The day before departure.

It all happens tomorrow. The long journey . . . Actually the long journey takes two days. The time changes don't help. There are still a few jobs that need to be done around the house.

We're going to get our baby! Ella Mesay! The waiting and agonizing is finally almost over.

Here she is, as a matter of fact. The top picture is from her referral, our first glimpse of her and her life, and her entry into ours. The bottom one is the picture we got of her on Monday. It is nice to see her smiling. I hope she has the same reaction to us when we see her. I think about what her life has entailed so far . . . Such changes and now she gets another one . . . New parents . . . Long trip . . . New place . . . Snow . . . Cold . . . Crazy tasting food . . . And a couple of dogs.

It would be a lot to take in, even if you weren't just about a year or so old.

We have the baby's room ready to go, our bags almost packed, building projects finished and care for the dogs arranged. It seems to be going eerily well . . . I hope that keeps up. You should see the donations we are taking. It has to be 60% of the mass we are moving . . . If not more. The people at Julia's work, the local hospital, Tita and Beth, 'Aunties' Michelle and Kat . . . and those I am forgetting.... have been just fantastic. We also have got some great personal donations. Tita and Grandma Helen sure came through with some very cute clothing, Juliet and Forrest with a crib/toddler bed and two car seats, Chuck and Ann are sending some stuff too . . .
We leave from the twin cities tomorrow, around 9 a.m. Stop over in Dulles for a few hours (eight) and then on to Addis Ababa. The part of that trip that is going to be painful is the one hour stop over in Rome for refueling. (Kills me . . . I don't think we can even get off the plane, so I will not be able to "officially" be there, according to the rules that my brother Bob has instituted.) We arrive in Addis Friday evening. If you are keeping score, Ethiopia is 10 hours ahead from Central U.S. time. We'll come home on the 16th.

On Saturday or Sunday, we will be taking a day trip to Hosanna, a city about 100 miles south of Addis. We hear it is a 4.5+ hour trip via Land Rover. We may get to meet a representative of the birth family. The meeting will be short, 30 minutes or so, and we don't know if anyone will even show up, but we will at least get to see the region that Ella Mesay is from. On the advice of CHSFS staff, we are taking a couple of framed photos of Ella Mesay and one of us. These, plus a map of the world to show them where we live, are the only gifts we're allowed to give to the birth family. I have the video camera and Julia the digital. We will upload some pics when we get back to Addis.

Saturday or Sunday, the day we don't go to Hosanna, will be the day we meet Ella Mesay for the first time. I'm keeping myself emotionally open for that experience. I don't want to put any fantastic into it and I don't want to steel myself from any emotional reaction. I just want to take it in.
We're prepared for her not to like us. Well, we think we're prepared. She's been through so much, and we know we'll be disrupting her world once again. It might take a while for her to warm up to one or both of us. We think we're prepared....

The rest of the week . . . We go to the embassy for paperwork . . . Yahoo! . . . Long live the bureaucracy . . . I think we go to the national museum (To see Lucy!) and do some shopping. But getting to know Ella will be our focus.

It will be a eye-opening experience, no matter what angle you look at it.

We hope to update the blog semi regularly during our trip. Please feel free to comment, it would be nice to hear from our fans.