Migration

Wow.  My description of the moment in my previous post was 'whirlwind'.  I'm having a tough time trying to find the right words to illustrate this past week.  Each day has presented a new, unforeseen challenge.  From overlooked immigration documents, an extra 30 lbs of donations on our doorstep, to the news that chicken pox has been making its rounds through the Layla House once again, I have felt at times as though my heart had jumped out of my body.  I am grateful that we have somehow managed to extinguish the fires with relative ease and recover our senses by the end of each day.  As our travel date draws closer, the butterflies in my stomach are still trying to migrate somewhere (I think they must be monarchs), but I have stopped obsessing over minor details and am finally concentrating on the big picture. 

This is really happening.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and generosity-we will carry all your warm wishes with us to Ethiopia.  I will probably not have the time or computer access to update you from the road but I assure you that I will be writing down our experiences and will share our day to day adventures with you soon.  Much love and peace to all.

To Infinity and Beyond!

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of events-dotting i's and crossing t's as we prepare for the trip of a lifetime.  Have we packed enough? Have we packed the right things? Should I bring the bugspray? Pampers or Huggies? 

With so many questions and thoughts spinning through my mind and finding my day to day focus fading, I am trying to concentrate on those two beautiful faces in the many pictures people have been so kind to take for us.  I can close my eyes and finally say-next time this month, these boys will be running and crawling all over this house and the rooms will hopefully be filled with laughter.  It gives me great comfort but is also a  little scary.  In two weeks things will have changed completely and life as we know it will be a distant memory.  Don't get me wrong-I am definitely looking forward to it and we have been planning on this for a LONG time, but I am anxious!  Excited and also nervous at the same time.  And as a side note-I'm really hoping that they go easy on us in the sleep department (I know several of you are laughing at that statement right now!).

This whole process makes me feel like I'm 9 years old again, climbing up the ladder to the high dive for the first time, feeling every rung on the way up.  I remember walking out to the end of the board and looking down and then slowly taking a step back, only to hear the kids lined up below telling (or was it more like shouting?) me not to look down and to just jump.  I can honestly say that instead of closing my eyes and holding my nose this time, I am taking a running leap with my eyes wide open and I'm going to enjoy every moment before the big splash!