.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } So it’s 4:15am here in Addis. The Tyelenol PM worked great…for 4 hours. At 3:15 I was up and ready to go. I thought, surely it’s close to 7, I’ll get up and start getting ready. Checked the clock, not so much. So I had some awesome moments with God this morning, staring out over the city. I tell you, it’s not a bad way to wake up. I’ve heard people complain of the stray dogs barking at night, but seeings I live out at camp, we’re used to Coyotes, various bird and land species as well as the occasional steam engine. So we’re good as far as that goes. 🙂
 
As I said, the plane rides really weren’t bad. The last 2 landings were hard on this ole body and I had Zach fanning me while I was haunched over the complimentary upchuck bags. But other than that, it wasn’t bad at all. The flight was surprisingly full so that was interesting. I’ve watched more movies in the last 24 hours than I have in a very long time.
 
We got here last night at about 10 PM. We were greeted by the fantastic CHS staff at the guest house. The guest house is beautiful! Zach and I have a double bed in our room with a little toddler bed that will house the magnificent Tariku in a few short days. We also have a bathroom attached, though I went to relieve myself yesterday and found the toilet was not quite nailed to the floor so well (room 204, for you CHS people). But other than that, it’s perfect. We stayed up for about another hour catching up with the other residents of the guest house. 3 of us are here to pick up our 3-year-olds, 1 couple is picking up a baby, 1 other couple is picking up a 6 and 7-year-old. There’s another family at the other guesthouse picking up a baby and another couple at a hotel picking up a baby. That’s all I’ve met so far, but there might be more today.
 
So today breakfast will be served at 8am. We will be meeting at the CHS offices at 9am to go over the weeks schedule. At about 9:45, we will meet the one and only Tariku Asamo Xavier Klipsch. We are 8 hours ahead of you all in Middle America so think of us as you slumber around 2amish. 🙂 I’m sure I won’t be able to contain my excitement and you’ll “hear” all about it next blog.
 
Well, I must be off, I don’t want to wake anyone else with my incessant typing. Though secretly it wouldn’t be so bad if someone else found themselves unable to fall back asleep on this exciting of all exciting days. I don’t forsee me falling asleep, what with my belly telling me I missed dinner and my head telling me the moment I’ve been waiting for for over a year now is about to come to fruition.
 
So until then, let me say “thank you” to Leslie for keeping great care of the kiddos. And thanks for reading! I have my comments emailed to me so I can read them all. Thanks for checking in! Much love,
TL
 

We’re here!!!!!!!!!! We made it. I can’t believe it. I’m starting to get my land legs again and it feels wonderful. Just a quick post tonight and then me and my Tyelenol PM are hitting the sack (seeings I only slept 1 hour in over 24 hours). Anywho, I’ll leave you with the fact that we are already astonished at how beautiful the people are here. There are absolutely no words. Well there are, but I’ll try not to say them all yet. 🙂 Thanks so much for your prayers, we guided over this beautiful land on angels wings. 🙂 More tomorrow AFTER WE MEET OUR SON!!!!!!!!!

Pack up or back up–use SkyDrive to transfer files or keep extra copies. Learn how.

We’re ready to go…

Kinda bittersweet. It was hard putting the kids down for bed knowing it would be awhile (probably) before we’re able to calmly put down the kids. I know how much life changes instantly when a child enters your life, I am so very excited and on the other hand I just want to remember what it was like with just the two of them.

I’m going to miss the pair of them more than words can say.

I get to hold my son for whom my arms have been aching in just a few days.

Life…is brillant, it really is.

And don’t try to get rid of me too soon. We plan on updating at least every day while we’re over there. Remember, Addis is 8 hours ahead of us here, so keep that in mind as well. But I get much too mad at travelers who don’t blog during travels. I would never do that to you, dearest blog readers. 🙂

On that note, I must go to bed so I can wake up to a brand new day that I’ve been dreaming about for so long. Please pray for us. Pray for our flights, that they are safe and on time. Pray for us to be able to sleep. Pray for our health, as I’m no fun when I’ve had no sleep and have the squirts from either end (sorry, too much info, I know, but whatever). Pray for Tariku, that he feels comfortable enough with us that he can begin to start attaching while we’re there. Pray for our time in Ethiopia, so that we remember every bit of it and see what God has obviously put us there for at this time. Just pray for us. I’ve felt all of your prayers throughout this entire process and there are no words. When I think of you all (some known, some not known) bowing on your knees praying for little ole’ “us”, it humbles me more than I can say. Thank you, so very much for that.

Also, the kids will be with my amazing sister-in-law (and brother-in-law) tomorrow through Sunday. You can check out her blog, it’s the “Farm Raised” one at the side, if you’d like to check in on Trysten and Dailah. Then my parents will have them Sunday through Friday. Look for a brand spankin’ new Klipsch family picture sometime the weekend of the 12th!

Much love to you all. “See” you in Ethiopia!

Holy buckets, tomorrow. It’s tomorrow.

Today is reserved for teaching a class, going to the bank to get documents notarized and money, money, money. Oh, and then there’s the cleaning issue.

But most importantly, today is about watching my kids eat their Chocolate Lucky Charms and not yell at them for spilling one or two on the floor.

when you leave for Ethiopia in a matter of hours?

You watch The Bachelor. Because it’s hilarious and because it’s an ounce of normalcy that has not come your way in at least 2 days. (But seriously, they just attempted to play rugby, and it was a sad representation of women in athletics, but whatever).

So we’re packed. Turns out 50lbs is heavier than I thought…meaning you can get A LOT of luggage stuffed into 50lbs. If it weren’t for the immense amount of donations we got, we’d be left with very little luggage. I’m highly impressed with the two of us (but mostly just me, because this is rare for me).

I’m on our computer, which is a great sign. It looks different and doesn’t remember my favorite websites which is sad. At least it’s something.

I just had to say good bye to my puppy. I probably won’t see him for 2 weeks as we’ll give Tariku a few days before we sic the 115lb lab on him. Makes me miss him already.

It’s happening isn’t it? Commercial is over. I’m out. 🙂

That’s the sound a computer makes when the hard drive crashes. I know this, because it happend to our laptop just a few short hours ago. Which laptop you ask? Oh that’d be our laptop we were planning on taking to Ethiopia. Are you staying calm Tesi, you may ask? Hells to the no, is what I would answer, should anyone ask me this.

So yeah computer is down. Zach went to Best Buy and they were “nice” enough to install a new hard drive for us (they were nice, but it was EXPENSIVE). Good news is we’ll have something for Ethiopia. Bad news is, nothing is backed up because we are not good computer users. So we’re praying there is a computer genius out there who can fix it for us.

And my hair appointment was rescheduled.

Could it get any worse? 🙂

Other than that, we’re hanging in over here. I’m packed, Tariku is packed. Trysten and Dailah are packed. Zach is still holding out for clean clothes. 🙂

My mom’s friends sure do know how to rally around a good cause. We’ve got donations raining around us like it’s our business. There are no words for how much we appreciate the support!

And we have one and half days. And I must get to Wal Mart soon, I was told just today that Tariku likes sunglasses…a lot. So I need to go buy all they have apparently. He must like me, and everyone knows a mom without sunglasses to give to her new son is no mom at all.

So yesterday we went to church, to small group and then met my parents at an outlet mall to do a little retail therapy. Church was great. It solidified the fact that Zach and I are the perfect couple, ahem, which is always nice. Small group was wonderful as we were met with many well wishers and people promising to pray for us, which is always comforting. Not to mention Cassie brought heaping bags of donations for the care center, which is much appreciated as well. Shopping with my parents felt wonderful. You should be proud of me to hear I only cried a few minutes once I left them. It makes me wonder if there’s a 12 step program for adoption? I think I’ve been at the “cry it out” stage for awhile. Or perhaps I’m at the second “cry it out” stage. Who knows. Either way, whew! Last night I “encouraged” Zach to start packing. We’re getting there, we’re getting there.

So 2 more days. I mean, I don’t even know what to say about it except it’s becoming quite real now. I’ll do a final cleaning tomorrow and then we’ll move Tariku’s bed up by ours so we’re right there for him in case he has nightmares. I’m doing laundry for the final time. I’ll go get groceries that will surely cost a small fortune tonight so I won’t have to do it for at least a week after we get home.

When you start a journey like this you can never really imagine what it will feel like in the next part of the process. You daydream about the referral call, and the court date call and the travel call. You have it built up in your mind a certain way. All of the realities have been different than my daydreams on each one of these. So has the waiting to travel period. I cannot believe how quickly these 2 weeks have gone by. I cannot believe on Wednesday we’ll leave this house and when we come back so much will have changed.

This is just awesome. I am honestly loving every minute of this. To think we’ll be bringing this boy I’ve been praying about home, is just beyond words. The excitement is growing in this house. This morning Trysten pledged to share even his underwear with his little brother. Dailah has mastered the art of saying Tariku, though it sounds more like “TQ” which is kinda cute. I’ve only had moments of “madwoman” status, like last night when I “encouraged” Zach to pack even though none of his undies, socks, shirts or pants were clean. He “obliged” and laid aside a pair of shoes and a hat. How sweet!

So today is all about relaxing with the kids in the morning, getting my hair did this afternoon (that doubles as a chance to see a friend before we leave, that’s my excuse, I’m sticking to it) stopping by another friends’ house to say “see you later” and then hitting up Wal Mart where I’ll make even Sam Walton himself shudder with how big the bill will surely be. That will hopefully give me at least another hour of QT with the kids before they hit the pillow and I soon follow.

That’s what someone asked me today. And since I like talking about my feelings so much…

I think I’ve literally felt everything these last 24 hours. Physically, I’m still not over my sinus crap and it seems to have gotten worse again today? Emotionally I’m crying again. I thought we were done here, but apparently not. I made the mistake of opening the mail and seeing a very nice card and money from one of my parents’ good friends. They have been such great people and I was just so humbled by it.

Then it was this, and that. And it all leads to me crying. I think the main emotion I’ve been feeling today is sadness. It was the first time really that it’s hit me that I’ll be leaving Trysten and Dailah for so long. And in case that video didn’t show you I’ve got some really sweet kids on my hands (I mean, how cute is Trysten, seriously? That was all him too by the way). Wednesday-Friday is a long time. Zach took Tman to daddy/tman night tonight. Dailah and I got some quality time as well. Dailah cried whenever she thought of Zach and Trysten being gone. It could be a long week for her.

But overall, I’m feeling fairly calm still. 4 days. 4 days sounds remarkably shorter than 5 days (I realize it’s shorter, but it just sounds A LOT shorter). So I commenced to packing some of Trysten and Dailah’s things. Once Dailah goes down I’ll start trying on long skirts of mine that I haven’t worn since I quit work in August. Should be interesting. Then I’ll throw a few things of mine in as well.

I’m at the point today where I want to hold on to every moment like these because it’s our last time as a family of 4. I just keep thinking to myself, “Remember this, Tesi, remember this.”

So that’s why I blogged, so that I’d remember (or at least try to) what I was thinking and feeling one of the last times we were a family of 4.