We are finally going!!!!!!!!!!

I can't begin to explain how crazy this day has been. When I checked our email this morning before leaving for work we had an email in our inbox had an email from the US Embassy in Ethiopia. The email was actually to our agency director in Ethiopia but copied us which I thought was unusual as this had never happened before. In the email it stated that for Abdu's case they wanted to interview someone from his birth family before they would clear him and that doing this interview would probably prevent a prolonged investigation. Well you can imagine that our reaction was, "Here we go again!" Derartu has finally passed and is clear to come home but no Abdu was going to be delayed for some time. We decided that it was a good idea to email the director of our agency to ask how long it was going to take to get a member of his family to show up for this interview. If it was going to take a few weeks then we wanted to go over there now and bring Derartu home. Then I would return on a second trip when Abdu is cleared some time down the road. When the director emailed back she said that they planned to have the member of the birth family in for the interview with the Embassy this coming Monday, 4/11. She suggested that we come now and have Derartu's embassy appointment on Wednesday, 4/13. She said if we arrive on Monday we can meet Abdu's family member which is something we thought we wanted to do anyway. Then if the interview goes well with the embassy, Abdu could be assigned an Embassy date as soon as early the week of 4/18. After receiving the invitation to travel to Africa this weekend it didn't take us long to say yes. We checked with our travel agency who specializes in adoption travel and they told us that they don't have advanced purchase requirements so the price would be what it normally is. We had already arranged with Kyle and Faith's school that they might be off next week, so the school sent home all of their homework for the week ahead. They are so great, they actually gave Faith and Kyle far less work than what their classmates will have in order to not burden them on this trip. Their hard work in the classroom paid off as part of the reason for this decision by the school is because they are such good students. We are scheduled to leave on Saturday afternoon and arrive in Addis Ababa on Monday morning. We are bringing Kyle and Faith and my (Scott's) mom is also coming with us. Since we are looking at two different embassy dates about a week apart we will be departing Ethiopia separately. Tami, mom, Kyle, Faith and Derartu will be leaving at the end of next week to return to the US. I will be staying in Ethiopia for an extra 4 days to attend Abdu's embassy date and to bring him home. The only catch could be that the Embassy still requests more information and/or wants to do a full investigation even after interviewing someone from Abdu's birth family. If this happens I will simply change my flight to return with the rest of the family and then return to Ethiopia when Abdu eventually is cleared by the Embassy. This isn't they way we envisioned everything going down, but after all of the waiting and snags we have encountered we will take whatever we can get! It is almost surreal to think that these kids will finally be home as a part of our family in the next two weeks. It is also a little scary and unnerving. Much like having a new baby come into the world, I don't think there is any way to be completely prepared for the changes and what it will take to get to our "new normal." However, I am confident that we have more than enough love and faith in God in our home to get through any trials that lay ahead with this transition. Derartu and Abdu, you're almost home! We have prayed incessantly for this day to come and we love you so much!