Leaving Macy

This morning was our last chance to visit Macy Bereket before coming back to the capital of Ethiopia. It was VERY hard to leave her. She clung to me the whole morning, which broke my heart. She is fighting a bad cold right now, which makes me nervous to leave her. I talked with the dr. on the phone, and hopefully they will be giving her medicine now. For three days we have tried to make her smile. She wouldn't budge. She would either scowl or frown, no smile. Then as we were leaving the orphanage compound, I was waving to her from window and she smiled the biggest, cheesiest smile you have ever seen. Of course, I bawled my eyes out. I am so ready to scoop her up and bring her home.
Tomorrow morning is court. PLEASE pray that everything goes smoothly. Immediately after court we will be able to meet with her birthmom. I am anxious about this, as it will be hard for both mommas, I am sure.
The people of Ethiopia are beautiful, as is the land. But the poverty here is like nothing you have ever seen. Think of the poorest conditions you can imagine, then multiply it by 100. It's heartbreaking. There are 51 BEAUTIFUL children at Macy's orphanage. I mean GORGEOUS. And sooooo many of them don't have families yet. The worst is that the director pointed to an precious older girl (maybe around 8) and said, "She will live here until she is 18 years old. Nobody wants her because she is too old." That killed me.
Jason and I are determined to get home and share our story with anyone who will listen. We are SOOOOO blessed that God has choosen us to come on this journey.
Court tomorrow, then meeting with birthmom, then board a plane late tomorrow night to come home. Love you guys!!!

Meeting Macy

Life here is great, except for the fact that this computer is about to go dead. So I will type fast. We have visited Macy twice now. She is so precious. I can't even believe that God has chosen US to be her parents. She is tiny, and won't speak to us, but she loves being held and rocked and spoon fed (all of which we are loving to do!). I have taken about a bazillion photos that I can't wait to share when we get back. Please continue to pray for us. Tomorrow will be our last visit with her, and we are really dreading it. She has a runny nose and a cough, which of course bothers me that I won't be here to tend to her, and have to hope that SOMEONE does.

I will try to post again when we get back to Addis tomorrow.

Greetings from Ethiopia!

We made it!!!! After 27+ hours of travel, we finally arrived in Ethiopia late last night. Our luggage and donations made it as well - so we are thrilled. The weather here is GORGEOUS! The kind of cool, brisk but sunny weather we WISH we had in TN right now. I am writing this from the internet cafe around the corner from our guesthouse. I think it has the slowest connection known to man. (Jason says they must have a hamster running on a wheel to power the place.) Nonetheless, it allows me to stay in touch with everyone back home, so I am happy.
This morning we woke up to barking dogs and the VERY loud Muslim call to prayer. But it made us laugh, so we are up and energized. We are going to try to find a shop open (it's Sunday here) to find a comb and brush, as I left BOTH on my sink at home. (And please imagine trying to comb and style my mane of hair with my fingers. Not the best.) Then this afternoon we are going to go to a festival here in town celebrating Meskal. This is a week long holiday celebrating the Finding of the Cross, and today is the "kick off" of the celebration. So that should be interesting. And tomorrow we head south to the town of Hawassa to meet Macy. WAHOOO!!! Our driver last night said that is "very, very far" when I asked him about Hawassa. So that should be lovely. OH - quick funny story. So we brought 2 bags of clothing for us, and 3 of the suitcases of donations. (The other 2 bags we will bring on the next trip.) I informed our caseworker that we would need a van to transport all this from the airport. Well, apparently the message never made it to Ethiopia, because our driver showed up in a tiny hatchback car. Not cool. But somehow the driver, and two random guys that showed up out of nowhere to "help" (unsolicited help="pay me") got every bag into the car. Granted Jason was crammed in the backseat with bags on top of him, but we made it to the guesthouse just fine.
Okay, gotta run. Just found out that internet costs more than call home. Interesting.

OFF WE GO!!!!

Today is the day!!! At 9am we are headed for the Nashville airport. From there we will fly to Detroit, have a 3 hr layover, then fly to Amsterdam, have a 3 hr layover, then fly to ETHIOPIA! We land in Addis, the capital of Ethiopia, late on Saturday night. It's going to be a looooooong trip there, but we are SO ready. And speaking of being prepared, take a look at all the medications we are taking with us.

Now, isn't that just ridiculous? But if you know Jason and I, we are BOTH germ-a-phobes. So if there is ANY medication we can take to avoid getting sick, we are going to take it! (And after having a baaaaad case of food poisoning last week, I am determined NOT to get sick!) But seriously, we ask that you pray for our health while we are gone. After we arrive in Addis we still have an 8 hr van ride to Macy's orphanage. And that wouldn't be enjoyable AT ALL if we were ill. Plus, we want to be able to concentrate completely on our sweet little girl, with no distractions.

Now - check out this line of luggage!

No - we aren't super-diva-travelers. Actually, only two of those bags contain our clothes, supplies, and gifts for Macy. The others all contain AWESOME donations that many of you have donated for her orphanage! We are taking medical supplies, formula, clothes, shoes, school supplies - ALL KINDS OF STUFF! Thanks to YOU! And we are able to pay the ridiculous fee of $200 per extra bag (erghhh...Delta Airlines) THANKS TO YOUR FINANCIAL DONATIONS!
Wowzers! We DO hope that the scale at the airport is forgiving, because we have weighed and weighed these bags on two different scales, and still aren't really sure how many of them are under the 50lb weight requirement. Keeping our fingers crossed on that one!

Many of you have asked if I will be able to update the blog while we are gone. The answer is YES - I am gonna try my darndest to get online from an internet cafe in Addis. I am not sure how often I will be able to do it, but stay tuned to this blog to see how our meeting with Macy, visit with birthmom, and court go.

For those of you wanting to pray for specifics, here's our itinerary"

Friday: Fly away!

Saturday: Fly some more! Arrive in Addis LATE.

Sunday: Our "free" day to roam aimlessly around Addis. And hopefully do some shoppin'.

Monday: Travel to the town of Awassa, where Macy's orphanage is. This is a 8 hr drive.

Tuesday: MEET MACY!!!! Spend lots of time with our sweet girl.

Wednesday: Visit Macy again. Leave her (BOOO!) and travel back to Addis.

Thursday: Court hearing. We will be in court with her birthmom (!!!). After court, if she is willing, we go across the street to a coffee shop to spend time with her. (And I ask her a bazillion questions about Macy.) Late Thursday night we board a plane and leave Ethiopia.

Friday: Arrive home around 1pm.

Many of you have also asked what we need prayer for:

1. Our health and safety.

2. For our travels to go smoothly, with no delays.

3. For us to pass court.

4. For Macy to be comfortable around us.

(I am going to try to not be a crying blubbering mess, so I don't scare her. We will see how I do with that.)

5. For a sense of peace and understanding between Macy's birthmom and me.

6. For my Mom and sister, Sandi, who will be caring for these 3 little monsters, um, I mean, blessings.....

7. And for those three, precious blessings to be safe, happy, and healthy while their Maaaammmmaa and Daddy are on the other side of the world meeting their sister.

THANK YOU so much to each and every one of you who have been with us on this journey! Jason and I value all of your friendships, and can feel the prayers going with us to meet our baby girl! Next time I post, it will be from Ethiopia!

Now off to bed....as if I could sleep.

Amanda

One Week

We will board a plane in one week to fly to Ethiopia. One week. Seriously. I prayed for this month to fly by, and BOY did it ever! And now with one week to go, I have a variety of crazy emotions.

I am SO excited! Just the THOUGHT of me seeing and holding Macy gets me choked up. This is my DAUGHTER. In the many years ahead of us I will watch her grow, learn, go to school, go to prom, get married - the list goes on and on. We have many years of Mommy/Daughter stuff ahead of us. But before any of this happens I am going to meet her in an orphanage on the other side of the world. It's really hard to fathom.

The other major emotion I am feeling is fear. And anxiety. And stress. Okay, so I know that is technically three emotions. But right now I can't really distinguish one from another. I am a basketcase thinking of leaving Aidan, Hannah, and Houston. The "what-ifs" come creeping in on me, and I panic. WHAT IF the plane crashes? WHAT IF something happens to one of them and I am not here? WHAT IF? And yes, they are going to be in PERFECTLY good hands. My mom is the brave soul keeping them, and other than Jason and I, there is no one on Earth who knows them as well as she does. She visits nearly everyday, and knows all of their funny little quirks. And she's sooooo overprotective - so I am not at all worried about their safety. Seriously - she's that kind of grandma that would totally beat the crap out of anyone who looked at her grandbabies wrong. It's US I am worried about. It's flying across the ocean to a region of the world that isn't exactly super-safe right now. (And it doesn't help that my crazy husband keeps talking about terrorist attempts.) Yes, I know my kids are going to be fine. Yes, I know God is in control of it all anyway. I just need some prayer to rest MY soul. I want to be cool, calm, and collected (yeah, right!) when I meet our Macy for the first time.

But what it boils down to is that it doesn't matter how nervous, stressed and anxious I am - in seven days I am going to get on that plane (and then another plane...and then another plane) to fly across the ocean to meet our girl. It just has to be done - it's part of the process. I am counting on God to ease my spirit and calm my fears - because there's no way I can do this without Him.

But isn't that how it's SUPPOSED to be?

One week folks. One week!

Pampered Chef Gift Certificate up for grabs!!!

After launching last week's "Sorta-Silent Auction", I had another precious friend offer a $50 Pampered Chef Gift Certificate. Whoo hoo! Check out their website at www.PamperedChef.com They have some GREAT stuff, ladies. (Or you MEN who want to pleeeeease your ladies!)So my friend Barbara, who is a Pampered Chef consultant, said she would offer a $50 gift certificate for ANYTHING in their catalog. (So it's not like you have to choose from product that she's already picked out or anything.) And if you aren't in the Hendersonville/Nashville area - that's OKAY! She will mail you a catalog, you pick out what you want, and she'll have it shipped right to your door. Now seriously, does it get any easier than that? The starting bid is $25. You can either leave a bid here on my blog as a comment, or email me at Amanda_Humphrey@comcast.net , and I can add the comment/bid for you.

I will close the "bidding" next Tuesday evening. All money goes to our travel expenses to Ethiopia! So let the bidding begin! And a HUGE thanks to Barbara for helping us bring our sweet girl HOME FOREVER!

Winners and OUCHHHHHH!

Well I had three people bid on the three items in our super-silent auction, and each person "won" their auction! Thanks to the people and businesses that donated and especially to the people who bid! I've had someone else donate a Pampered Chef gift certificate. So you ladies be lookin' for that email sometime next week!

Now, to the OUCHHHHH part! So who would've every thunk (makin' my english teacher proud) that SHOTS would cost AND hurt so much!!! Honestly, I think the COST hurt me more than the actual needles did! Just for MY vaccines - NOT including anything for Jason or the ump-teen prescriptions/medicines we have to take with us - just MY shots cost us $1,015!!!! SERIOUSLY! Can you stinkin' believe that? And that was with us getting them at the cheapest places possible, including the local health department. (I had to go THREE different places to get all of them.) I am floored - I had no idea shots were so expensive. The goods news is that I'll be immune from everything for the rest of my natural life. The bad news is that it COST OVER A THOUSAND DOLLARS! Sigh...

Oh, and yes the shots hurt. And I mean REALLY hurt. So for those of you adoptive parents out there - just get ready. My best friend told me to think of it as my "epidural". I love that idea. Except for when I got my epidurals I was getting RID of pain, not enduring more. But every single stick got me closer to our girl...so I took it.

Please note that I opted out of the Rabies shot. I promised the doctor I would not pet any stray dogs or feed any monkeys. (Yes, there will be wild monkeys hanging out near Macy's orphanage.) So if you have Rabies, please stay away from me. That's the only thing I am not immune to. ;)

Have a great lonnnngggg weekend everyone!