Well...

So I did finally hear from our coordinator (only 1 maybe 2 phone calls, emails from me later). We are still waiting on that paperwork for the birth certificate. No telling how long that will take, is kind of what she said. BUT...

She did tell us they are reserving us a spot in the March 20th group and to go ahead and reserve tickets for that date. She didn't go so far as to tell us to buy those tickets and/or that we are in fact going to travel that date regardless. You see, she always stops short of promises no matter how hard I try to back her in the corner!

So we sit...kind of in the same corner as we have been, kind of in a different corner ever so slightly closer to Tariku. I'm going to try to convince myself into believing that we're traveling the 20th. I think all the positive thinking will have a tremendous effect. I know it will. Join me will you?

So WHEN we go the 20th, we will actually depart on the 19th. As of right now we'll be traveling with Northwest Airlines. We would depart from Moline, IL (a 10 minute drive) at 11:00am where we fly to Minneapolis, MN, then to Amsterdam (no, I will not let Zach out to frequent the coffee shops). From the Netherlands it's off to Sudan and finally, after 18 hours in the air we will arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On the way back we skip the Sudan issue and go straight from Addis to Amsterdam. We would arrive home at about 5:20 after our travels.

Anyway, that's just 2 weeks away. The thought of meeting my son in 2 weeks is almost more than I can take. It's just so sad to me because other couples get a call. They get a call that says, "Pack your bags, you're traveling on the 20th". And they celebrate. They open a bottle of champagne and they toast to the next two weeks. We can't do that. We'll be lucky if we get a call that sounds remotely like that and it totally bums me out.

I think Zach is getting scared that if we don't travel the 20th I might actually go insane. Like, give the girl a padded room, insane. So he's been fighting too, though his reasons for doing so might be more to save his wife from the great abyss than to see his son. (Though he's uuber excited for that as well)

So don't give up on us yet. We still need your help. In those 2 weeks we'll need to pack. Paint approximately 2200 sq. ft of space and move into approximately 2200 sq. ft of space. My list continues to grow!