Journey to Ethiopia

Day 1, Sunday Dec. 14

What an overwhelming an exciting day. This was the day before we flew to Ethiopia. We started the day going to church together with the kids, which was such a comforting thing with all of the uncertainties we had of the week ahead. Then we came home to pack, yes we are one of those families that does everything at the last minute. :) No matter how many times I tell myself I'm going to prepare ahead of time it just doesn't seem to happen. So, we pack and unpack about five times trying to eliminate anything we don't really need. We were trying to keep it to three suitcases, one large one of donations for the orphanages and two small carry-ons with our clothing and Meron's things. I didn't think it would be possible, but we made it. They were busting at the seems, but we were finally packed. Our biggest concern was our paperwork. We were terrified of forgetting one of our documents. We thought it wouldn't go well to show up at our Embassy appointment and realize we left the paperwork on the kitchen counter!
Around six that evening we loaded up the van and prepared to head to Indy to spend the night because we had a six a.m. flight. This was probably the single most difficult moment of this entire journey for us. To have to kiss the kids goodbye and know that in 24 hours we would be halfway across the world from them was one of the hardest things we've done. But we knew that God was watching over all of us and that everything would be o.k. So, we said goodbye and with tears in our eyes drove out of the neighborhood and headed to Indy. It's amazing how your whole heart can be in two places at once. On the one hand we couldn't bear to leave our children here, but on the other hand we knew our other precious child was waiting for us to bring her home. We truly relied on God's strength to keep us sane through all of this. Later that night we checked into our hotel and tried to get a good night's sleep for the long day ahead of us.