1 more day

I cannot believe we are really going to Ethiopia and we are really going to bring Liam home! It has been a rough journey with so many ups and downs I keep expecting someone to tell us we cant go yet. But they aren't going to! We are all packed and ready to go, well I am, Josh needs to get moving hahaha but he is pretty much a professional packer so I am not worried. I look like a hoarder with all the food I have packed :) but I am not going to be sick this trip! God is so Good, we are so blessed I am so thankful that we have this opportunity and that He has worked out all of the kinks.
We are leaving College Station tomorrow (Sat.) afternoon, we have an overnight layover in DC which is nice since we will get to sleep in a hotel and not on the plane. Then we will leave early Sunday morning for Addis Abba, Ethiopia. This is a pretty big city, there are so many people everywhere; walking, driving, begging in the streets, it is overwhelming. There are not really any traffic laws or I couldn't tell if there were, everyone is driving however they want the intersections are CRAZY with everybody turning their own way its a little or a lot scary. The air is so polluted it is hard to breath, its dust and car exhaust. There is also no trash system so there are just piles of garbage on the sides of the road and sidewalk. The people are beautiful! They are all so friendly and helpful. The lifestyle there is so laid back its like stepping back in time from the hustle and bustle of America. At night it gets cold, I froze last time, we didn't have AC in our hotel so we slept with the small windows open, the first night only, big mistake! I think the hotel we are staying at this time is a lot nicer so I hope I wont freeze (Josh loved it). There are hyenas and/or wild dogs that bark all night long, it sounds like hundreds of them, I never saw them but they bark from dusk till dawn. The prayer is played over the loud speaker for the Muslims to pray so early in the morning, this was something I was not used to at all, again Josh didn't notice, I guess he had had a chance or 2 to hear it before. So pretty much the dogs keep you awake and the prayer wakes you up, ear plugs may be a great idea.
We had some issues getting in touch with our agency in Ethiopia on our last visit since the phone networks were down, which caused us to not be able to see Liam on our 1st day, we also didn't have a driver so we couldn't leave the hotel. I have sent out itinerary to them this time and made sure they know where we are staying and when we will be ready to be picked up so hopefully there will be no issues with this trip. Our hotel is supposed to have wifi this time woohoo so I hope to be able to update our blog while we are there but last time it took 3 days for the post to actually post so don't worry if you don't hear anything from us. We will be in back in the US on Sunday Oct. 7, we are supposed to arrive in Lexington at 3:45 if anyone wants to meet us at the airport that will be fine just keep in mind we are leaving Ethiopia at 10pm on Sunday and traveling for 26 hours since Ethiopia is 7 hours ahead, so we might look a little rough :) We will be back in College Station at 9pm Sunday Oct. 15th, again feel free to meet us at the airport if you want to we may look a little more refreshed on that trip.
Big thank you to our church for all of there prayers and support! Thank you for the ride to and from the airport and for watching Sam while we are gone! And to everyone else for your prayers and support! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel.

embassy appointment

Our embassy appointment is on Oct. 3rd, the day before my birthday! Happy Birthday! This is a 15 minute appointment that will just be to ask us a few questions to make sure everything that we have done has been legal. After the appointment we will go back the next day to pick up Liam's visa and his envelope with all of his immigration documents in it. We are going to leave on Saturday morning and be back in KY on Sunday.
We have no had a lot of time to plan anything for when we get to KY. Anyone who would like to meet Liam feel free to let us know when and we will try to see you, we will be staying with my parents in Lancaster from Sunday Oct. 7 - Monday Oct. 15. Saturday and Sunday may be crazy but we would really like to see everyone. I don't think we will be driving to Louisville since the long flight and culture change will be hard on Liam and us too so we will want to give everyone time to adjust a little.
We leave on Sat. and will be flying from DC to Ethiopia on a 13 hour flight woohoo! We have a couple of lay overs on the way home but nothing too bad. Be back in TX on Oct. 15th. We will try to see everyone here as soon as possible.
Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and too and from. And that everything will go okay with the Embassy.

God is Good

After months of waiting, we finally got the call yesterday morning that we have been cleared by the US Embassy and can go pick up our boy! We had to submit 3 dates that we would be willing to travel, each on appointment is on a Thursday. We are hoping to go the first week in October. They sent an email today to remind us that Josh's finger prints that are on file with immigration expire on Oct. 6.....so hopefully we will be going before then. We should find out tonight or tomorrow morning when our appointment will be. We are planning to leave on Saturday if all goes as planned.
It is hard to believe that it is finally happening. We have waited for so long and now the time is finally here but it seems more like a dream or that it is happening to other people and we are just watching. We have been packed for months now, I unpacked and repacked Liam's clothes with ones that will fit him last week. Now all we have to do is pack our bags and book the flight.
I am really nervous about traveling pregnant. I am very uncomfortable even sitting on the couch, I have been having a lot of back pain and round ligament pain. I dread the plane ride. But it will be totally worth it. I have a doctors appointment before we leave, so maybe he can suggest something for easier travel. I have to walk every 30 minutes to an hour while on the flight so I wont be getting much sleep, I am afraid I will fall asleep and miss my walk and end up with a blood clot....yes I know I worry too much. I was so so so sick the last time we were there I don't know if it was jet lag, the food, or maybe the shots I had 2 weeks before, but I am praying I will be able to eat this trip. We are planning to stay in a more Americanized hotel that is newer, the guest house we stayed at last time was ok, the people we super nice but we didn't have running water or electricity the last day we were there and it smelled super bad. Didn't really help my nausea and vomiting.

I had my 1 hour glucose test this morning. I managed to drink the awful drink and keep it down for 45 minutes but for the first time in my pregnancy I threw up blah! 15 minutes too soon now I have to go back tomorrow or one day this week to try again. I am so aggravated with myself. The tech told me to walk and drink water, I think that really made everything worse, I should have just gone to the car and laid down. But I got to bring the drink home with me so I can just drink it and drive up there after my hour is up. :(

anxiety

One more week until the birth mother interview! I am so anxious, I feel like time is standing still. I have been trying to stay busy but there is only so much you can do when you are not working.I really hope everything will go okay and we will hear good news by Tuesday. The rainy season should be coming to an end so there shouldn't be any issues with travel, the embassy verified they have an appointment so there should be no issues there, now just getting the orphanage to get the mother there....will there be an issue...nope, hope not anyway!
I am a little nervous about the fact that there have been so many riots in Africa so close to Ethiopia. We have a different circumstance than many adoptive families since Josh is technically property of the US Army he has to have permission to travel to different countries. I really hope things settle down because if it gets any worse I am afraid he will not be allowed to go....That would not be the end of the road though because they do offer an escort service to fly back to the US with our child but it would be really disappointing if neither of us could go. And of course I will not be going alone right now.
Praying that all the craziness will settle down and that we will get good news next week.

The baby is doing good, she is moving around like crazy! Those little nudges have turned into big kicks, she is finally letting Josh feel her kick. Such a show off already :) I am 23 weeks pregnant! Only 17 weeks to go WOW that went by fast!!! I am feeling pretty huge right about now, just going to get bigger. I feel great though other than the fact that have a really hard time getting comfortable to sleep so I am very tired most of the time. I am going to go preregister for labor and delivery sometime in the next couple of weeks and sign up for our classes. I love classes!!! Thank goodness for classes, otherwise I would have no idea what I am doing. Just kind of hits me every now and then that we are going to be bringing this tiny little person home with us, just us, scary! I always thought it was the labor I was afraid of but I realized it is what come afterwards since I have no idea what I am doing! Times two since we wont have Liam home for long before the baby gets here. I don't think I have spent more than 2 hours with a newborn baby ever and only about 30 minutes alone with one and that was in the hospital so it doesn't really count......so yeah I am pretty nervous.