Leaving Dubai

Hello everyone! We had trouble posting last night as the blog site came up in Arabic! We had a good flight to Dubai but boy was it LONG! We took turn leaning on each other to try to help sleep. We ended up not meeting Belchi from SPX for dinner as we were exhausted. My blackberry didn't work last night but this morning it did so we got to call home. Teri was just getting the kids settled down for bed when we called and then they were up dancing! Sorry Teri!
They are just calling us to board the plane for Addis another full 777. 10 short hours and the boys will be in our arms!! Hope to post tonight again or maybe tomorrow.
Please continue to pray for our safe journey!
Sending much love to all.

On our way!

Well, we successfully completed the first part of our journey to New York City. It was a beautiful flight into NYC coming in over the Hudson River seeing all the sailboats and then coming over Manhattan. We missed the Statue of Liberty as we were on the wrong side of the plane.

We have met some really nice people so far on our journey. Right now we are sitting at JFK with a woman and her 3 year old son returning to India after visiting Dad in the US. We are helping her out as she is traveling alone.

As if we weren't excited enough to get to Addis, we received this picture of Fayisa today during his naptime. PRICELESS....

Fayisa and Amanuel... Mom and Dad are on the way.

Love you all!

(Em and Joe ... remember do not have any fun with Auntie Teri without us!)

Surprise Photos!

Woke up this morning to a nice surprise.... photos of the boys! Sue, the director of CCI, left for Africa on Tuesday of this week and was at the transition house with the boys. In the photos the boys are looking at the photo books we sent to them with Julie, Sue's daughter.

4 Days and Counting!

Well, I finally got the blog up and running! It is just in time as we leave in 4 short days. It doesn't really even seem possible. Just thought I would give everyone an overview of our trip so that you know what we will be up to.

On Sunday we leave Chicago O'Hare headed for Laguardia in NYC. We have to take a cab from Laguardia to JFK to catch our plane to Dubai. That flight doesn't leave until 11:00 pm so we should have PLENTY of time to make the transfer. The plan is to sleep? on most of the flight to Dubai. When we arrive in Dubai we are planning to have dinner with Bechir Melki who is the Sales Manager for SPX in Dubai. He is going to give us a tour of the city... in the dark.

We leave Tuesday morning to head to Addis Ababa. Upon arrival in Addis an escort from our Guest House, The New Flower, will be picking us up at the airport. We will get settled in and then around 3:30 PM we will head to the Transition House which is about 45 minutes away. I am sure the longest 45 minutes of our life as we will finally get to hug and hold our two new sons! We will stay at the Transition House for a while and then get to take the boys back with us!

Our appointment at the U.S. embassy is on Thursday and we will ge the boys visas and paperwork on Friday. Saturday we will begin our long journey home arriving back to Chicago Sunday evening around 7:30 pm. We are actually looking forward to the plane ride home knowing that we will be able to spend all that time with the boys.

Please keep us in your prayers for a safe journey and also for an easy transition for the boys.

We are taking a computer with us to Ethiopia and hope to be able to post while there.

We love you all!

Amy and Brent