It's HERE

That's right, the Big Binder has arrived. I devoured it last night...then felt nauseous and ate a brownie to calm my nerves. If we hadn't realized it already, it was crystal clear last night: We Are Embarking On Something HUGE!!!

And, while a number of questions were answered by the BB, a bajillion more sprouted in amongst the pages. And our beautiful plans I shared in the last post...well, I'm not sure about ANYTHING anymore. I'm having SO much trouble wrapping my mind around all that needs to be done when we come back to the States. This is one of the many places I am so very thankful for our adoption coordinator. She is extremely helpful with all of these questions and never complains when I write her one email and then turn around and have to send her at least one more with questions I forgot to mention in the first.

I think my favorite parts of the binder were the pages that outlined in detail all that we would be doing in Addis Ababa when we go, and all of the packing lists for the trip.

Jared and I even went to IKEA to do a little crib-scouting and baby planning--that was WAY fun!

So, to sum up, we got the Big Binder, ate a brownie, answered questions, thought of questions, dreamed of Addis, and scouted for baby things...not too eventful, but a definite update!

P.S. There may be an opportunity for you to help during this process besides, of course, your prayers for us and baby girl. We will be collecting items to take to the care center in Addis and leave with them. Things like Infant tylenol, Mylicon drops, socks, shoes, blankets, bibs, etc. A lot of this we cannot get easily here, so we may be asking, if those of you in Hollis are so inclined, to collect a small duffle-bag full of things that we can take with us--then whomever comes to get our kiddos to take them to the US ahead of us, will bring us the bag and we'll take it on to Addis.

P.P.S Nothing is for sure in ANY travel plans...so the previous opportunity hinges on whether or not someone from Hollis will actually be coming to Rome before we go to Ethiopia. Please don't go out and start this project now. We have many, many months of waiting still. I was just greasing wheels by mentioning it :-)