"Messy, messy, messy!"

In the words of the bad guy magician from Frosty the Snowman, our life right now is, "Messssy, messsy, messsy!" The compartments as listed in our previous post are no longer in nice neat little boxes. Stuff is pretty much everywhere and we are on the final countdown to leaving on Saturday morning. Our dear friends, Greg & Jess are sacrificing good sleep to have us at Tyson by 5:15am. They volunteered! So we are just trying to get all the right stuff in all the right spaces over the next 24 hours or so. I am so thankful that my sister, Shelly is here or i would literally be losing my mind. I have called her from Target this week on a few occasions just to receive the next pep talk on how we can do this, we're gonna make it and everything is gonna be just fine. My friend Meriam kept A&A yesterday afternoon for several hours so that Shelly and I could do a packing run through. Meriam is amazing and my sister, the world traveler could be a personal packer for people! Where would i be without these people in our lives? Not gonna answer that one.

So i know i am rambling, but that is pretty much the state of the homefront as we round the bases. I would ask that if you're the prayin' sort that you keep our whole family in your prayers as we go through the climax of this adventure. Below are some specific things to pray about if you would like.

1. Health. Please keep our health and the kids' health (all three) in your prayers. We need God's protection over us as we travel to Ethiopia, where life is well....different from what we are used to. :)

2. Joy. In the hustle and bustle of this time we do not want to forget to stop and experience the sheer joy of being in this beautiful country, with these beautiful people. What a privilege. I so do not want to miss out on it!

3. Red tape. Please be praying that all the travel, admin stuff that goes along with adoption will go smoothly. Our embassy visit is on Tuesday.

4. Silas. OF COURSE keep our sweet boy in your prayers. This is obviously the biggest transition of his life thus far and we are so praying that it will go well, that attachment and bonding will begin quickly, and that travel will not be too stressful for him.

5. Safety. Please just pray for our family's safety as we travel, that God would protect us and give us wisdom in each and every moment.

Thanks in advance to those of you who read this and pray. We are so grateful and consider this the most important part of supporting us on this journey!

Lastly, please continue to check back here for pics & updates while we are traveling. We are hoping to have the ability to keep posting along the way.