2 WEEKS!!!!!

Our last family picture before adding our new addition!!! :)

2 WEEKS until court!!! Hopefully 4 WEEKS until we leave!!!!

Lord, please help court on May 8th to be successful and for us to have the May 28th Visa appt. Please keep us safe during our trip and help Nathen to continue to grow strong and healthy. Give me the strength to not be stressful and fearful as we prepare to make this journey. Please keep Austin and Olivia safe and happy while we are gone to bring home their baby brother. You are blessing our family in so many ways, please help me to keep my focus on that. Amen

Ok, so I am stressing. Yes, I am a worry wort and stress often but wow! There is so much to do, so much to buy and not enough time or money to do it all. I really need to finish Nathen's room. I have started packing but it is really stressful trying to figure out what to take and what to leave. Every one's advice is to travel LIGHT! Take more stuff for Nathen than us. Babies need A LOT of stuff! 10 days without my hairdryer though??? I know it will probably blow up the first time I plug it in anyway, that would be my luck. I have gained so much weight I hardly have any clothes that fit, I will probably end up having to re wear dirty clothes. :( I will make sure to take lots of deodorant and body spray! I know, I just need to diet and exercise right? That is easier said than done when you are a "stress eater", are never home forcing you to live off the baseball field concession and fast food, and no time or energy to exercise. I am a little confused on what is appropriate to wear in Ethiopia. I get mixed info from different families. Ethiopia is very conservative, the opposite of what most people think. It is questionable at this point if open toed sandals and short sleeves are ok for me to wear. Capri's and pants or long skirts only. Plus the temperature there is not what you would think. It gets cold at night and only warms up to the 70's maybe low 80's during the day. So we need cool stuff for during the day and warm stuff at night. The power goes out for days and we will not have the luxury of heat or air so layering clothing is a must. For Nathen I am taking a mixture of stuff. For Nick he can wear shorts, jeans, t-shirts or whatever so it won't be as difficult to pack for him. We need to take a lot of medications for both us and Nathen "just in case". Plus the orphanage donations... I hope we get though customs with everything and I hope all of our luggage gets there ok. I am worried if my "Global Ready" phone will actually work like I hope it does while there. And what if I am unable to charge my phone??? Then how do I contact the kids at home??? I have my phone set up to blog from it while there, so as long as it works like it should, I will be able to keep everyone up to date while we are gone. I am confused on travel converters and adapters. I don't have a clue what to get! I am SCARED of flying!!! I will be a nervous wreck. That is really my biggest fear other than something happening to the kids while we are gone. Plus several families that traveled recently have had nothing but bad stuff to say about Ethiopia Airlines. Now I am nervous, the other airlines are way more expensive so we just can't afford to change our flight plans to a different airline. I really need to get busy learning Amharic. I bought an Amharic computer program, which is crappy, but I really have not had the time to sit and do it. Ok, have I covered everything now??? I will think of more stuff in a little while. :)

Yes, my blog template totally freaked out on me. I tried downloading other cool templates and finally gave up. I know this black one is kind of dull but it is easy to do and clutter free. I am trying to minimize and declutter EVERYTHING right now so I am just going to leave it like this until I have more time to mess with it. :)