The pursuit of Sophie

Pretty sure I shared that we have a court date. Did you hear that? A COURT DATE!!!!!

On February 28 (God willing) Jason and I will become parents for the 5th time. Five times! Do you remember how amazing it was on the day your child was born? Now multiple that times 5 and you get Sophie! We are so blessed and so excited!

The next part of this journey will begin on February 22, when Jason and I pack up and head off on our adventure. My fabulous mother and mother-in-law will be holding down the fort together for the first week or so, then my dad will join my mom for the second half of the stay. The kids will be in very capable hands and will probably have a blast with no parents and only grandparents for weeks at a time. Both my mom and my mother-in-law can run circles around me, so they will probably have this place running smoother than ever before! Big shoes to fill when I get home. :)

Jason and I will be gone for 2 whole weeks. I am pretty sure that leaving Luke a few weeks ago for three days while we went to Legoland was the longest I have ever been away from my kids, leaving them in someone else's care. (I have had a few trips to MI for births of nephews and a niece, but the kids were home with Jason and at least one always traveled with me.) Two weeks, FAR away from home, with no kids is going to be hard.

The payoff is that we will FINALLY be meeting our daughter. This is thee longest pregnancy I have ever endured and probably the most stressful. I think I should be put on bed rest, after 13 months of waiting (so far,) but no rest is in sight with the current four running around this place. :) Which thankfully helps to pass the time and keep us busy.

So on February 22, we will head off to Washington DC. After an over night stay there we will be headed to Ethiopia the following morning. Twelve hours and 25 minutes after take off, we should be arriving in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. It will then be February 24. The real fun begins the next day when we will meet Sophie for the first time. We have no idea what time of day that will be, we will be told the schedule once we arrive. We will be allowed to see her on the 25th, and 26th for approximately 90 minutes each time. No visits are allowed on Sunday. Monday, February 28 (again no idea what time of day) is the day we are longing for! That is our court date. That is the day (God willing), the Ethiopian courts will declare Sophie our legal child! We are then permitted one more 90 minute visit with her the following day. Then we are done. :(  After that we are no longer allowed to visit.

So, to make the most out of our international plane tickets we are going to see a bit of Ethiopia while we are there. We had two main destinations we wanted to see while we were there. First and foremost we want to go to the city of Harar. This is where our daughter was from, so we want to see it. We want to take a zillion pictures of the people and places to show her some day. Jason is determined that we are going to find the mission where she was found, but I am not sure how that will all work out. (We will tell you all our adventures when we return, so stay tuned!) After that 2 day trip, we are headed to Lalibela, for another 2 day trip, to be tourists and see more of Ethiopia's beauty. Then on March 7 we will begin the journey home. We will arrive home on the 8th, empty handed (no Sophie YET!) but hopefully with lots of pictures, adventures, and stories, to help tide us over until the journey ends.

So that's it. For all you curious folks out there...

No, we don't know when she will be home.

No, we don't know how long until our embassy date

No, we don't understand what is taking so long.

We do know we have a court date. We have tickets. We have a hotel. We have child care. We have lots of formula in our luggage. We have 4 very excited and eager kids, who want their little sister home!

And, we got updated info this week that our peanut is healthy and growing big! She is up to 15 lbs! Praise the Lord! She is also the most beautiful Ethiopian princess we have ever laid eyes on.

Here's a peek for you......

From Jason:  Yeah, that's pretty much how we feel too.  All the pieces, trying to fit together, with a bunch of Sophie colored ones missing right out of the middle.  Can't wait to fill them in...