Off to Ethiopia!!!

We leave tomorrow to start our trip to Ethiopia to bring Ava Meskerem and Eliza Tabita home. HOME!!!! HOME!!!! I can hardly believe it. I have been a mess the past week or so. It just seems like we have waited so long for this and now it is actually happening. Jennifer (the other half of Inge) and I were talking about dossier paperwork the other day...that seems like ages ago. Now in less than a week our girls will be here, in their home. Isn't that crazy? I can't imagine how strange all of this will be to them. We may even have snow when we get back. What will they think of that??? What will they think of their brothers and sister? What will they think about our dog, Truman? They are going to be in culture shock for some time, I'm sure.

Today I packed for our trip. I would pack a little, clean a little, cry a little. I pretty much spent the entire day doing those 3 things.
I am so ready to have my girls home. But with that comes a whole new batch of responsibilities. I am going to have to dig deep to use every ounce of patience I have with the girls. I have to show them everyday how special they are and how loved they are. But that also means, not neglecting my other 3 kids. It is going to be a balancing act. One huge responsibility is to stand up for my girls. For their culture, heritage and color. Yes, color. My girls will be the minority in our small little town. We still have some very racist people around and I am sure I will get looks and comments. I have to be prepared to stand up for them and be able to teach my girls to stand up for themselves and be proud of who they are. For the most part, everyone is very supportive of our decision to adopt two little girls from Africa. I have had a few questions to "why Ethiopia?" Jennifer and I keep saying we have to get a thick skin to handle all the comments and stares when we cruise through town with our babies. Isn't that sad? Knowing we have to prepare ourselves for something so awful? Hopefully, I will be pleasantly surprised. If you read Jennifer's blog, you will see that she has posted about several situations that have happened to us and one to her. You can find her blog in my blog list. Read it. Her last blog was about a "fad". Yes, many people say that adopting is the latest fad. Wow. How sad. The latest fad might be my Ugg boots or Jeggings. Something we will tire of quickly and move on to the next best thing. Ummm, a child is not a fad. That is something you invest in for the rest of your life. A child is not a $100 pair of boots. They are not something you think about for a moment and go ahead and get, knowing that 6 months down the road you will never wear again. No, a child is not a fad. It makes me sick to think people believe that. Those babies are mine. I love them as much as my children I gave birth to. They are no different. Hannah, Luke and Owen are not fads.....neither are Ava and Eliza. Blood pressure rising...need to move on........

I cannot wait to bring our girls home to our family and friends. Ava and Eliza have no idea how many people already love them.
Now if we can just get Jennifer's daughter home, this process will be complete. She has not received word of her embassy date yet...but she will. God's timing. God's plan.

Not sure if I ever posted the first referral pictures we received of our girls. My heart skipped a beat when I opened those emails. I knew right then they were ours. I've heard other adoptive parents say that....that they knew the child was meant to be theirs the minute they laid eyes on them...I never imagined that would really be true. It was. It is. Just look at them.......




I can't wait to for you all to meet them. They are so sweet and so beautiful.

Please pray for us this week. Pray for safe travels for Darren, Hannah and I. Pray for our boys, Luke and Owen, to be well taken care of while we are gone and that they know how much we love them even though we are half a world away.
Pray for Ava and Eliza. That they are happy to see us and to start their new lives with us.
To all my family and friends....thank you for your support and love through out this process. We are so lucky to have such loving people in our lives. I am so excited that now Ava and Eliza will get to feel your love and support also!!

Off to bed for my last good nights sleep for some time. Next week, barking dogs and birds that sound like monkeys......then onto nighttime feedings and diaper changes. I'm bringing my babies home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Making plans to bring our girls home!!!!!

Yes, it is actually happening. We got an email on Friday saying we were clear to travel and bring our girls home. There was also an email to call our director, Sue, immediately...uh oh. But it was good, she wanted to see if we would be able to travel THIS weekend. Holy Cow!!! I actually thought about it, but the stress over planning places for the kids to stay, airplane tickets, rooms, and packing in a day and a half overwhelmed me just a tiny bit. So I had to say no, it nearly killed me to think they could be home in a week and I was opting for the later date. But it was the right thing to do. That also means we get to travel with our buddies Meggan, Ryan and Doug. Ryan and Doug were 2 daddy's that were there for court when we were. Neither of their wives were able to travel that trip. This time Ryan's wife, Meggan, is able to come and we will have so much fun. Doug's wife will need to stay home with their little one's, but it will be good to hang out with him again. Ryan and Meggan have a 2 year old son, Rylee, who was also adopted from Ethiopia. We were able to spend some time with their family at the CCI reunion in Chicago this past summer. Rylee is so stinkin' cute. Such a ham. They are from Michigan...we can't hold that against them....just teasing !!!! Actually, we used to live in Michigan and loved it, but that old Illini Michigan football rivalry still stands true. Check out their story at Meggs blog, ryanmeggsjourney.blogspot.com They are adopting the super sweet Baby Ezra that we have pictures of me holding while we were in ET.

So, now that this adoption is actually going to happen I am a ton of mixed emotions. So stressed to get everything ready. I know the girls will care less, but that's just my personality. I am worried.....worried about the transition for the girls. This is literally going to be a whole new world for them. Talk about culture shock. Worried about my bio kids. Hope they understand how this will impact our family. We have talked and talked about it. They are all three thrilled to get the girls home, don't get me wrong. But it will shake things up a bit around here. For one, the boys are not used to having babies around and they are going to have to learn to pick up there lego pieces.....or Eliza will be eating them all day. :) And all three kids are going to have to realize that is it know longer going to be as easy to jump in the car and take off. We have to work around naps and schedules. But soon Hannah will be able to drive and that will help a bunch....although, that brings on a whole new set of emotions and worries.

I just can't wait to get them home. I am actually looking forward to a few things I haven't done in ages......bathing a slippery giggly baby, changing diapers, yes-I said it, and most importantly....loving on them. I love on my kids now, but not the same way you love on a little one.

Ava and I doing a princess puzzle


Ava loving her bath..blurred out all the girly parts :)



Getting Eliza ready for bed...notice the drool mark are my shoulder...yes, I am even looking forward to that!!!!


Lovin' on Liza






We are looking into flights that leave the weekend after Thanksgiving. Our embassy appointment is on December 2nd. That is all going to be here before we know it. I have great plans to get a lot of things done before we travel. I would love to get most of the Christmas lights put up outside. I got about half done yesterday and was planning on doing the rest today...but of course, it's cold and rainy. I would also like to get all the Christmas shopping done so I don't have that to worry about later.

When we get back home, the holiday season will be in full force. I know we will have lots of parties and family get togethers to attend. But we have talked and I think we are going to have to keep our holiday festivities to a minimum this year. The girls will be home for only a week or so before all of the Christmas hoopla hits. They will be overwhelmed and scared. We will have to take this first month or so to bond with our girls. Get them used to us taking care of them and let them learn that we are their forever family now. So unfortunately, that will mean limiting our outings with the girls. We will go to the family parties but depending on how the girls handle it, we will have to see how long we can stay. So please, family and friends, understand that we are not being rude or ungrateful. We just need to protect our girls and forge a bond with them that will let them grow up to have healthy relationships with all of you. Hope you understand. Also...and this will be the hardest part. When we are at social gatherings we have to really stop ourselves from letting friends and family hold and love on the girls. I know, you are all going to want to love on them, and that is fine. We have just read so many books that stress that "we" their parents take care of ALL their basic needs at first. So sorry to say, we are the ones who need to feed them, change diapers...darn, and meet all their needs. They are so used to having a handful of nannies take care of them, that they haven't learned how to rely on any one special person. And that would be us :) So for awhile we are going to be over protective and basically a little selfish with Ava and Eliza. I know you all will understand, even though it will be hard on all of us.

I do want to take just a second to thank and thank again, all those who have helped us out one way or another during this year plus process. The support, emotional and financial, that we have received has been such a blessing to us. We know everyone has financial responsibilities of their own, but somehow, many of you found a way to help us bring our girls home. Thank you.
And the prayers and well wishes we have received have been overwhelming. Again, such a blessing. We already know how much
you all are going to love our girls. We are so blessed to have all of you in our lives. And soon, in the lives of our daughters.

Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.


Ephesians 1:16
I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

We are now a family of SEVEN!!!!!

We have been home from Ethiopia for 4 days now and I think I may be able to write a complete sentence. Maybe not.....
We of course, went to Ethiopia for our court date and to meet our girls. We had a layover in Cairo, Egypt and Darren and I took the whirlwind tour of the city. It was amazing to say the least. Huge, crazy and amazing. Can't say alot for the Cairo airport..... :)
We will probably not go that route on our next trip but I am so glad we were able to do that this time. How many people can say they have seen the Pyramids of Giza up close and personal???


We arrived in Addis Ababa at 3am. Waited for our driver, then headed to the guest house where we were staying. Slept a little, then got up and went shopping. :) We "needed" to shop before we had the girls, so we did that right away. We hung out with our friend Ryan from Michigan, who we had previously met at the CCI reunion in Chicago. It was nice to see a familiar face. His "daughter to be" was with him and she is a cutie pie. I got to love on her while we waited to met our girls. Ryan passed court on Tuesday and was headed back home soon after. There was another "Daddy" there, Vance, from another agency that was going to Embassy. We also got to hang out with his family. We also spent alot of time with Yonatan, he is the manager of the guest house. So sweet and such a nice guy.
PICTURED ARE: YONATAN, EZRA AND RYAN





Tuesday we took a day trip to the Blue Nile Gorge....or should I say "tried" to take a day trip. We took off, got almost there and had to turn around. After 3 hours of horrible road conditions and smelling deisel from the trucks....the road just ended. Yep, just stopped. Actually, it looked like they were building a new road and destroyed the old one before the other was actually finished. So we didn't make it to the Gorge but we got to see beautiful scenery and people the entire way.

We did instead go to the first church ever built in Addis. It was beautiful.



Wednesday....we went to meet our girls for the first time. I was a nervous wreck. They were amazing. The nannies were so sweet and helped with the language barrier as much as possible. Ava Meskerem went to Darren first. I tried to take pictures but my hands were shaking so bad!!! She was so tiny and beautiful. Most kids are cute...she was just stunning. Ava was very shy at first but Darren got her to smile within minutes. I cried. In all of the pictures and video of her that we have received, she was not smiling in any of them. She has a beautiful smile.....and great teeth!!! No braces for her :) She came to me and I cried some more. She was probably thinking..."who is this crazy white lady"?



Then we went upstair to meet Eliza Tabita. She was smiling and babbling the minute we got her. Cute as can be and yes, those eyelashes are as long as they looked in the pictures we got of her!!I cannot even explain or express all of the emotions I was going through when I met the girls...there just is no way to put that into words. It was amazing, Praise God.



The next few days we spent getting to know the girls. We hung out at the guest house and played. We gave the girls a bath which they loved. We colored, we did puzzles, we played outside, we played blocks, we read books. It was so wonderful to just be with them. Ava started off very shy but warmed up quickly. Liza...is not shy. She is a ball of fire from the get go. She is going to keep me busy :) Ava loved to look at books and do puzzles. We really thought we would have a hard time because of the different languages, but some how we got it to work. The sound of Ava giggling brought me to tears. Yes, pretty much anything at this point would bring me to tears. Liza is beginning to walk and really started to take off pretty good towards the end of the week. She would run to me and dive into my arms. So sweet.
We have zillions of pictures, but here are a few of my favorite.







Friday we went to court. YES, we passed. Ava and Eliza are offically Bodines. I was much more nervous than I thought I would be. It took all of 5 minutes, we were asked a few questions and sent on our way. We were lucky enough to be able to meet with the surviving birth parent for each girl. I won't go into details, I will keep that for the girls to one day share if they wish. But I was humbled and overcome with joy, sadness and my heart broke into a million different pieces. What a gift these parents have given us. The love in their eyes for their girls will be forever in my mind. What a selfless thing they have done for their daughters.
Later that day, we unfortunatly, had to take the girls back to the Transition Home. I knew that was going to be hard, but man, it was alot harder than I thought. Eliza fell asleep on the ride over, so our goodbyes were kisses and whispers. Our goodbye to Ava was much harder. Not sure if she understood exactly what was going on or not. She does not speak Ahmaric so the nannies aren't sure if she understood what they were telling her. But luckily, a little boy at the transition home speaks her language and he came over and talked to her and explained that we were her new mommy and daddy and that we would be back soon to take her home. I so hope she understood what was going on. We gave her tons of hugs and kisses and then we had to leave. I was so sad. I know that they girls are well taken care of, the nannies love them like crazy. But it was all about me :) I want them home, I want to love on them, I want to give them baths, feed them, play with them.

So once again, I cried.


















Now we wait again. We wait for paperwork to get finished up and go to the Embassy. We are praying for the December 2nd Embassy date. At that time, we will travel back to Ethiopia to pick up our daughters. Please keep us in your prayers that all the paperwork is finished on time and we can travel soon.
More updates to come.......

It's actually going to happen....

Well, it's actually happening. In 12 hours I will be pulling out of my driveway, heading to Chicago to get on a plane. That plane is taking us first to Cairo, Egypt. We have a layover and we are lucky enough to be able to take a tour of the city. I am so excited about this. I never in a million years thought I would actually see the pyramids of Egypt. Wow. Then we take a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My stomach is turning just thinking about it. I am nervous, excited, scared and giddy...along with a ton of other emotions. I am going to be able to meet my two new daughters...but that means leaving my three kids home. I'm positive they will be fine. They are looking forward to having Grandma Judy and cousin Zac stay with them. They even get to have their cousin Cole come hang with them after the U of I game. Owen is super excited because he knows Cole will play X box with him :)

I honestly don't know how to express to you all what I am feeling. I feel like I have been waiting so long for this and now it's happening. I feel so blessed that I can travel to a beautiful country and meet our daughters. It's so unreal.
I thank you all for your prayers and well wishes for travel. I ask that you all say a little prayer for us on Friday. We will be going to court and hopefully the judge will let us adopt the girls.

The internet is pretty iffy in most places in Addis, but we hope to be able to give a few updates through Facebook.
If-WHEN-we pass court on Friday, I will post pictures of our beautiful new daughters.
Time to finish packing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Five days until we leave for Ethiopia. I can hardly believe it. I am frantically trying to get things ready to go. We are taking a bunch of donations to the orphanage. I am so excited for this trip but I am also scared to death.

It's so weird to think that I have one daughter going to Homecoming and another one in diapers......and one more following me around everywhere I go.......

Here is Hannah and her date Brendan, getting ready to go to the Homecoming Dance. And in the other picture, Hannah and all her beautiful friends.

Update time. Yes, it's now 12 days until we fly out. It is hard to believe. I am beginning to get a bit freaked out. I'm not really worried about the traveling. Yes, the flight will be long but I hope to sleep through most of it. I am worried about leaving my kids, although I know they will be perfectly fine with Grandma and my nephew Zac. The kids are so excited to have them come stay. I am a planner and a detail gal. And I have no plan or details. We are totally winging it once we hit the ET airport. That's not me....I don't usually wing major things like this. I'm sweating just thinking about it now.

What I am really worried about is meeting my girls. I am aching inside to see them and to hold them. I cannot believe the love I feel for these two little girls that I have never met. It's so strange. I have a million questions going through my mind at all times. Will they like us? Will they even care that we are there? Will they understand the we are coming back to get them in a couple months? Will they be scared of me? Will they cry for their nannies? Will I know what to do to comfort them? How are we going to communicate-they don't know English? Will the clothes I bought them fit? Will they like the toys I bought them? Seriously, the list goes on and on. No wonder I am not getting anything done around here lately. I can't keep a straight thought. I keep thinking...I can't wait to kiss on Liza's cheeks and I can't wait to finally (hopefully) see Ava smile. And now I only have 12 days until we fly out...so 14 days until I see my girls. Prayers for me that I can hold it together until then!!!

15 Days until we leave to meet our beautiful little girls.