It's Happening

Wow. I think we are both still a bit in shock that we will be leaving for Ethiopia in just 10 days. The past few days have been filled with random errands, like buying raincoats for us and Truman (it's rainy season in Ethiopia right now, so we thought raincoats would be a good idea), packing up suitcases, putting together our newly purchased glider, organizing Truman's room, cutting Oskar's hair, etc. There is certainly much to do around the Bernard-Bigsby house!

Tonight we had a travel webinar with our agency. We have been very pleasantly surprised with how much support and information we have already been given since receiving our court date on Tuesday. First, we had a long talk with our case worker about what to expect. Then we received an extremely long "travel guide" to read over, which contained information about what to pack, how much money to bring, what to expect in terms of accommodations, a proposed itinerary, a list of the staff at WACAP's transition house, and so on. Then tonight we had the travel webinar, which included basics such as what the airport is like, how to get our travel visa's, where to exchange American dollars for Birr, what the court process will look like, what to expect when we first meet Truman, more details and pictures about the hotel/guesthouse we'll be staying at, and a map of where we'll be staying that also showed some local restaurants, banks, and stores that sell water and diapers. And on Monday we're scheduled to have a phone conference to discuss more details about what to expect while staying in Ethiopia for an extended period of time. It has really been a relief to have all of this information. The more we get, the calmer we feel.

Some people have been asking if now that we have a court day we're going completely crazy with the wait, but it has actually, surprisingly, been the opposite. There is so much to do around the house and we've been staying so busy that the days are just flying by now. I mean, in just 12 days we'll be meeting our son! 12 days!!!