Here we goooooooo!!!!!!!!
This week as been, hands down, the most eventful and chaotic week ever!!! Tuesday at about 11AM, I received a call from director of the Ethiopia program. We knew that another family who had a guardianship court date around the same time as us had received their adoptive parents court date for July 2. We also knew that they told us they would not call, but rather post our court date in our portal. So.....the fact that she was calling made me wonder.....is this it???? YES!!!! July 2!!!! In 7 days, we were expected to be in court to receive the most beautiful words ever - she is yours. 7 days......7 days?!?!?! Can we do this??? I called Kevin and he immediately got in touch with the travel agent. We were told we needed to be in Ethiopia no later than Sunday. We had already made plans with Kevin's mom to watch Nicolas while we were gone, so that was already set, right?? This weekend is the ONE weekend ALL SUMMER that she was going to be out of town. Enter my parents, who thankfully didn't have anything going on (at least that they told me about :P) and could drop everything and spend the weekend at our house.
THANK YOU Grandma and Grandpa G and Grandma P for watching Nicolas while we are gone!!!!! We love you!!!!
Okay, so that's out of the way. Now, we need to pack and get Nicolas ready. Not going to lie, I have had the feeling in my stomach like I am about to give a speech to 10,00 in my underwear for three days now! I never expected that after all this time we would have 3 days to leave.......AGH!!!
Fast forward to this morning.......things have gone very smoothly! We had breakfast with Nicolas and then dropped him off at daycare. Said goodbye with big hugs in the parking lot (so that we didn't embarrass him in front of his friends :P) and left him happily inside with his friends. Thank you God for giving him peace!!! We headed back home to finish packing and clean up the house and then my dear friend Kara dropped us off at the airport. Bonus! I got to hang out with baby Claire (who was supposed to be napping) on the way here. YAY!
We are now sitting at the gate in Grand Rapids waiting to board our plane to Chicago. From there we will head to Frankfurt, then on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!! We will arrive in Ethiopia tomorrow at 1:45PM EST. With a 7-hour time difference, it will be 8:45PM in Addis. We get to meet M on Monday and will go to court on Tuesday. In the rest of our time, we plan to attend a training on Ethiopian culture, history, cooking and more put on by Bethany, go shopping in the marketplace, hopefully go to church, visit yeselalem minch (a feeding ministry run by the woman who owns the guest house we will be staying at) and see what else comes up. We are SO EXCITED to finally meet our precious girl!!!
It does not feel real. On one hand, after all this time, we are FINALLY taking this trip. One that we have been playing over and over in our minds for 3 years. ON the other hand, it seems crazy that we are flying to Africa for the second time in 6 months! That only 6 months ago we brought Nicolas home. Before that we were Longstreet - family of 2. It's amazing how God has moved in our lives over the last 3-4 years. We cannot wait to see what He will show us in the next 3-4 years.
The internet connection in Ethiopia is sporadic, so we may or may not be able to provide updates while in country. Not to fear, I will post everything when we have a connection. No pictures until next trip, but details to come!!!
If you are willing, here are our prayer requests:
For Nicolas, please pray that he will be strong, have lots of fun with Grandparents, and that God will protect his heart
For M, please pray that God will continue to keep here healthy and strong (she gained 4 lbs in the last 4 weeks!!!! PTL!) and that He will prepare her heart for the changes she will experience in the coming months.
For us, please pray for health and strength, that we will not get sick while we are there, and that we will have the strength to leave our precious girl for 6-8 weeks.
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