Less Than 24 Hours Notice...

I am sitting in Germany right now using the 30 minutes of free wi-fi that this place offers!  This blog writing is going to have to be quick.  I am sitting in Germany waiting for our flight to...ETHIOPIA!!!!  Even as I write that out, I realize how "in shock" I still am.  I haven't even had time to blog about our all Thursday and all that has taken place in the past 48 hours.  So, I thought I would update and attempt to get a blog in before our next plane takes off.

Thursday morning I was doing my devotion when my cell phone rang.  It looked like it was the number to our social worker in grand rapids, but I wasn't sure.  It was 8:30am.  I picked up the phone and she answered on the other end.  "So...I just wanted to let you know that you guys have been given a court date.  The only problem is, you would have to travel really soon."  I immediately replied, "Oh, we can travel anytime.  We are ready.  When is the court date."  She answered..."Wednesday the 29th."  Inside I was freaking out.  "So...when would we need to be there?"  She replied, "Sunday at the latest."  Inside...still freaking out.  "Wow...so we would have to travel like Saturday?" She replied, "You would probably need to go tomorrow.  But if you think that isn't doable, we can reschedule it."  Inside...I was really freaking out!  I immediately blurted out, "Oh, we can do whatever!  We are ready.  Just tell me what to do!!!"  Within a few minutes, I was making airline reservations.

We figured that our airline tickets were going to be outragiously high due to the fact that were leaving in like 24 hours.  I called the first travel agency on the list and she worked miracles.  She was able to get us tickets for less than $1700 a piece round trip.  I called Nate and called my mom (who both were like..."tomorrow????"), and we booked the trip.  The next 24 hours became a whirlwind of packing, panicking that I was packing the wrong things, getting everything situated at work (which my friends were amazing at helping with), going to dinner with some incredible friends of ours who wanted to celebrate with us, packing and panicking some more, and attempting to get a few hours of sleep in the middle of all of that.  We then headed to the airport, which I thought we were going to be extremely late to (so late that I actually had to make an emergency potty run in the car...enough said), because we didn't have time to stop at a rest stop.  Let's just say we made less than 48 hours crazy!

But here we are...waiting in Germany to board a plane with my amazing husband and my incredible mom, a plane that will take us to meet our son for the first time...OH MY WORD...that is overwhelmingly awesome.

I keep tryng trying to picture what Monday is going to be like.  We are pretty sure that is the day we will travel to the orphanage to meet him for the first time.  It's hard to imagine a day that you have been dreaming about for the past gazillion days of your life.  While I don't know what to expect, I am banking on it being a day that is filled with emotions.  I am not even sure I will be able to put that day into words.

I am sure that the next few days will be more than blog worthy (after all, I am traveling with my husband who has already broken out into "Sweet Caroline" in the airport, and my mother who is constantly eating snacks and doing hilarious things while sleeping).  I will do my best to keep everyone posted as I get the opportunity.  Know that your prayers, your encouraging words, your comments on facebook (which my mom has said numerous times, "Have you seen how many people "liked" that status!!!!), and just your genunine interest in our life has meant the world.  This is just the start to an awesome journey!