Finally!

Complete joy today at getting our boys!

It was so surreal though. We've been watching YouTube videos and other folks' blog, so we had a bit of a pre-conceived idea as to how it would go. You know, the little walk to the foster home, a nice little piece of video, you know, a T.V. show thing.

Well it didn't happen like that. We thought we were going to the office first to do some paperwork before getting the boys. Here we are sitting in an office and I say, "Matt, I think the boys are here. Get the camera ready." Sure enough, about 0.5 seconds later, Abe bounds down the stairs and one of the ladies enters with Ash on her hip. We weren't even ready emotionally for the meeting. No time to cry. Here they are!

This is our first photo with the boys. Enjoy!

Forget the Theme?

In case you weren't paying attention, the main theme of this blog has been patience. We thought we were getting the boys the first day we arrived in Ethiopia. Just about 5 minutes into our shuttle ride, we figured out that we'd have to wait another day. At this point in the journey we were totally prepared to wait; after all, what's one more day when you've waited this long?

The trip to Ethiopia Guest House was interesting enough. We were wiped from the trip and in hindsight, needed a day to adjust without kids.

1st International Blog - Final Flight Leg - Seeing the Boys Today!

When you use Google in the middle east, how do you explain the interesting font that is on their page here?

After an intereting start to our trip (the PDX/United ticket agent couldn't figure out why Tonja's ticket wouldn't work) we got flyin'. We actually didn't have to wait at the gate because the ticket SNAFU took the whole time. Glad we got there a little early.

San Fran was a 4 hr. layover so we walked around, had BK for lunch and then read/played on the laptop.

A 15 hr. flight is a LONG flight. The cool thing was that Emirates Air has individual monitors behind everyseat so you can watch a bazzillion movies and tv shows for free. A Boeing 777-300 is the biggest plane we've ever been on.

We did fly over the North Pole and down over Moscow on our way. There was some debate about how we would fly exactly. (Their website didn't show the route accurately.)

Thank the Lord for Radio Shack having the correct voltage/outlet adaptor for Dubai. Now we pray it works in Addis and that we can get on the internet there as well.

Running out of time on the $50 internet time card.... (only $15 U.S.D. according to the front desk. We'll see. It was totally cheaper than talking on the phone for $4.00 per minute with Jeanette!)

Off to Ethiopia TODAY! We're ours from seeing the boys!

Christmas Eve

Well, here we are at the Oxford Suites, Jantzen Beach. Heidi sent some Christmas goodies that we're enjoying.

We had dinner at the Olive Garden in Gresham and Matt & Greg just had to take part in the "evening reception" at the hotel. (For all of you Oxford buffs out there, you know what that means.)

Tomorrow will be an exciting travel day!

The Boys are Packed

Celebrating Christmas Eve on December 23rd is really cool! It's great to have a reason to celebrate early. The boys are packed and we'll finish packing for ourselves tomorrow. While Tonja packed for the boys, Greg spent the day cleaning the garage (a chore that had been waiting since the summer.) Matt, Heidi, and the girls are coming over tonight after Paige has a soccer game to open presents.

Yesterday, after stressing out over some paperwork & travel details, a church friend came by with a very generous $$$ gift. Five different families went together to give money to "somebody that needed it" rather than giving big Christmas gifts to each other. We were humbled to say the least.

We are hoping to be able to update the blog while we're in Addis. We purchased a "converter" at Radio Shack yesterday so that we could use the laptop. We'll see.

Only 4 days until we see the boys!

A Realization

After saying for months, "If we can go in December, it will be great if we can go during Christmas Break" I had a realization today in the Costco parking lot. There were not 10 business days to choose from during the two week break. Christian World Adoption only gets appointments every-other Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa. The realization was that we got the only day possible during Christmas Break. So when we prayed for God to give us a date, there was only one day we could get. Thank you Lord for giving us December 29th as our Embassy date!

Christmas Joy

We actually had Christmas today, December 16th, 2009! Abe's x-ray came back negative, meaning he does not have full blown TB and he is cleared for travel. That means WE are cleared for travel and will start our journey on Christmas Eve. We will be home with the boys January 2nd. The girls will get to come to Portland for the boys' arrival on Jan. 1 and we're going to stay at the Oxford Suites that night for a family party with the Leerssens.

This was such a stretch for us in our faith walk. We had prayed for a Christmas break travel date and the Lord blessed us with one. The problem was that the date they gave us was tentative based on TB tests for the boys. It was a conundrum of cost. If we waited until today, the ticket prices could have been as high as $6,000 a piece (adult price) and planes were filling up because of holiday travel. If the boys tested positive for TB we could have been delayed into January for an embassy/travel date. So we faced a dilemma. Do you purchase tickets on faith? According to Wikipedia, approximately 80% of the population of some African countries test positive for TB. (I'm glad I didn't know that until writing this.) If we had to change the tickets after purchase, there would be a potential of a $2000 "change of ticket fee" for the five tickets. We opted for just buying the tickets and trusting God that we would actually be able to go during Christmas break; worst case scenario being the change of ticket fee.

Praise God for this Christmas gift of a Christmas break travel schedule and getting the boys as soon as we possibly could!