We Think She's "Gracie Lu" and Here's Our Itinerary:

Billy, Libby and I are feeling pretty settled on calling our Ethiopian princess "Gracie Lu". Libby continues to call her "Lulu" - that is fine by me (and cute)! Sorry for messing with all your minds and causing you all to have to think through 3 names before getting to the new/final one! But you all love me so we can get passed it, right? LOL!

The Itinerary: Here is how things will play out throughout our trip to and from Ethiopia. Family,  you may want to print this out so you know when/where we are throughout the week. You can copy it and paste it into a word doc and then print it from there if you want.

To get to ET:

1. arrive in San Antonio airport by 5:45AM on Wednesday, June 3.

2. Fly out on American at 7:40AM to DFW. (1 hour and 5 minute flight)  - land at: 8:45AM CT

3. Hang out in DFW for 3 hours.

4. Fly out of DFW at 11:45AM to NYC/KENNEDY (3 hour and 30 min. flight) -land at: 4:15PM/Eastern time

5. Hang out in NYC/KENNEDY for 6 hours and 45 minutes! Hope there is something fun to do at that airport!

6. Fly out of NYC at 11PM/Eastern Time and remain on that flight for 12 hours and 45 minutes all the way to Dubai! Please pray that Libby will sleep - and pray also that we can move to some bulk head seats where she can lay in a sleeping bag on the floor rather than laying across our laps!

7. Land in Dubai on their Thursday, June 4 at 7:45 PM (Texas Time = 10:45AM June 4). This is 9 hours ahead of Central Time

8. Try to sleep and then on Friday, June 5 we have a free day until the afternoon when we go on the Sundowner Safari - a desert safari with tents, camels, sunset and a whole meal. Oh - and belly dancers!

Then, finally on Saturday, June 6 we fly out of Dubai to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! We fly out at 8:25 AM (11:25 PM, June 5 Texas Time) and land in ET at 11:30AM (3:30AM June 6 Texas Time)! ET is 8 hours ahead of Texans.  This is a little over a four hour flight.

When we arrive in ET we will be picked up by our agency's in-country staff and taken to the Yebsabi Guest House where we can rest and wait for other families to arrive through Sunday, June 7. The guest house is actually more like a hotel with suites. Here are a few pictures I swiped from another family's blog:

MONDAY JUNE 8 - Go to the Hilton Hotel in the morning for orientation meeting and have lunch there. Then we go to meet our baby girl at the Transitional Home!!!!! This is the day we will refer to as METCHA DAY (the day we meet Gracie Lu!). We are encouraged to use those 2 hours at the TH to visit with our Gracie and the nannies there!

Then we're back to the Guest House. And then head out for a group dinner at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant.

TUESDAY JUNE 9 - GOTCHA DAY! We shop in the morning. In the afternoon we go to pick up Gracie Lu! We will also have a chance to ask the nanny some questions, POSSIBLY meet the birth mother, hand out care packages (we have packages for 3 other families and photo consents for those 3 families plus one other) AND give the nannies/TH staff their gifts. That will be a busy day right there! I think we also have a coffee ceremony and then in the evening we are back to the guest house for our first night with Gracie Lu! 

Wednesday, June 10 - life with Gracie begins fresh and new - we have alone time with our family and new baby girl in the morning. We have lunch on our own until we have to be at the Embassy appointment. That appointment could take 1-2 hours so we were encouraged to eat a good lunch before we go. After the embassy appointment we do some more shopping and site seeing!!

Thursday, June 11 - In the morning we have the option to go visit 2 orphanages - one being Kids Care. While I really want to do that, I'm going to play it be ear. Our girls may just need to be still that day. We'll see. Then we have lunch as a group and dinner on our own. The Zebra Grill is within walking distance so I'm sure that's where we'll be Thursday night!

Friday, June 12 - we have sightseeing and shopping in the morning. But we also need to pack everything back up because we start our flight home on this evening!!!

Here's how the flights break down:

Leave Addis Ababa at 7:35 PM (11:35 AM Texas Time) and land in Dubai at 12:45 AM (3:45PM Texas Time, June 12)- now, June 13 in Dubai (that flight is 4 hours and 10 minutes).

Stay in hotel in Dubai for a few hours and then fly out of Dubai at 9:05 PM (12:05 AM Texas Time, June 13) and fly SIXTEEN HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES to Houston. We land at 4:25 PM Texas Time! Would, again, covet your prayers over that long flight with Libby and Gracie and my 6'4", hatin' cramped spaces, hubby! 

It will STILL be June 13 (the longest day of our lives!) and we will go through customs/immigration in Houston and then take off out of Houston on Continental at 7:15PM. We land in San Antonio (home sweet home!) on Saturday June 13 at 8:16PM!!!! -thoroughly happy & exhausted after close to 35 hours of traveling!