CONCRETE Travel Dates!!!!

I was brought to joyful tears by an email that said we have "CONCRETE TRAVEL DATES". This means our daughter has a birth certificate and we have an embassy appointment set! This means that the ticket change fee we had to make and then the new tickets we had to pay extra for are all worth it and I won't have to pay change fees again! This means I can set my heart on that beautiful June 3rd date that we are set to fly out! We are in travel group ETG 23 which is the AWAA Ethiopia travel group for June 6-13. But we are flying out a couple of days early to spend 2 nights in Dubai. The flights out of here were a bit more tricky as the month of June also means many more travelers in the world. So now we fly out of San Antonio to Dallas and then to New York with a 5 or 6 hour layover before we head over to Dubai (really late at night), landing in Dubai at the end of the day on June 4. We really only have one full day in Dubai, but on that day we are going on a desert safari where there will be camels, a sunset, dinner under traditional tents and belly dancers! Libby's going to LOVE that!

We will arrive in Ethiopia on Saturday June 6.  The Sweeney family was also hoping to leave this week and is now pushed back into this travel group. One of their daughters woke up sick with a high fever yesterday so they are happy things worked out the way they did. Also - with their first set of plane tickets there were too many connections and layovers to bring their 4 year old girl. But now they are bringing her and Libby will have a friend on the trip. I am SO EXCITED about that! They also have some older kids coming who Stacy says are great "kid distracters" so I am thrilled about that as well! Can't wait to meet you Sweeney family and all the other families in our group.

We are making the best of our extra time. Yesterday we worked out at the gym and then sunbathed and played at our neighborhood pool. Today we pulled weeds in our back yard for FOUR HOURS! I am exhausted from that, but my backyard no longer looks like a jungle and when I come home from ET I won't have that on my list of things to do. Next we are going to tackle the garage which is full of JUNK that was left in our old house garage. Billy wanted to take it all to a dump but didn't know where one was.... so my garage is the temporary dump... UGH!

Truly, in just 2 days time, I can see why it was necessary for us to stay home for 2 more weeks. Libby has blossomed in the last 2 days. Things we have been working on regarding manners and being a big girl and not throwing tantrums have finally just clicked. I think she just needed all the craziness to stop and to feel peace from us in order to rest and grow. I think she will mature over the next two weeks in astounding ways and be much more prepared for the big trip AND for becoming a big sister. Seriously, she is not even the same girl today that she was 48 hours ago. Ahhhhh.... 

In under 2 weeks we are OUT OF HERE!

Cindy