Looking Forward, not Backward!

I had this grand plan to document our trip to Ethiopia on our blog for both family and friends . . . and then I found that once home with little Caleb, I'm only interested in what's happening now, not what happened last week. Every moment with our little guy transfixes me and I can only marvel at him and wonder what he'll do next. So, I'll just document our trip in Caleb's "life" book some day soon, and leave the blog for enjoying what comes now!

That said, however, I did want to include a short video from our stay in Ethiopia. We stayed in a very small room at a guest house so the three of us had LOTS and LOTS of time together -- mostly laying on the bed and playing and bonding. Other than some short excurions out and about and mealtimes, this is what we did day in and day out and it was wonderful!!

HOME SWEET HOME!

We made it home with our beautiful baby boy!! The trip went very well -- exhausting, of course, but Caleb was so good-natured and easy to care for!!

Below are a couple pictures from our first few moments together:
The shyness went away quite quickly (probably less than an hour!) and his little personality really started to shine through. Below is Caleb with Daddy in the Ergo carrier:

I'll keep posting pics as I sort through them!

From 2 weeks to 2 days!

I realized this morning that I hadn't posted anything since our wait to leave was 2 weeks out and now it's 2 DAYS out!! Needless to say, we've been busy busy busy for those 2 weeks, and now it's hard to believe that it's only 2 more days!!

The very long "to do" list is now done. We are packed. The house is ready for Gwen to house-sit and dog-sit. Affairs are in order. Details checked and double checked. HERE WE COME!!!

For those watching at home, here's the plan for when we're there:

1. We leave Friday midday on our first leg of the journey - flight from Seattle to Amsterdam.
2. Connecting flight from Amsterdam to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, arriving late Saturday night.
3. Sunday we depart on a 4-hour van ride to the Awassa region of Ethiopia to visit the orphanage Caleb spent his first several months, and hopefully a visit with his surviving birth family.
4. Overnight in Awassa Sunday night, returning to Addis Ababa Monday morning.
5. Monday afternoon we'll get to meet Caleb for the first time (!!!!).
6. Monday night - Thursday we'll spend 24*7 with Caleb, taking some day trips to experience the region.
7. Thursday is our embassy appointment -- this is where we'll apply to get visas to come home (a formality).
8. Friday we'll receive our visa (barring any delays).
9. Saturday night we'll board a red-eye plane home, again traveling through Amsterdam.
10. We arrive home the afternoon of Sunday the 21st and can finally show Caleb his forever home and forever extended family!

So, that's a rough sketch of the next couple weeks! There are so many unknowns and unforeseens, but all that doesn't matter because we'll have little Caleb with us and that's all that really matters. All the rest is just background noise. You know?

Thanks for all your support through this journey and we can't wait to introduce you all to Caleb in the next several weeks and months! And yes, I'll be posting a trillion pictures once we get back! :o)