We're OFF!!!!

We're Leaving TODAY to go get Josiah!!! We got into the hotel way later last night than planned (thanks to procrastination and nightime construction--seriously, three lanes down to one WITH stalled trucks???)

Elizabeth is so excited! My mom has been a LIFESAVER!!! She is part superwoman. We definitely would have been in trouble without her!

We appreciate your prayers!!! For safety, for Josiah, for Elizabeth, for our Embassy appointment on Tuesday!!!

Blessings,
The Babers

I want to GO!!!

Today, I received the BEST gift I could receive right now...pictures of my son! Thank you SO much, Beth!!! (And yes, it is definitely him...I wasn't totally sure until I saw one with his cute little grin, and then I had NO doubt :-))

Right now, the nerves and anxiety are melting away. I just want to go meet my son NOW!!! Not the best thing, but I really couldn't care less what my house looks like right now or what I have packed or where we'll be staying. I just want to go...

Tonight we have Elizabeth's pre-school open house. We registered her, but haven't heard anything all summer. So, I hope she's on the list! She'll end up probably missing the first two weeks anyway, though. And I don't have all the documents I need with me yet. I've just been kind of focused elsewhere. And right now...as you probably guessed...I just don't care. It'll all be figured out at some point.

Tomorrow we go up to pick up my mom. Wednesday we are probably going to be doing last minute shopping and packing everything. We'll be cleaning and doing laundry in-between. (Sorry Uncle Dan and Moms if the house is not as clean as it should be.) I am actually concerned about one thing with the shopping...I need to find good hair stuff for him. I wasn't so concerned before, as they had his hair cut pretty close. But now, my boy has got some hair! I think I'm going to be taking a picture into the supply shop and saying, HELP!

BIG Smile

I have a big smile on my face this evening. :-D Some of our friends through our agency's boards are currently in Ethiopia bringing home their daughter. (Please keep her in your prayers, as this is a difficult transition for a child.) They included this message about Josiah in their blog:

Demarie, your little Josiah is a peanut too! His eyes are just gorgeous! He was actually moved from Gelgela to the transition house today!! We saw him at Gelgela yesterday and then again today at the transition house... I got some really cute pictures of him for you too...!

This time next week, we will be in Ethiopia--hopefully still sleeping our first night there. Josiah will not be in the hotel with us yet, but I'm hoping we will have met our sweet boy!

A Walk to Beautiful

Okay, so I haven't been working like I said I was going to....but there is a good reason! I had heard about THIS PBS Program a while ago, but never got around to watching it. One of the ladies on the BCS discussion boards reminded us about it tonight. I am so glad she did! Thank you, Vicki! (The whole program is available to watch online--you can even do one small piece at a time.)

I don't understand why things happen, but I am amazed at these beautiful women! Their faith and strength are gifts only God can give!

Off to clean now, while I pray and think and cry...

Yea!

Our travel packet arrived from the travel agency today. Praise God! I'm glad to know NOW that we have eTickets, so even if we didn't get them, we would have been okay. :-p Everything looks good with our names and such. We might need to change the seat assignments, but hopefully that won't be too big of a deal. (I haven't been able to tell how the seat are actually arranged.) Still a couple of things we're waiting on.

David's brother Steven came over today to help us move some furniture. It was a BIG help! We're working, but still have a way to go until we're ready for a toddler in the house.

Elizabeth and David went to pick out paint for Josiah's room and for Elizabeth's room. I'll just say, I'm glad I already told Elizabeth we're only going to paint ONE wall in her room because WOW her paint is PINK! We'll see how the paint for Josiah's room turns out. We might need to end up doing some "special techniques" to make it a little lighter ;-). I'll post pics once we are done.

I've just resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to sleep at night for a while. So I'm trying to be as productive as I can with my late nights. Maybe it'll all catch up with me on the plane, and I'll get some gooooood sleep. Okay...I'm off to clean!

Good things

I feel like all I'm posting lately is my frustration, so I wanted to add some positive things.

Elizabeth has been as helpful as she can be. She took the initiative to go through her books this morning to give the "baby" books to Josiah. We had talked about this a couple weeks ago, but hadn't gotten to it yet. She has been excellent about cleaning up her room and her toys when we ask. She wiped down the refrigerator door when I was cleaning the kitchen. She took it upon herself to "clean" the bathroom for me, too!

Our social worker is AWESOME! I called her today to respond to a question, even though it probably could have been answered by email. I just needed to hear a friendly, helpful, understanding voice. And she was all that and more! She had me laughing and smiling when I needed it. She even called me with more information later when she could have just emailed me. We've told her several times we want to convince Grand Rapids that she needs to go with us. But she has her BIL's wedding, so I guess we're okay with that. ;-)

Hopefully M. is going to be able to take care of room reservations for us.

We thought we had a dog/house sitter lined up. Though that plan didn't work, it looks like another option is going to be a good fit.

Many friends have contacted us to let us know they are praying for us and thinking of us. Of course that always lifts our spirits, and reminds us that God is in control!

A Little Frustrated this morning...

I've been crying this morning and there is no real reason. I know it's mostly not big stuff, but with 10 days left until we go, I'm starting to stress a bit. And I've not been able to fall asleep for anything.

I was expecting to have our airline tickets in-hand last night. Well, I discovered this morning they were not sent out until yesterday...and they were sent priority mail, so we will not get them for 3-5 business days! This does not leave much time to make corrections if anything is wrong. Also, the price we were billed by the airline is about $50/ticket higher than we were quoted, which I understand the reason, but we were given no warning or invoice. I had to call and ask to get it.

We have not heard anything about hotel reservations. I asked the travel agent to make these for us a week ago. I understand that they email with the hotels in Addis, and this can take some time. But a week? I was trying to save our in-country rep the trouble of doing this for us, but if I don't hear something from the t.a. today (I emailed for the second time since our request), I'm just going to ask him to do it.

I'm going to hang the cat...

I've been snapping at poor Elizabeth all morning...

David is going to have to go find me some medication with a sleep aid because this not falling asleep until 3:30, 4, 4:30 a.m. is not helping anything!

On a positive note, we heard from the BCS family traveling at the same time we are!!! I'm excited to meet them!

Ready or not?

I feel like there is nothing to do right now to get ready--other than clean and pack. And I'm not doing either of those very well. Yet my mind won't stop spinning with every little thing I SHOULD be doing.

I check BB all the time and blogs, but write nothing because I feel like I have nothing to contribute. (Yes! I'm going crazy waiting to hear something from our friends traveling right now. Even if they say nothing about Josiah, I still want to hear from them and know how things are going.)

I feel exhausted, and still cannot sleep. My sleep schedule is moving in the wrong direction. I think I'm about 12 hours off of what I will need to be in Ethiopia. Normally, it would only be 7 hours.

I want to go get my son now! Still I feel incredibly inadequate for the task before me.

Taking it to the Lord of All!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay...I'm way tired. Now I have old OLD school D.C. Talk running through my mind.

Take it to the Lord.
Take Take Take
Who you take it to?
Take it to the Lord ya'll.
We gotta take it to the mighty Lord.

Sometimes I forget...

...that my joyful helper, excited big sister, normally gregarious daughter is still a little girl who needs reassurance from her mommy and daddy.

Poor Elizabeth has been dealing with a messy, chaotic house with no place to really play, as well as a crabby mommy who is short on sleep and patience. It's no wonder she had a meltdown today. She screamed at the top of her lungs that she did not like cleaning up her toys and she was not going to do it. (Thankfully, she actually was putting her toys away during all this ranting.) Normally, in the state I'm in, this would have sent me over the edge. But God gave me an extra dose of patience and understanding during this time, and I was able to hear some of the fear she's having through the rants.

When she was finished, I just pulled her in my lap for a while and let her settle down. Then we were able to talk. I asked her if she is scared about going to Ethiopia. (This was deduced from some of her rantings.) She said that she is afraid of going to a place far away and not knowing any of the kids...that she won't know their names. I reminded her that we'll be right with her the whole time, and that she can ask the kids' names. I told her that we will make sure we learn some important words in these next few weeks so that we can communicate with the kids.

This brings up a struggle I've been having. I absolutely want to be honest and real with her about things we will face. I try to gently explain things to her ahead of time so that she will be prepared when she goes through it, all the while assuring her of how everything will be okay. (For example, we told her that in going to Ethiopia, we will mostly hear other languages, see people who may dress or look different than we are used to, and try food that is new. And that's fine! It'll be fun to try new things, and God makes all people unique.)

But it seems sometimes me doing that makes her fearful or worried before she even gets to an experience. How do I balance the need for preparation with causing her to over think things and worry?

Plans are Made!

We have travel plans finalized!

We'll be flying on Ethiopian Airlines, which is very nice because we won't have to get off the plane at all. We'll just have a refueling stop in Rome.

Leaving Dulles Airport on Friday, August 29th
Return to Dulles on Monday the 8th at 7:55 A.M. (oops had wrong date)
We're planning to stay at the Millenium hotel in Addis.

Sorry, friends...I know this doesn't make a group welcome at the airport very possible. School will have started by then...and it's just really early on a weekday ;-)

Now that I can relax about our plans, I guess I need to get back to cleaning out Josiah's room--and the rest of the house.

Still working...

...on travel arrangements. Sorry, if this is boring. You don't have to read. I'm just trying to get my thoughts straight.

Yesterday, I contacted a recommended travel agent with details about our trip, but hadn't heard anything, so figured I would hear until Monday. I'm okay with that. It'll be a peaceful weekend, and then we'll get everything rolling first thing Monday.

I looked at possible airlines and found one that worked date wise. It was a little more than expected, but we can work with that. Then I found another with dates that will work at much better prices. Unfortunately, that airline will not work for other reasons. The others I looked at were ridiculously priced. Okay, so at least I have one airline that will work.

Today, we actually get a message from the travel agent. Yeah! I'm so excited because the prices are awesome. I call my mom to let her know. She's excited! Oh, Fudge...the dates are not right. We're supposed to be there Friday, but with this itinerary, we won't get there until Saturday morning. We tell travel agent that won't work, but she says the only other option on that airline (for that PRICE) is to leave Monday! That's not good.

So, right now I'm left with a lot of questions and trying to figure out our options:

For Agency
~Do we ABSOLUTELY have to be there Friday (and if so what time)?

~If so, could just one of us be there Friday and the other arrive Saturday with Mom and Elizabeth?

For Travel Agent
~What kind of deals can they get us on another airline that work better with our dates?

My weekend is not so peaceful anymore. I'm anxious to find out the best way to do this! Praise God we have a little time to get this done. Otherwise I'd be totally crazy right now. First thing Monday morning, I'll be on the phone!

p.s. Holly, we are planning to stay at the Millennium. NFG is booked, and I think everywhere else will be too out of the way. We'll ask M about that when we get our flights figured out :-)

We're Going to Ethiopia!

We found out that we need to be in Ethiopia August 29! We'll need to be there for about a week!

Now begings the CRAZY time of making flight reservations and such! This is a very busy time for travel, so finding flights is not going to be easy. We'll let you know when we have arrangements.

Please keep us in your prayers. I'm already stressing :-p :-)

This is a Test!

I am getting anxious about traveling. Yesterday, I was even panicking when the phone rang because I didn't want it to be the call to go. YES! Of course I want to go get my son! But our house and my mental state are no where near ready to travel quite yet. I will make sure I'm ready--well at least the mental state--whenever it is actually time to go.

So, anyway, I am sending a test through email to cover all our posting bases when we are in Ethiopia!

Not sure where the picture is going to end up yet, but this is part of our "photo shoot" for pictures to send to Josiah.

Better late than never, right?

This is my favorite wedding picture...even though our faces aren't in it. (Well, maybe that's the reason it's my favorite. ;-))

Grandpa Baber, David, Dad Baber

I just think this one is funny. It's after the cake smearing...err cutting.

Well, just a little smearing.

Awww!

What a sweet husband I have! No wonder he kept asking if I had blogged about our special day...blog etiquette my foot! ;-) Hehehe

Well, since David told you Saturday was our 5th Anniversary, I'll post some pictures to go along with it. Oops...this one will have to do until I find the other hard drive. :-p

This was our "engagement picture." Look how young and SKINNY we were! Hah!

5th Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to My Beautiful Wife.

My Prayer to start the next 5 years:

My Father in Heaven, thank you for being involved in my life. Thank you for joining me with a woman whose heart desires to have you lead her life. Thank you for being there for every part of our first 5 years of marriage, and for being there for every year here on out. Thank you for the many friends and family members that have been a part of our lives. Your Child, D.

Future Rock Star

Elizabeth has always loved music and dancing. Lately she's been making up songs ALL the time. This is one from the other day while we were walking.

I love my mommy
I love my daddy
I love everyone
Of my friends
I love the world
with the blue sky
I love the wo-o-o-orld...

Tonight she was singing at the table. David and I were just kind of laughing. He asked her why she is singing.

She said, "I'm going to be a ROCK STAR!"