about us leaving. Please pray
for our kids that they will have a fun-filled week with their
grandparents and not miss us too badly. (Or that Gabe's new Legos
will keep his mind off it!) Seth and Megan are excited to check our
email and blog for updates. They will have to show their grandparents
how it's done! We're very thankful they will be so well taken care
of. Thanks Moms and Dad!

Lodging!

We're staying at Ethio Comfort Guest House.  It looks nice and has some good reviews - we'll see for ourselves soon enough!

Travel Call!

Our embassy date is July 7th!  We plan on traveling July 1-July 10.  It looks like we will be traveling to Addis via Amsterdam.  The flight leaves from Detroit, believe it or not!  We are planning on taking a side trip to the city where our daughter was found and spent about 3 months at Shalom Children's Hope.  It will require an overnight stay in Awassa, but I understand we will see the REAL Ethiopia and get to experience Africa and some of its amazing creatures!!  We're so excited!

Re-fingerprinting: Officially DONE

We received our paperwork saying our fingerprints have made it to the
National Visa Center and cabled to the embassy in Addis. Whew! Now
we are working on flights. A little challenging because we are unsure
of our embassy appointment! But we're confident enough to at least
look at the options for traveling around July 1st.

First week of Summer!!

We had a fantastic first week of summer break.  Megan had a great piano recital, Gabe has learned to love swim lessons (after initial disappointment that it wasn't play time), and Seth is READING a book voluntarily! (I even caught him reading in bed with a flashlight late at night!!) 

Seth and Megan are in age group swimming for the first time this summer.  They are really working hard in the pool and learning how to do flip turns and start off the block.  This means I'm in Jenison a little more than I'd like, but at least my classroom is all organized and put away!

We are still hoping for a phone call on Monday so we can travel to Ethiopia next week.  Otherwise, the next embassy date isn't until July 7th.  On a positive note, we received a new picture of Joy from a family that traveled this past week.  Joy looks so healthy.  She's really filled out and even looks a little chubby!  In the new picture, she is sucking on her tongue which is a habit Gabe still has.  They have something in common already!  All of the kids are so excited to have her home.

Fingerprinted (again)!

Tom and I were refingerprinted again today.  We received our appointment in the mail four days ago.  Hopefully it will be processed quickly and cabled to Addis . . . I am going to try to wait until next week Friday before I call to check.  A week's time might be wishful thinking!

Bethany video

Check out this Bethany video.  It focuses on Ethiopian adoption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcO3DpABdA