Four days to go...

Well, I swore I wasn't going to post our life on the internet for all to see, but here we are. I'm creating this in hope that we will be able to access internet while we're in Addis next week...

We will be traveling to Addis to meet and bring home Netsanet, who will be 7 months old when we return. She is the most precious thing we have ever seen. It's hard to imagine how you can love someone so much, even though you have never met her in person. It's overwhelming!

Ken and I chose to adopt a baby and started the process in 2006. In 2007, our agency (WACAP) announced that they were about to offer adoptions through Ethiopia, too. Because we live in an area of Seattle with a large Ethiopian community, we were really excited. We jumped at the chance, and put in our application by the end of summer. WACAP had to pass through four government ministries in Ethiopia for approval, and they thought that might happen by the end of September. It took a little longer, and they got their approval in mid-October. In the end of October, two folks from WACAP went to visit the orphanages in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) that they would be working with initially.

While they were visiting these two orphanages, they found that three referrals (term for matching a baby with a family) were already lined up. Since we were one of the first three to apply for the program through WACAP, we were matched up with a gorgeous baby girl, Netsanet. We were so lucky that WACAP was able to visit the orhpanage at the time of referral, since they took a 5-minute movie clip of her in addition to the pictures. Ken and I have probably watched that movie clip about 4,000 times already!

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, WACAP told us a few more things had to happen with our paperwork before it went off to Ethiopia. We understood that once the paperwork reached Ethiopia, it would sit in a pile until we were eventually matched up with a child. So, we thought we weren't even in the official "line" in Ethiopia yet when WACAP called us with the referral for Netsanet on December 19, 2007. We were so surprised! It was great timing, though, since we were able to tell our families the good news on Christmas Eve when they came for dinner :)

Once we completed the official acceptance of the referral for Netsanet, then it was time to wait for our approval to travel. I have never in my life had time crawl so slowly as it has for the last three months. Every day felt like a week. Finally, finally, we got notice to travel on March 10th. We bought our tickets, and we will be on our way to meet Netsanet on March 25.

We will fly from here to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Addis (total time of about 27 hours). We'll reach Addis at 9pm on March 26 and go to our hotel, the Ghion. We're staying in one of the bungalows (see interactive Addis map to the left). We'll go to meet Netsanet the next morning on March 27! We will likely go to the orphanage to hang out with her and learn from her caregivers about her feeding/sleeping/etc habits before we take her back to the hotel on Saturday. On Monday the 31st, we will have the immigration interview at the American Embassy for Netsanet's visa. At some point we may or may not get to meet Netsanet's birth family (we're hoping, but the latest news says it might not be possible). On Friday, April 4, we may travel home. This schedule is all up in the air, since this is WACAP's first time with Ethiopia adoptions and they're not completely certain how it will go.

Two other families and two representatives from WACAP will be traveling with us, so we won't be on our own! There is also a representative for WACAP in Ethiopia and he will arrange for transportation, translators, the hotel reservation, etc.

Preparation for the trip included 7 innoculations, tons of paperwork, getting visas for us from the Ethiopian embassy, and a huge shopping trip for diapers, formula, medication, etc etc. I've called our banks to let them know we'll be using cards there, and we're bringing cash in case the cards don't work. We're trying to travel light, although one huge suitcase is for Net and all the things she may need. We plan to just leave anything we don't need/use with the orphanage for the other little ones. We are also bringing a donation bag from WACAP for the orphanage, since we're allowed 2-50 pound bags each. We'll have Net on the way back, but our luggage should be a lot lighter... we're not bringing a stroller for her, just a variety of slings/carriers.

Oh, so much to do before we leave!!! Here's hoping for a smooth trip!