Sunday, January 23

Today we had the opportunity to see Joy, Abebe, and Jeff from YWAM.  We were able to meet Joy for the first time when we were in ET for court and we enjoyed  seeing her again - this time with our babies in our arms for good!  She is the director of YWAM's Adoption Ministry and is such a neat lady.  Her heart for the widows and orphans in Ethiopia is beautiful and she works tirelessly on their behalf. 

In the evening, we went to dinner at the Lime Tree with some other adoptive families.

Sena's first experience with a high chair. She did great!

Dinner at the Lime Tree

Monday, January 24, 2011

We had a meeting regarding our case that did not go as we had hoped.  As a result, John and I made the decision that I would go home and he would stay until things were resolved.  We had no idea how long that would take.  I spent a good part of the day in tears at the thought of leaving them behind, yet knowing our boys at home needed one of us with them.  We put Sena to bed just before I headed for the airport.  I kissed her sweet little cheeks and hugged her tight one last time and thought my heart might break in two.  After she was asleep, John walked me downstairs to meet the driver.  I had been telling him all day that I couldn't believe I was leaving them behind.  It just didn't seem right.  Even now, the emotions from that day make me cry.  I knew that John was more than capable of taking good care of Sena - he is a wonderful father who has always been very hands on with all of our children.  I should also mention that in the 15 years we have been married, we had only spent two nights apart.  Knowing we would be almost 8,000 miles apart for an indefinite time period was just hard.  Getting on a plane without his hand to hold and his shoulder to bury my face in when we took off was also hard.  I am a chicken and even though I have now logged over 30,000 miles on a plane in three months' time, I am still far from comfortable with the whole flying thing.  Fortunately, another adoptive dad was on the same flights as me.  I was so thankful for him.  While I did fight the urge to grab his arm and bury my face, he knew I was about to freak out and offered encouragement and some arm pats.  Bless his heart.  When we were flying out of D.C. heading toward Chicago, I sensed some peculiarity with the motion of the plane and thought for sure we were about to go down.  He very calmly explained to me that we had flown out toward the east and were now turning around heading west and everything was fine.  Whew.

Funny girl!

I was so happy to see her smiles.  I took this shortly before I left for the airport.

Sweet baby in footy jammies. 

Tuesday, January 25

Our flight arrived at O'Hare shortly after 1pm.  John's mom picked me up at the airport and drove me back to their house.  I took a shower and decided to head home.  I couldn't wait to see my boys!  We live about 3 hours away from John's parents.  Even though I had slept on the plane, I was still exhausted.  By the time I was within 30 minutes of home, I was pinching myself, opening the window, etc. to stay awake.  Weird, but true.  As soon as I came in the house and hugged the boys, I told them I needed to take a quick nap and they went down to my parents' for dinner.  Three hours later, I woke up just in time to kiss them goodnight and go back to sleep myself.  For almost a week, I was in bed between 7 and 8 pm.  The jet lag this time around was definitely worse.  I was so thankful to be home and with my boys, but missing John and Sena so much!