We have SO much to share! To start with our DTE is 1/21/11 for those of you who don't know what a DTE is, it stands for Date To Ethiopia and refers to the date that our Dossier left the United States and traveled to Ethiopia! It was fun to get up every morning and fire up the laptop first thing to see where it was, we went from Virginia to New Jersey, then New Jersey to Kolen Germany, from Kolen to Frankfurt then off to Paris and then Dabai and finally to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It took from the 21st to the 27th to make the long journey and I have so much relief to know that it is now safe and sound to its destination!
The next step is to wait for an official court date, our agency is hopeful that we will be in Ethiopia meeting the kids by the second week of March but then again I know our agency has many, many families waiting for court dates and with one of the judges being out for maternity leave and rumors that the other asked for a break from adoption cases in February I have fear that March might just turn into April. I have 100% faith in God's perfect timing but this is where I also believe in the power of prayer so my PRAYER REQUEST is to please pray for the families waiting for court dates and the children they have waiting in Ethiopia, pray for the court system and the judges and that cases move along swiftly with no glitches or hold ups.
Now then we all know that I'm a planner so sitting around with no court date is killing me! I have gained weight, over analyzed our packing list and yes I have even
re-inventoried our already packed bags, made adjustments and repacked them! We are so lucky to have our friend Kelli making the trip with us and with each airline ticket purchased we get two 50lbs bags and a 15 lbs carry on! Having knowledge of a family who had ALL of their checked items lost and ended up in Ethiopia for a week with just their carry-on's, I have packed all of our MUST haves into our backpacks. How I managed to get a week worth of MUST haves into a backpack for each of us is a miracle in it's self for which I'm grateful! That leaves all of our would VERY much like to have items stuffed into a suitcase and 5 suit cases at 50lbs each full of donations for the orphanages and gifts from other families in our agency that we get to hand to their children! How exciting is that!! Now then I did not include Kelli's suitcase use into my equation so I'm sure that will give us even more donation room! God is so good!!
The next step is to wait for an official court date, our agency is hopeful that we will be in Ethiopia meeting the kids by the second week of March but then again I know our agency has many, many families waiting for court dates and with one of the judges being out for maternity leave and rumors that the other asked for a break from adoption cases in February I have fear that March might just turn into April. I have 100% faith in God's perfect timing but this is where I also believe in the power of prayer so my PRAYER REQUEST is to please pray for the families waiting for court dates and the children they have waiting in Ethiopia, pray for the court system and the judges and that cases move along swiftly with no glitches or hold ups.
Now then we all know that I'm a planner so sitting around with no court date is killing me! I have gained weight, over analyzed our packing list and yes I have even
re-inventoried our already packed bags, made adjustments and repacked them! We are so lucky to have our friend Kelli making the trip with us and with each airline ticket purchased we get two 50lbs bags and a 15 lbs carry on! Having knowledge of a family who had ALL of their checked items lost and ended up in Ethiopia for a week with just their carry-on's, I have packed all of our MUST haves into our backpacks. How I managed to get a week worth of MUST haves into a backpack for each of us is a miracle in it's self for which I'm grateful! That leaves all of our would VERY much like to have items stuffed into a suitcase and 5 suit cases at 50lbs each full of donations for the orphanages and gifts from other families in our agency that we get to hand to their children! How exciting is that!! Now then I did not include Kelli's suitcase use into my equation so I'm sure that will give us even more donation room! God is so good!!
This is Kelli and I!!
I'll let you in on a little secret, my husband is SCARED, SCARED, SCARED to death of needles! He hates shots and it's been mine and Maddie's secret all week that on Daddy's day off we were going to the Pullman Travel Clinic to receive all of our immunizations for the trip. Three hours, 8 shots and 9 prescriptions later we are ready for Africa!
Remember PRAYERS FOR COURT IN ETHIOPIA so we can put all of Craig's panic and pain to good use and get over there to meet our kids!!
Caylene!! Whoo hoo! DTE date...So excited for you guys! I finally started using the yahoo group, and it is so fun meeting more adoptive families from AWAA Ethiopia. Can't wait to hear more updates soon. How is the fundraising? PS, your new haircut is DARLING!! I have been growing mine out for a year and a half, and your cutness is making me want to cut it...stop it :)
ReplyDeleteCaylene,
ReplyDeletePrayers for you and your family. I hope your arms are not too sore ;)