WE ARE EXPECTING!

It's official. Once again our home is expecting ~ our dossier has left for Ethiopia. Mikiyas is going to have a sister!

It really seems like this adoption process has gone so much faster than the last one, like it was only a couple of months ago that we started. But here we are, 5 months, 3 weeks and 1 day. The process so far has actually taken longer than last time. I do remember the impatience and how I could feel alone and want so badly to receive my referral, even before the paper work would arrive in Ethiopia! But this time, it's easier. Mikiyas keeps us so busy and so focused on him that time just flies by. Don't get me wrong though. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of us having a daughter, Mikiyas having a sister, our home having even more love in it. It's just that I'm not dwelling on the time frame and the emptiness in our home this time around.

So, hopefully during 2009 we will return to Ethiopia to pick up our daughter! Mikiyas is excited about it as well. We had originally planned that I would go to Ethiopia with my mother and a friend, while Lyle stayed with Mikiyas at home. But, after Mikiyas made it very aware that he must go to Ethiopia with us to pick up his sister, we've decided that it has to be all three of us. It really will be a moment that can't be replaced and there can never be just the right words to explain the story and feelings. We've decided that we don't care about the cost [we're in so deep anyway] that we're all going. Mikiyas has even offered to share his piggy bank so he can go. He says that when his piggy bank is full, we will go pick up sister. We told him he better ask his grandparents for extra change!

Mikiyas talking to us about "sister" and going to Ethiopia took place a few months ago. It was good timing too as he was starting to have some one-year anniversary anxieties. We were able to reassure him that we would return home altogether as a family. No one would be left behind. That he would get to keep his room, and no I wouldn't give his toys back to the store. But now, Mikiyas wants to go tomorrow. His excitement and impatience may end up making this journey a long one for me after all!