Ethiopia Here We Come!!!!!

And so we are finally leaving for Ethiopia!!! On Dec 23rd we will fly out from Boston to arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at around 11pm on Christmas Eve! We will get to meet our son for the first time on Christmas day!! What an amazing gift!!!!

We are so saddened to leave miss Tessa behind. For so many reasons I want to bring her with us (including but not limited to fulfilling the ache in my heart that I will have from being away from her for 10 days). But we know it is in her best interest to stay home with GeeGee and Papa (my parents). Fortunately she is so comfortable with them since my mom watches her during the week as my husband and I both work full time. And she is OBSESSED to say the least with my father. While we are more sad over the fact that we will not be with her for Christmas day, the fact that we are traveling over the holiday's means that my sister (Auntie Becca) will be home and my brother, his wife and Tessa's two cousins (Eli - 6 and Sarah - 4) whom she is again OBSESSSED with will all be here while we are gone. I am actaully starting to wonder if she will notice that we are gone at all!!!

As for us....YIKES! We are so busy packing and preparing. I wish it was just clothes we needed to pack. But we have medications, bottles, baby food, clothes, paperwork, mosquito nets, etc. Then there is packing we will have to do for Tess. Since she will be at my parents house for 10 days, we will need all her clothes, etc. We also have one gift a day for her with a note from mommy and daddy that we are getting ready as well. Then there is Christmas!!!! We wanted to keep this year as "normal" as possible for Tess while we are home, so we have been decorating, trimming the tree, wrapping gifts etc. It is my favorite time of year. And while I enjoy all the hub-ub, I have to admit. I can hardly keep my head on straight.

Will keep you posted over the next week and a half (I promise to try anyway)...but I can't believe how son I will finally be holding our son in my arms. I have cried and ached for way more months than I should have just to listen to him breathe in the monitor at night! And now I am finally going to be able to!!!!!!!

More to do. Back to work....