We're leaving on a jet plane!

The great news is that Andy was able to get our flights nailed down yesterday! Here's our travel schedule in brief:

• We are leaving on Saturday from San Francisco at about 1:00. Caedmon will be with us on this leg of the flight.
• We will arrive in Salt Lake City where Andy's sister, Meaghan, lives. We will all spend the night at Meaghan's house and then Andy & I will leave at the crack of dawn the next morning.
• We then fly from Salt Lake to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Addis Ababa. 
• We will arrive in Addis Ababa at 6:50 PM on Monday which is 8:50 AM California time.

It's really neat how it worked out to take Caedmon to Salt Lake...Andy's family came out to visit us at Easter a few months ago. I was sharing with Meaghan the news that we had just received about having to travel to Ethiopia twice and I wasn't sure what we'd do for Caedmon on the first trip. Meaghan immediately said, "I could help. Maybe I could come out to stay with him."

Meaghan has a little girl, Olivia, who Caedmon absolutely adores. In fact, I believe the feeling is quite mutual! So, I thought that would be a great idea.

When we found out our tentative court date on Friday, we gave Meaghan a call and found out that she wouldn't be able to come out here because her mom (Andy's stepmom) and sister had already purchased flights to go to Salt Lake that week. Bummed for two seconds then, "Hey, could you bring Caedmon to us?"

I'm not sure why that idea hadn't crossed my mind, but it makes a whole lot more sense. I had actually been feeling quite bad about asking Meaghan to come to our place where she doesn't know anyone and doesn't know how to get around. It makes so much more sense to take him there!

SO, it "just so happens" that Caedmon will get to spend a whole week getting loved on (and maybe slightly spoiled) by his Mimi, Aunt Meaghan, and Aunt Danie. And a whole week playing with, "fighting" with, and making memories with his sweet cousin, Olivia! Only God could have worked that one out!

Today schedule:

• Bank for travel money 
• Trader Joe's for travel snacks 
• Target for last minute supply run 
• Lunch at the playground with two sweet friends 
• Pick up my friend, Kim, from the airport (We scheduled this visit two weeks ago and thought there was no way we'd be traveling to Ethiopia on such short notice! Oops!) 
• Dollar Store for a few more donations 
• Youth Group tonight

 8 DAYS UNTIL OUR JULY 8TH COURT DATE!

We are a go!

We got a phone call this morning at 7:36 saying that the Ethiopian judge confirmed our July 8th court date. We were also informed that we have to BE IN Addis by Monday which means that we're actually going to have to leave here on Saturday! (FOUR DAYS!)

By 8:15 AM Andy, Caedmon, and I were at the travel health clinic to receive our vaccinations. (no shots for Caedo as he'll be staying stateside.) The travel clinic is the place where they try to convince you that you are likely to die from some strange, exotic disease if you travel outside the protective walls of the United States of America. DO NOT drink the water, DO NOT eat from street vendors, DO NOT share needles with the locals, and for heaven's sakes, WEAR BUG REPELLENT!!! or you may die, of course.

We left there 2 hours and $500 later.

Caedmon & I dropped Andy off at the office where he has been trying to juggle staff meetings with scheduling a rather complicated international flight that will commence 4 days from now. No pressure or anything.

Caedmon & I headed off to Costco where we bought a load of granola bars, fruit snacks, baby wipes, and other donations.

We are making progress, but we still need prayers to help us get this flight nailed down. It's the biggest piece of the puzzle that still needs to fall into place.

9 DAYS UNTIL OUR JULY 8TH COURT DATE!

Craziness is in Full Swing

My updates this week will likely be quick as there is so much to do. It's not quite 8:45 and I've already called my mother-in-law, our doctor, the travel health clinic, and our adoption agency. Andy is working on plane reservations via a couple different travel agents.

We found out from our adoption agency this morning that the Ethiopian judge is "still deciding" on whether or not our court date will be July 8th. She'll let us know tomorrow. WHAT?!?!? Nothing like giving us plenty of notice! So at this point, we still don't know if we are leaving next Monday or not, but we need to proceed as if we are just in case.

Realized you're supposed to get vaccinations 4-6 weeks before you travel. Oops!

Today my errands are:

1. Best Buy to buy a couple converters/surge protecters
2. TJ Max/Ross to find a couple inexpensive pieces of luggage
3. Library

Also on the list to do in the next 4 days are the bank, vaccinations, Trader Joe's, Target, and Costco. I've got at least 3 "to-do" lists scattered about and my mind is quite cluttered. Lots of excitement and nervous energy.

What to pray for:

• Pray that we would get a confirmed court date quickly so that we can nail down our plans
• Pray that we would be able to find plane tickets at a decent price on such short notice

 10 DAYS UNTIL JULY 8TH COURT DATE

Yippeeeeee!!!

Yesterday, Andy & I received a phone call from our adoption agency telling us that we have a tentative court date of July 8th (12 days from now!). They will hopefully get that confirmed by Monday and then we will be leaving the following Monday! Ahhhhhh!

SOOOO excited! SOOOOO much to do!

The count down to meeting our precious boy is on!  Once we pass court we will be able to share his beautiful pictures with all of you! Please pray for us as we prepare to travel. We are in the process of working out arrangements for Caedmon, plane tickets, vaccinations, etc... A lot to get done in one week!

I will try my best to keep you posted!

Happy Father's Day!

I've had the privilege of observing two great father's up close during my lifetime. I am forever indebted to my dad for the way that he shaped me and molded me into who I am today. And I am so thankful that my son, Caedmon, gets to learn how to be a man by watching Andy. There is no man I would rather Caedmon turn out to be more like than his daddy.

One lesson I've learned in watching both of them is how important it is for dads to fight for the heart of their child. 

It is no secret, Caedmon has been a "mama's boy" from the moment he was born. It wasn't such a big deal at first because there wasn't a whole lot Andy could do for a nursing newborn. But as Caedmon grew, we both realized that this had the potential to turn into a big problem. Caedmon only wanted me to comfort him...me to carry him...me to feed him. 

Every day when I noticed it was getting close to the time Andy would arrive home from work, I would begin prepping Caedmon. "Daddy will be home soon. When Daddy walks in the door, let's run over to him and give him a big hug saying, "Yea! Daddy's home!"

Instead, the scene often looked more like this: Daddy walks in the door and Caedmon turns his back to him and yells, "No, Daddy, you can't play with us!" (If you're wondering, we did discipline that behavior, but that's not the point of this post.)


Even though Andy & I both realized that Caedmon is a small child and doesn't realize how lucky he is to have a father who loves him, those words can be really hurtful...and actually make you kinda mad. A normal (although immature) reaction would be, "Fine. I don't want to play with you either. I'll go do what I want to do." 


Andy & I had a conversation last summer about this problem and what to do about it. We both recognized that Andy was going to have to fight for Caedmon's heart. That meant that he would have to really step it up in playing a very active role in the day-to-day parenting of Caedmon. For our family, it looked like this:

1. Andy became much more involved in disciplining Caedmon. If Caedmon misbehaved while Andy was home, Andy began to be the parent to discipline him almost every time. As counter-intuitive as that may seem, it was amazing how that one adjustment endeared Caedmon to Andy at such a deeper level.
2. Andy instituted a consistent Boy's Club that he VERY rarely misses. Every single Saturday morning, Andy takes Caedmon for a couple hours. They may go to the playground, or get donuts, or run some errands. But it is time for them to spend together and Caedmon really looks forward to it.

 At times Caedmon is still so rude to Andy and difficult to be tender with. But Andy realizes that it is HIS God-given responsibility to fight for the heart of his child. No one else can do that for him and if Andy doesn't fight for it now while his young, the fight will be much more difficult when Caedmon is older.


I don't know if you have a child today whose heart seems cold toward you. Let me just exhort you: "Do not give up on them!!!" It is YOUR job as the parent to do whatever it takes to win their heart. Some methods (i.e. adding more discipline and structure) may seem counter-intuitive. But get some help. Do the hard work. And in the end you will have an amazing reward.


"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who are trained by it."   Hebrews 12:11
  

Happy Father's Day to the men I love so much!