Less than a week and paying it forward...

Wow, it's been way to long for a post ... we've been trying to get so much done before travel ... speaking of which ... 6.5 days til we travel!! That is just crazy! Seriously. This time next week we'll be over the Atlantic somewhere ... hopefully sleeping ... probably with the help of medication :) ... on our way to Rome to refuel and then to Addis Ababa. Unreal to be this close to the end of this part of the God journey ... knowing the journey is really just starting...

I've been busy trying to finish a web project for a friend. That has been taking up any free time. We've been busy buying things for Silas. Last week we found out his latest measurements ... it said he was 15.8 pounds and 28 inches long. The update also gave us a little info on him...

"A" is a content baby most of the time. He is sweet and adorable. He knows really well his special mothers and he is very attached with them. He recognizes people, but may take some time to adjust to new faces he is not familiar with. Due to his attachment to his special mothers, it will be good to prepare that it may take him some time to adjust to being held and cared for by his new adoptive parents.

Sweet and adorable ... we already knew that :) It was great to hear that he has bonded to his special mothers. It is going to be very difficult to say goodbye to them ... especially hearing how much the special mothers love our boys ... we heard this from a family that recently traveled whose boy had the same special mothers.

Amber has been working hard on photo albums for the special mothers and birth family. She also did most the legwork on the birth family letter. There is a possibility that we may get to meet Silas' birth family ... which, at this time, I can't even comprehend. To put into words the love and strength they've shown ... wow.

We finished the major packing tonight ... I think we will be right at the limits on every bag ... 4 check bags and 4 carry on bags... hopefully our scale is close ... I think I'm going to go to a UPS Store and see if they would be generous to let us use their scale to verify the weight. It's crazy how fast you can get to 50 pounds in a bag. Our bags are filled with mostly donations ... from clothes to scrubs for the special mothers to diapers to formula to fun toys for the older kiddos at Hannah's Hope. We will definitely be traveling lighter when we come home. We did take an extra duffel bag for purchases we make in Ethiopia ... mostly things for Silas as he gets older...

We had a travel call with our agency's family coordinator on Wednesday ... it was a call to remind us on bonding and attachment with our child. This Tuesday we will have a travel call with our fill-in case manager. This call will be to answer any questions we have and to go over the documents we need to take with us for the adoption. We have a fill-in case manager because our case manager is in ETHIOPIA! We will get to see and hang out with Julie while we are there ... so great to share our experience with her. She is actually over there now ... and probably has loved on our boy :)

Speaking of our boy being loved on, we know how much updates meant to us from families that traveled before us. They meant everything to Amber and I. So we'd like to pay to forward ... to families that are waiting, we'd love to check in on and love on your kiddos. Feel free to email me at luchttd AT yahoo DOT com.

I created a big list of travel questions and families were so grateful to answer them for me ... big shout-out THANK YOU's to Maria, Renee, Matt, Dawn, and Jody for taking the time to answer all my questions ... I'm working on compiling all the answers into a document ... email me if you'd like the list.

We've had a few questions from local people regarding when we will return back home. I will post our return flight information soon ... you are more than welcomed to meet us at the airport to meet Mr. Silas. Please keep in mind that we will be almost 30 hours into travel so we may not be the most alert bunch. If you can't make it out, no worries. We will probably be in hibernation for a while at the house to get him comfortable with his new home and to get him in a routine ... but would love to introduce him to you soon!

Alright, struggling to keep eyes open so off to bed ... GOOD NIGHT!