Sebat

This means 7 in Amharic--the most widely recognized language in Ethiopia. Yep, we leave in 7 days, one short little week. One week from now, I'll be kissing my two boys goodbye and setting off on one of the greatest adventures of my life with the man I love. We will be flying for the better part of 23 hours and will arrive in Ethiopia very late on Saturday. Sunday, I don't know what the plans are, but we will soak up as much of the culture as possible. Monday, we will be meeting our baby girl for the first time and just loving on her as much as possible in the short amount of time that we'll be with her. Tuesday morning, we head to court to stand before a judge and declare ourselves. Hopefully, we will hear, right then and there, that we are her parents and that she is our daughter. Then, we get a quick goodbye with our baby girl. Tuesday night (late) we head home to arrive mid-day on Wednesday. We will be exhausted and emotionally spent, but it will be good to see the boys again. Then, our final wait begins...it could be anywhere from 6-12 weeks before we head back to pick up our little girl. If you're the praying type, prayers for a safe journey would be appreciated and while you're at it, I don't think it would hurt to start praying now that we get to go back as quickly as humanly possible. We're really hoping for a December 14 embassy date. It's a lofty goal, but maybe...

Oh, and I ordered TOMS for my whole family today (courtesy of my mom--thanks!) and had pretty much all of my hair chopped off last night by my little sister. I just don't want to deal with it at all in Ethiopia. I haven't had it this short for at least 12 years. It's definitely different and very easy to do. I'm not quite used to it yet, but I'll get there.