Information on travel.

Here's a quick list of things I wished I had known before we traveled or things that I think may be helpful to remember...

1. Dubai has a beach. And resorts with water parks made for kids, or adults who act like kids. Being that we have not EVER had a family vacation that was pure vacation we would have loved to stayed a day or two and played. Bonus: to get ourselves acclimated to the new time zone.

2. On Emirates there is a place at your seat to charge your laptop, phone and ipad. No need to buy that fancy spendy airplane charger.

3. When you land in ET you must get your visa before going through customs. Yes, I know it says that in the arrival packet sent by Gladney...but try remembering what your name is after traveling for two days much less a tip about visas! The sign is small minute un-see-able with the naked eye. There is a little room to the left of the customs line with windows, you go inside of it to purchase your visa. It looks like a door you should not go through, and you might feel as if you're walking into someone's private office, but this is where you need to be.

4. I was worried about the pollution and diesel fumes with our 4yr old who has asthma. She had no probs. I guess the high altitude and dry air offset the fumes. We came prepared for a constant asthma attack and yay! did NOT need a drop of any of it.

5. While we're talking dry. Bring some lotion and some lip balm. For realz.

6. You probably will not need a medical pack for each person traveling stocked with enough pepto, immodium, gatorade, bandaids, headache pills, etc. We got lucky and no one had "issues" and now I realize the likelyhood of every person having them is small. So enough meds for one or two people is probably fine.

7. Pack more travel tissues than you think you would possible need. Granted we had two sick grandmothers in the beginning, but even the healthy ones of us needed tissues. That pollution gets your nose working overtime.

8. Little bottles of hand sanitizer are great, but the packets that are sanitizing wipes we used most often. To clean your hands and sanitize in one action was very convenient. (see Mantra 2 below)

Two mantras to start working on now:

Mantra 1
Do not put your toothbrush under the tap. Do not put your toothbrush under the tap. Do not put your toothbrush under the tap. Do not put your toothbrush under the tap.
(You will probably still do this, and it will probably be OK. But you will wonder. You might even lose a bit a sleep the first time. But you WILL survive.)

Mantra 2
Do not put the tissue in the potty. Do not put the tissue in the potty. Do not put the tissue in the potty. I repeat, Do NOT put the tissue in the potty. Doh! You did it! You put the tissue in the potty. Now WHAT!?! Are YOU going to be the reason the plumbing backs up in the guest house? Hmmmmm, will anyone know it was ME? No, but then you will also NOT have a potty, will it matter if anyone knows it was YOU if you don't have a potty? Pause. Sigh. ewwwwwwwwwwwww. Wash hands. Sanitize hands. Repeat at least once. Wipe the ewwwwwwwwww look off your face and return to your group.
(I promise you will do this more than once. Maybe even three or four times. You or your 4 year old might even do it while saying this mantra out loud to keep yourself from doing it. ewwwww.)

Beautiful.

My head just might explode.

We leave for Ethiopia in less than 24 hours.
Lots left to do, but the exhaustion is being kept at bay from the sheer excitement.
Kind of surreal that this is REALLY happening.
Two years of paperwork, talking, planning, more paperwork...and we are almost on the other side.

My amazing sister will be updating everyone on December 22 with the good news of us passing court. Come back to meet our beautiful boy. Baby B!

See, look at me, HOPEFUL and all that jazz.

It's all good in the hood my peeps.
Catch ya on the flip.

xH

p.s. if you could throw some good health vibes our way that would be awesome! Both moms and Davis are not feeling 100% and Rolyn and I would love to stay well!

For those of you waiting who need a moment of levity...

I present to you:
Double Dream Hands



I so needed this today. Thank you to this hilarious mama for the tip.

Nerves of butter...melted butter.

You know that saying Nerves of Steel? Well, yeah, that does not describe me right now.

I'm not worried about flying 14 hours with a four year old, the plane crashing or being felt up by at TSA agent. I'm not worried about how we'll get all of this humanitarian aid packed into 10 suitcases and still have enough room for OUR clothes (THANK YOU to all my peeps!)...or worried that said suitcases won't make to Ethiopia.

AND after speaking with the National Visa Center this morning, I'm no longer worried that our fingerprints expiring will hold us up on bringing Baby B home. BTW, it only took me three days of constant calling to get through. (Apparently it's easier at 8 a.m. for those of you that might need them in the future.) The agent I spoke with assured me that he thinks or assumes that the "thing" that has posted to the embassy in Addis Ababa would be our approval letter. He couldn't actually see it but "what else could it be?" errr, ummmm, okaaaaaay. I'll take that!

What does have me shaking in my boots/sick to my stomach/feeling as solid as melted butter? Our court date. December 22, 2010. I have heard all about how the procedure will go down. I know there might be a lot of standing around and waiting and uncomfortable-ness energy. I expect all of that.

We are one of the first families traveling since the court process has (again) changed. Previously MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) would give their opinion approximately one month before we would be scheduled to appear in court. IF we did not receive a favorable opinion from MOWA, we would have some time to gather any additional information or our agency to gather additional information they might request or could be missing from our file or Baby B's file.

With the new process MOWA will give their opinion on our case the same day (+HOPEFULLY+) that we appear in court. Word on the street is MOWA might be a little backed up with issuing letters. Which could mean we might not hear the phrase "He's all YOURS!" on 12/22.

I am trying my best not to get ahead of myself and prepare my heart for delays. Kind of how I prepared myself for a referral in September/October, so I'd be surprised if it came earlier. But I think we all know that this is hard. Impossible really.

Today I decided I'm going to remain hopeful that all will go just as planned and on 12/22 you can come to this blog and "meet" our son. And honestly being positive and hopeful feels waaaaay better than not.

But... if someone would be willing to let me borrow their Nerves of Steel that would be great. I promise to give them back all clean and shiny.

:)


p.s. I've had the discussion with many friends and family about the process and how and WHY it takes so long when there are so many kids that need a family. And yes, it DOES take a long time... and the paperwork!? At times I thought it was going to kill me. BUT the sad reality is that adoption can be corrupt, without parents these kids are most vulnerable. Because of this we took great care in selecting an AMAZING agency (Gladney Center for Adoption) and welcome the extra steps to insure that all of these beautiful children are being PROTECTED. Every. Step. Of. The. Way.

Hot off the presses!

We are printed. yahoooooo!
I was all set with our sob story of why we showed up 13 days early to get our fingerprints...you know, how this delay could delay bringing our baby home. I had worked on my best smile, my best Southern Charm that has been subdued demolished after years of living in NYC, I even worked on some tears. I. Was. Ready. 'No' was not going to be part of my morning. And then, we walked right in and they didn't even bat an eyelash. I'm not sure they even looked at the date of our appointment much less wanted to listen to the spiel we had all ready to go.

So there ya have it. Fingerprints. Check.

Moving on to stressing about 'Will the mail gods smile upon us?' Oh, yes please. Let's get all the paperwork to where it needs to be asap. Thank you, thank you very much.

:)

edited to add: I had NO IDEA there was a dog in this fingerprint. I just oogled imaged "fingerprint" and this one looked ok to me. When you see it big you don't see the dog. Weird, because little, yeah, ya can't miss it. hmmmmmmmm. Hello D.O.G. we miss you sweet baby girl dog.

Oh. The. Drama.

Is this standard protocol in every adoption? I'm having some serious Déjà vu.
I swear I've read the OH MY! OH ME! My Fingerprints Are Expiring!! drama on many an adoption blog. You would think that maybe they could make your fingerprints last 1.5 years instead of just 1? Seeing as how the average adoptions takes 1.5-2 years. geeeeeesh.

So. CIS Fingerprints, CIS stands for: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Ours expire on January 8. You can apply for an extension 90 days before they expire. The extension involves CIS sending you an appointment to be re-fingerprinted. We sent in our application 76 days before they expire...almost a month ago. I have called twice inquiring about our appointment. Yesterday I was told that our paperwork is in the queue and should be in front of an officer "in a few weeks"...

screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech!

WHAT?!?! A few weeks? No no no no no. That just will not do. I, in my sweetest voice, begged the woman on the other end of the phone to do something. Anything. I explained that we are traveling in 4 weeks and then hope to be traveling again SOON after to bring our baby home. In the meantime, we must be re-fingerprinted, await our new approval letter, send this to another government agency who must then send the approval letter to the US Embassy in Ethiopia. Silently I thought to myself 'And that, my friend, does not sound like anything that is going to happen quickly.'

She said she would pull our file and try to get it in front of an officer asap. I will call again tomorrow to see if this really happened. Until then I am fretting about this ultimately causing a delay in bringing baby B home. siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

All of you reading this who are waiting:
Mark your calendars now, even get your mom or BFF to make their calendars for 88 days before your fingerprints expire. Get your letter written and post date it. Put it in a fed ex envelope and have it ready to mail on the 89th day so it can arrive with CIS 90 days before your fingerprints expire. And then be sure to call CIS to check to be sure you are in the queue. Make no assumptions.

edited to add: Thank you to MG from Texas who pointed out that it should be:
Mark your calendar for 92 days
Mail your package on the 91st day.
DUH Heather.