To find our son

I. called me the morning of May 22nd. I was still sleeping but knew to get up for any call that came in. He told me to wake up because I would be getting a call soon. I knew then that our social worker was trying to get a hold of us. We had been waiting for this call for over 3 weeks, jumping at every ring. So Sue called and gave us all the instructions for travel to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to pick up our child. We were pretty sure of our travel date so weren't completely bowled over when she called. But we then had two days to finish packing and booking flights before we left for NH on Saturday May 24th. I had been in touch with a travel agency specializing in Ethiopian Adoption travel so we had a couple of flights on hold. Now I just had to decide which airline and dates would work best and buy our tickets. We planned to travel to NH first to take Z to I.'s parents to stay. We would be there a few days and then fly on to Addis.

Thursday and Friday were full of packing, phone calls, and gathering documents. We were pretty limited on our luggage so we had quite a job to fit everything in. I. and I only took 3 or 4 changes of clothes but with everything else we needed, it didn't make much of a dent. We took 4 large suitcases and 3 carry-ons. One suitcase was full of donations for the orphanage and we hoped to bring it back full of souvenirs. We weighed each bag to make sure it wasn't over 50 lbs. We had flights on hold for Lufthansa and Ethiopian airlines. We needed to decide which one was better. With Ethiopian we may not be able to get back until June 14th which would mean 2 weeks in Addis with a new baby and 2 weeks away from Isaiah. With Lufthansa we would only be there a week and have to hope to get a transit visa for K through Frankfurt in one day's time. We held off until Friday evening hoping that the waitlist for the June 8th Ethiopian flight would allow us on but it didn't. Neither option was entirely suitable but we finally opted for the Lufthansa flight as I couldn't stand to be away from Z that long. It was a great relief to actually purchase the tickets. I spent a lot of time gathering all the documents and paperwork we needed for the trip. It took me a couple of hours organizing and double-checking everything. I didn't want to leave anything out! In the end, the pile was about 2 inches thicks and took up about half of one carry-on. It was so scary to be traveling with such important papers.

We left Saturday morning bright and early. It felt like we were in a dream to be actually taking off for Africa. Our trip to Boston and then on to NH by car went well. Our time in NH was really good just relaxing and enjoying time together and with I.'s mom. We got to take Z to meet the lady he would stay with some of the days while Mima worked. He had a good time meeting her boys, playing with all her neat play equipment, and being introduced to her pigs, chickens, and 4 dogs. I. and I were able to squeeze in a last date as well which in retrospect was such a good good thing! By the time Thursday came we were rejuvenated and ready to go...except for me leaving Z.

Next installment will start our trip to Africa.