Watch Out!

Elliott is well on his way to walking. I habe very mixed emotions about this milestone. It is so exciting that he is walking and it's the day before his "birthday". But it is also sad because he is my last baby and he is growing so fast. The best part about him learning to walk is that Dakota and Collette feel the need to mimic him. They want us to hold their hands and walk with them too. I will have to get video of it because they are so funny. Enjoy the video of our precious boy.

Day 3- Gotcha Day

We awoke on day 3 after a wonderful night of sleep, which I hear is quite unusual. But you have to remember that I work nights and Troy can sleep any time, any where. So changing time zones was nothing for us. We got ready had a wonderful breakfast provided at the Bejoe house. Then we decided to take the opportunity to go see the town. Our driver took us to a restaurant called Island Breeze. It is American run and makes you feel right at home. The restaurant played a lot of Beach Boys music and had a beach theme. We ate Italian food and took time to enjoy our 7th wedding anniversary!

After lunch we went straight back to the Bejoe house because Travis had messaged us that he was on the was with Elliott. When we got back, another family had arrived and she would be receiving her son as well. We waited for about 30 mins in the garden area making conversation as best as you can when you are anxious. It started to rain so we then moved up to the porch so that we wouldn't be soaked. Then we heard a car honk and the gait open and it was our moment to meet our son. Joanna carried Elliott up to us and I took him right away. You can tell that he is just taking everything in and trying to figure out what is going on. We sat and held our precious boy and learned about his schedule. For the first hour Elliott didn't make a sound. But as soon as he was comfortable his personality came out all at once. He started talking non stop saying Mama, Dada, and any other baby babble that he could come up with. The rest of the day we spent enjoying our new addition and getting to know him better. It was a great day to meet our son.

Ethiopia: Days 1&2

Sorry this has taken me so long to write. Life is crazy with 3 kids. But we are getting into the swing of things.

We left on Saturday morning to head to Ethiopia. I thought that I would be a basket case leaving the other two kids,but I did well. If you have kids you are leaving behind, I would recommend saying your good byes at the house and not the airport. My kids were comfortable saying bye at home and it really made things go a lot smoother.
We flew into Washington DC for a 5 hour lay over. AS soon as we got to Dulles we went to find our next gate. I'm glad we did this because there was a huge line for boarding passes. We stood in line got our boarding passes then went to find ways to pass the time. We then boarded Ethiopian airlines for our 16 hour flight to Ethiopia. The flight went way better then expected. The food and service was great. I don't sleep well on planes so I think I only got about 2 hours of sleep, but I had a feeling that would happen.
We finally set foot on Ethiopian soil on Sunday night. We got off the plane, down an escalator and saw a big yellow sign that said "Visas". We stood in line for a little less then 30 minutes, Paid our $20 each and moved to the immigration line. Passed immigration, found our bags, exchanged money, put bags through yet another scanner, and out the door. It was very easy to find Travis in the crowd, thank goodness. He introduced us to our wonderful driver, Solomon, and off we went to the guest house.
Once at the guest house we met up with Genet, she showed us our rooms and gave us a tour of the house. We also received a cell phone to make calls. The cell phone is how you can call your driver and the main way Travis communicates info to you. Before he left he let us know that we would not be getting Elliott until Monday afternoon. I was a little bummed, but then Troy and I decided that it would give us an opportunity to get out and see the city. So, we settled into our room and got a great night of sleep. We, after all, were meeting our son the next day.

Ethiopia in pictures

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This is it!

I can't believe that we leave tomorrow. My emotions are all over the place. We leave tomoorow around 1130am and get to Ethiopia around 7PM (11AM our time) on Sunday. Then we get to meet precious Elliott the next day. I am so excited to have him in my arms at last! Please pray for us as we are going through a bunch of transitions the next couple of weeks. It's going to be interesting, to say the least.
I will blog as much as I can while we are there. No promises though because I know internet and electricity is not always a sure thing.
Thanks to all of you for your support. It has been worth more to us than you will ever know!

Five days and we're off

We leave in 5 days. I can't believe we are that close. I have so many emotions running through me. Excitement, nervousness, anticipation, etc. Luckily, we have been so busy getting ready that the time has flown by. I feel like there is still so much to do. We need to pack, get the kids stocked up on their stuff, finish filling out forms, etc. Too much to think about at this point.
On a side note, Troy has two interviews this week! I know, what a week for all of that. Please pray that God will lead him to the right job. I know he has great plans for us. I'm just curious to see how it all unfolds.
Kid update: Collette has started gymnastics and is loving it. Her teacher said that she is really good and picks up on things quickly. She even got to walk on the big balance beam. I will take pictures on Tuesday and post them. They also have an indoor playground. So, Dakota plays on that while Collette is in class. It's a win/win situation for both of the kids.
Dakota is as wild and crazy as ever. He likes to keep us on our toes at all times. He still loves to sing and listen to music. We had a choir come to church on Sunday to sing some songs for us. He was mesmerized the entire time. Now, if we could just figure out how to keep that going during the sermon.

Ready or Not?

We leave in a little over a week and I'm starting to get overwhelmed. But the nice thing is that we have gotten a lot done. The upstairs remodel is done! I just need to decorate it a little. I will post pics as soon as it is decorated. Clothes are hung and washed. Most of our forms are filled out. Grandparents are coming to town to babysit! My sister is dog sitting. Collette has even learned how to change a diaper. So, really I should just be ready to go, right? Wrong. I would just like it all to be done so I can sit back and enjoy.

On a better note, we are very excited about the day we get to meet Elliott. Not only do we get to meet our third child, we get to meet him on our anniversary! How cool is that. Now we will have that much more to celebrate! Ready to meet you baby boy and hold you in our arms.

For those of you who want us to take pics or packages, email me: carterkellie@sbcglobal.net