What's 4 months anyway?

I have been absent for a good reason. Packing. Planning. Stressing. But in the meantime, we received something quite curious. Little man's birth certificate. It is the NEW birth certificate issued by the Ethiopian government listing us as his parents. Of course they have his name incorrect, but that can be corrected when we readopt in the states. The interesting thing is his birth date. Now remember if you will, when we received our referral in February we were told our little guy had been abandoned. When he was discovered they estimated he was about 2 months old. That was in July of 2009. So, we always believed he had been born sometime in May. Funny thing is that his birth certificate lists his birth date as September 7, 2009......two months after he was found. So I inquired. Of course at this point I was not about to rock the boat. I actually think that gives him a bit of an advantage, being 4 months younger than we thought. It is "catch up" time. Since he has been institutionalized nearly his whole life he will be a bit behind in many areas. So.....four months is no big deal. I was told that the original orphanage picks a date and that date is used on all the legal documents for the adoption. Turns out, it is not something we could change at this point anyway.

Weird.

We leave on Saturday. Time seems to be flying quickly to the point I feel compelled to put my foot down to slow us a bit. So many things to pull together. Just think, two weeks from now we will already be home.

Anxiety

I am on the other end of a three day migraine that totally kicked my butt. I feel great. Always amazing how one will see the world in a better light, notice the view, smell the sweetness of the flowers after an illness. It is as if you have a new lease on life. I wish that feeling lasted. But, it doesn't seem to.

So, when I felt icky I began to obsess about the possibility of having a migraine in Ethiopia. They really knock me down and I am terribly sick. However, I haven't had one for a long. long time. T would say that I worry just for worry's sake. I hope not, but will agree this is probably true. Please, please, please don't let me get sick on this trip. Can you imagine how horrible it would be on a 16.5 hour flight with a 16 month old and a migraine?? *****STOP WORRYING ALREADY!*****

On to the countdown. 18 more days until we fly out of K town. We will stay overnight in DC and then board the flight from Hell to Ethiopia the next evening. We get on the Ethiopian flight at 8:30 p.m. on the 3rd and get off of the flight in Ethiopia at 7:00 p.m. on the 4th. Ugghhh.

Flight anxiety. Please pass the Valium.

Finally A Smile

It is true, I had been worried. Not because I worry about everything under the sun, but because after seeing dozens and dozens of photos of our little sprite, he was never smiling. He has been in an orphanage for nearly his whole short little life. I was worried about so many things. Was he that unhappy? Or....was there something wrong with him? Every day that has gone by since receiving his referral has been a hard day for us. Each day he is institutionalized is a day he drops behind the curve...in everything. I prayed he had bonded with a caregiver. Still, I have not seen that one person in the photos that appeared to be his favorite, or him theirs.

Finally....after seven months of waiting to see a happy little boy we received the most precious of gifts. A smile!

For Family and Friends

I was asked today if we were going to post from Ethiopia. Hope to. But, really sorta unsure about the availability of a computer. When we traveled to China to pick up the Empress we took our laptop and blogged the whole experience. This time we plan to travel lightly and since the carry on allowance weight for Ethiopian Air is a mere 15 pounds, the lap top is out. So, my hope is to post at an internet cafe.

This will be a really different trip. Quite an experience. I am dreading the flight home. Really dreading the flight home. Really. Really. Little man is walking now and I imagine very active. Strapping him in a tiny airplane seat for 16.5 hours doesn't seem humanly possible. Man I hope he is easy going.

Just think one month from now this whole thing will be behind us. We will be home, with our CHILDREN....a happy, complete family.