Where to begin...

It is 4am and I am wide awake.  I believe I have adjusted to Ethiopia time now that we are home!  Our plane flew into O'Hare at 1 pm yesterday.  The last leg of our journey was a little rough, but we arrived home safe and sound at 7pm last night.  HOME! Tracy brought our boys home  a little while later - we missed them so much and it felt so good to hug and kiss them and sleep in the same place after a week away.  There is so much to process and it is hard to know where to begin.  I'll start at the beginning...

We arrived in Addis Ababa at 6:35pm Saturday.  We got our visas, exchanged $ for Birr, and then proceeded through customs.  Finally, we were out the door and the driver for our guest house was waiting for us.  It was so hard to believe that after all this time, we were finally in Ethiopia.  We loaded up the van and headed to the guest house. We were greeted by Tsebay (the owner), as well as other families who were there for court dates.  We met some of the nicest people while we were there and it was so neat to connect with them over our shared experiences.  Each story is unique - just like the children we will all be bringing home - and it is amazing to me how God has orchestrated every one.  After we got settled in our room, we fell into bed exhausted after the long journey.  Unfortunately, we didn't get much sleep that night.  Or the next, or the next...I told John I was amazed that we were able to do all that we did on as little sleep as we had for the entire time we were there - I'm pretty sure that is a direct result of the prayers of those back home.  I simply do not function on too little sleep.

On Sunday, we were able to attend International Evangelical Church and got to see quite a bit of the city on the way there.  The service was really neat.  For me, it was a little glimpse of what Heaven will someday be - people of all nations gathered in one place to worship the true and living God.

On Sunday afternoon, we went shopping with some of the other families from our guest house.  We wanted to pick up some gifts for S. from her country to be able to give to her in the years to come.  We were able to find some neat things and then headed back to the guest house for dinner.  I went to bed that night unable to sleep much because of the anticipation of FINALLY meeting our girl the next day.  To be continued...