Preparing for the Girls

We have a confirmed embassy date of September 22! I cannot wait. But we have so much to do before then. This adoption was so smooth and quick that it caught us a bit unprepared...

Chris finished his first semester of his doctorate program last Friday. He really enjoyed it, but I think in the middle of all that we have going on, he is glad for the break from school.

He is working hard to build the new bedroom downstairs. We bought beds and dressers. He and his dad ripped out the old carpet in our downstairs, and we bought the new laminate that will go down there. It will be beautiful compared to how it looked before. We will have another bedroom, and still have room for a family room too. It will be perfect.

We're van shopping. And cleaning out and fixing up our minivan to sell. And gathering clothes, and trying to think of all the other things that need to be done in preparation for the girls.

Chris and I are going back and forth about how many of us will go. As of today we are thinking it will be Chris and me, and Gabe and Matt. But we still have a few weeks to decide. It's Matt's turn to go, but Gabe wants to go back so badly, that we are taking that into consideration. The other thing that is different about this time around is that Gabe is losing his place as the oldest of our clan. That is also weighing in on our decision.

We've decided to use the adoption medicine clinic at OHSU this time around. We have a great pediatrician that worked out very well for E.R.'s transition. But because of our older girls' ages, now we are thinking of using the adoption medicine clinic for their transition, and then having them use my doctor after that. It's a little weird to start going to a pediatrician when you're in high school. Plus, most likely we may need to consider changing the girls ages from what their new birth certificates say, and we hope the OHSU clinic can help us with that.

As usual, we have lots going on, and just over 6 weeks until we leave!

We still have a family camp to go to for Free Methodists (our denomination), and we're determined to make it up to visit our old town in Washington before the trip to Ethiopia. We have friends up there that we really need to see, and we know that things will be so much busier as we are transitioning the girls into school down here.

I have had the awesome chance in the last few days to spend time with 3 recently adopted Ethiopian teenagers. The kids and their families are amazing, and it is so incredible to think that in 7 weeks our girls will be part of our family!

I'll try to keep up on this blog better as we are getting closer!!