In Ethiopia

Wendy and Mark should be in Ethiopia and should have already seen Kaleab and Isaac. I have not heard a thing and it is killing me. I was suppose to be there with them but about a month ago my dad's health was failing and I did not want to chance being in Ethiopia if something happened to him.

Now that my dad is doing better, I wish I was in Ethiopia. Oh well, let's assume that the boys are with their new mom, dad and grandma. Mark's mom went with them. I'm sure they were probably pretty busy today and they are probably getting some much needed sleep. I am so anxious to hear how the boys are.

One thing is for sure, they are now dressed like little boys.

I'm not much help but I thought I would post something because you are all probably also on edge - knowing that soon this will be your journey.

Take care all of you and keep the Tanis family in your prayers.

Mom

They're off!!

This is Wendy's mom. They have boarded the plane in Washington, D.C., heading to Ethiopia at 7:30. They are really excited and, of course, so am I. I will be posting while they are away.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Marge

1 day to go. . .

At this point everything seems very surreal. I can't believe tomorrow morning I will be getting up early to start our trip to Ethiopia. If everything goes well we will be holding our little boys on Monday when you all get up. Let's hope I remember to pack everything that we will need. Besides that I wanted to give you all of our flight information:

Saturday, November 10
Depart from Detroit at 2:30 pm
Arrive to Dulles at 4:06 pm

Depart from Dulles at 8:30 pm
Arrive in ETHIOPIA at 7:40 pm (Sunday, November 11)in EST 12:40 pm

Tuesday, November 20
Depart from Ethiopia at 10:15 pm

Wednesday, November 21
Arrive to Dulles at 7:20 am

Depart Dulles to Detroit on United flight number 7292 at 12:27 pm
Arrive in Detroit at 2:01 PM

I will try to post once more before we leave and then my mom will be posting for us while we are gone. Please keep us in our prayers throughout our trip.

Leaving in 6 days!!

I still can't believe I will be in Ethiopia in a week from now, FINALLY! Well we have made reservation at The Sidama Lodge this place was highly recommended by Alemu so hopefully it will be wonderful. We have booked a double room which means that there is 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a sitting area and a kitchen, I will give you all an update on what we think of the Sidama Lodge after we have stayed there a couple of days. I think it is right downtown, with lots of resturants & interent cafes within walking distance. I have received a couple of pictures of Sidama Lodge if you would like to see it however, I do not know what the rooms look like.

Besides that we were quite busy this weekend. My sister-in-laws and mother-in-laws threw me a shower on Saturday, they did a great job and I extermly enjoyed it. Thanks everyone! Of course the boys will be spoiled by everyone when they get home.

Saturday night Mark and I met up with the Doug and his wife (her name is escaping me right now), they adopted a little boy from the Mother Therasa Orphange in Ethiopia last February, he had some major health concerns but he is doing remarkable today. It was nice to talk about their trip and get pointers on several places that we have to see, and places to eat at. I have my list ready to go.

Today we ran some last minute errands and trying to put our house back in order before we leave.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend and is ready for the week to begin.

9 days and counting down . . . .

Ok, it is only 9 days until we travel and I am slightly stressing out. I received a call from Kurt today and it turns out that the New Flower Guesthouse is not located in a safe neighborhood and Alemu has security concerns. After seeing pictures of the neighborhood and talking it over with Mark we have cancelled our reservation at the New Flower Guesthouse. I feel a little guilty about this decision since I gave Helen my word that we were staying there and it is not easy for me to go back on my word however, at this point we have to do what is best for our family. The upside to all this is Alemu has found a couple of other options for us to stay at, whether they have room for us is the question. I will let you know where we will be staying as soon as I figure something out.

Besides that there is one upside of the day we received the boys adoption decree and birth certificates. Although I had no doubt that everything was legal, to see our names as parents on their birth certificate was amazing. The birth certificates contained birth dates of course they are estimated, maybe not for Kaleab's his may be his actually birthday. That was the good news for the day.

It is official, in January when I go back to work I will only be going back at part time. Mark and I knew this was coming since the housing market has not been that great for the last couple of years, but to tell you the truth I have never not worked full time. My boss is being very flexible about my schedule, I think I will be working M-TH 8-1, or 9-2. At the end of December Mark will be changing shifts so that he will be working nights (4pm -12 am) which will eliminate the need for daycare. The upside of this is that I will be able to spend more time with the boys which I am looking forward to.

Well, that's it for today. Hopefully by tomorrow night we will have a place to stay.

12 days and counting . . .

I can hardly believe in 12 days we will be getting on a plane for an experience of a lifetime. Throughout this whole adoption process it seemed like the end would never actually be here and now as we prepare to bring our two little boys home it seems that we are so close to the end. Mark and I have counted our blessings many times throughout this adoption, it has been an amazing journey. We have met many people that have become friends along the way, our court date went smooth (our hearts go out to those whose have not went as smoothly as ours) and we have two darling little boys waiting for us in Ethiopia.

Mark and I will be unable to attend the next get together as we will be beginning our journey on that day. We will be thinking about all of you that are waiting for your referrals, or waiting to travel or waiting to get the completed I-171H form and knowing that there will be an sweet little one waiting for you at the end of your journey. We know that is just the beginning of a life fully of new and exciting experiences for both our little boys and us and we can't wait.

During Beth and Deanna trip to pick up their little ones they took pictures of our boys and that made a tremendous difference while we waited. If I can do that for you that are waiting please let me know.

Sorry to keep this so short however I have a lot of cleaning, childproofing our house, and packing to complete.

Answer to Questions

To answer some of the questions I have been receiving we are flying in and out of Detroit.

To answer questions about the length of our stay. Since our embassy appointment is on Thursday, November 15 and the boys' VISA won't be ready until Monday we have to stay throught the weekend. Ethiopian Air has flights to Addis 5 days a week however they are not flying on Sunday, November 12 so the earliest we could get into Addis Ababa if we did not fly out on Saturday is Tuesday night. Then on the return trip we would have left on Monday night however Ethiopian Airlines does not have a flight leaving for Dulles on Monday. Hence we choice to get to Addis Ababa on Sunday night and get our children on Monday at this point I just want to hold my boys and a couple of extra days in Ethiopia isn't the end of the world. We will have several days were we can just relax - maybe even go to the Hilton pool?

At this point we are hoping to stay at the New Flower Guest House, I guess we will see about that on Monday.

If you have any questions along the way please let me know I will be more than happy to give you any insight I have. And yes I plan on updating my blog from Ethiopia so you can all follow along if you wish.