We are alive and well...and home with baby!

We are home alive and well. I couldn't post from Ethiopia and it has been awhirlwind ever since we got home. Going from a 7 year old to having a 7 year old and a 8 month old is a huge change. A great change but a big one none the less.

I will try and post more later and some pics!

Leaving tomorrow!

We are leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow! I thought this day would never come. So much to do and yet I can't seem to get any of it done :)

I will attempt to blog in ET but if not I will try and e-mail all that I can and of course I will post lots and lots when we get home!!!!!

Bye for now...when you hear from me again and I will be the momma of 2!!!!

Kathryn

Great News!!!

We found out today that we are able to stay in the guest house the entire time we are in Ethiopia! We don't have to stay in a hotel! It will be so nice to land somewhere and then stay there for the entire time-not have to lug suitcases all over the country.

T - 5 days

This time next week we will be in Ethiopia! With the time difference it is 1am so will probably just be falling asleep about now. Our flight gets in at 9:05pm and by the time we get through immigration, get our baggage and get to the hotel I am sure we are going to pass out cold!

I hit Target today in what is probably one of the last trips before we leave. Got a bunch of last minute stuff: luggage tags, medications, dics for our video camera, etc. I'm sure I'll be back one or two more times in the next five days. Kevin is worried that Target stock is going to plumet with me being out of the country for almost two weeks :) Such a smart ass that one!

I've ben e-mailing with a couple different women that we will be travelling with. We are all going to be flying from Amsterdam together so we'll meet up in the airport there. We exchanged pictures so that we can recognize each other but I am guessing that each of us will have that scared, tired, overwhelmed expression on our faces.

Called Ethiopia this morning!

With the 8 hour time difference calling Ethiopia tends to be an issue. I got up at 6am this morning to try and call the hotel. After three dialing attempts I got through! Between my lack of not knowing any Amharic and the nice ladies limited English I believe that we have a room on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd but I am going to have out country speciliast here call and confirm for me or I may have a Ethiopian friend of ours call.

We are almost packed. I have to weight our suitcases just to check but I think that I may have managed to fir everything into three suitcases. We are planning on taking supplies to Ethiopia for our agency so it will be nice not to have to pay for an extra suitcase. Today we are going to clean and clean and clean. Bella's room is almost finished and all her supplies are bought so we are good there. Now we just need to make the rest of the house livable!

Birth certificate came today!

We got Biruk's birth certificate today! It was so strange to see our names on something same as hers. Her name for now is: Biruk Kevin Lunn but as soon as we are home and settled we will file the readoption paperwork and make her our Bella. Our travel is all set and I am booking the hotel this afternoon. I have spoken to the travel agenct a few times and his name is also Biruk but he spells it differently. Everytime that I talk to him he tells me "You know Biruk is a boy's name? You are changing it right?"

11 days!

Our specialist called me today at work. I was very surprised because a) she has never called me at work and 2) she has never actually called me before so I of course was assuming the worst. She asked if it was a good time to talk and then she said these magical words, "Do you think that you could be ready to leave for Ethiopia in 11 days!" Are you freaking kidding me? I could be ready in 11 minutes :)

So of course I started freaking out and I literally screamed for my boss who was in the next office over. She came in and I just kepting saying "Leaving in 11 days, leaving in 11 days." It was very Rain Man.

Got all the info and have tenatively booked out flight from here to Addis. We leave on Monday April 20th and return on Friday May 1st. It's a long time to be away, longer then we were expecting but I have no fears the my mother can handle it.

This is just so unreal. Things like this just don't happen to us. We have always beens the one who are delayed and forgotten and now we are leaving weeks before we should. Praise God! That was all that I could think coming home, Praise God. If you have a little faith anything can happen.

So say prayer that Kevin and I can get everything ready in 11 days and still like each other enough to want to still next to each other on a plane for 20+ hours!!