I'm Baaaaaack

Hello Friends,

I am going to start journaling again.  This will help me keep you all updated and help me to write things down so I can go back and read them too.

Well, we received our go ahead last Tuesday!  What an amazing thing, we have waited SO long for this day.  Everything is officially done and the next thing is to go with her for a Visa interview to get her paperwork to enter the US.  I am planning on updating while I am gone and when we get back so you can follow our journey of  adjustment together.

I leave in 14 days!!!  So much to do.  I need to make sure I pack for myself, Tati, and pack a suitcase full of donations for the orphanage.  I need to make lists of emergency information to leave for Brian, I need to make lists of information for everyone else.  We need to get things set up for when she arrives so it is like she has always belonged here.  I don't want to not have stuff ready and her think she was an after thought in our hearts.  Brian said it was like bringing home a new baby, except she is 8 yrs old.  So just like you get the baby's room ready, we are preparing things for her arrival as well.  The reason he says it is like bringing home a baby because of the things that differ from the world she knows.  Very basic, for example she doesn't use an indoor toilet where she lives now.  She will have to learn to take a bath, they take showers but I don't know if she has ever sat down in the bath tub and played with toys like a child.  EVERYTHING is going to be new to her.  Of course, we know she will adapt very quickly and with the love of her immediate and extended family she will be fine.

I will be flying out on Oct 4th and WE will return on Oct 17th.  We are going to be hunkering down for a while to get everyone used to our new life but once we venture out everyone in our life will get to share in the joy of our new child. 

More details as they come in.