Oh, plans changed quite a bit!

We decided, probably immediately after that last post, that I would travel with my mom at this time to get Adam Samuel and hopefully Todd can travel with the entourage in January to get big sister.

It was pretty stressful trying to figure out how to juggle grandmothers helping with traveling at the same time - kids to school, etc. Also wasn't too excited about both of us being away from the two little ones for a long period of time. Don't think we've both been away from them for more than two nights. Elise was pretty distraught about us going. She's still not happy about it, but I tried to assure her, while it is a long time that I will be home and before Christmas!

So, I leave Sunday, the 29th, travel to Dallas, then London, then a short stop in Jordan and to Addis, arriving like 2 am on Tuesday (they are 8-10 hours ahead of U.S. time). Our embassy date will be the following day. Hopefully if all the paperwork is finished, I, my mom and Adam Samuel will travel back December 15th, arriving around 11pm on December 16th in Tulsa.

While there -
We just realized last week that an Ethiopian mandate is in effect which doesn't allow us to take our newly adopted kids out in public. How did I miss this? But we will be able to, hopefully, take a trip to big sister's town and visit her family (an aunt and half-sister) that we know about. We will also visit the town where Adam was found (assuming his home area, although he was found abandoned). These cities are pretty close to the capital city of Addis Ababa, but did require malaria treatment and a yellow fever inoculation. Addis is at a high altitude and doesn't have a lot of mosquito problems, while these towns are more low-lying. The towns we will visit are Debra Zeit and Nazareth (Adama).

So, we will have a lot of time bonding at the guest house. Hopefully big sister will be allowed to join us there. She has her court date December 11th - so we will hear the good news about her passing a bit quicker since we'll be in Ethiopia at that time. :)

All of my siblings are coming into town for Thanksgiving (with the other 15 grandchildren) - so I probably won't post again until I'm in Ethiopia, provided I can find that internet cafe!

Happy Thanksgiving!