Wish I had more time....

but my life is just a *little* hectic at the moment! We are all doing fine, and I think settling in nicely. The bedtime battles are winding down, and ALL the health issues are being attended to. Eli has adjusted to his new life quickly -- he is already picky about his food (American kid fare, that is), and detests The Naughty Spot. He continues to love taking baths and, just like his brothers, would rather be naked all of the time! I will post more (with more pics!) as time allows....

We made it!!

We're baaacckkk! Yes, we made it. I'm a little short on sleep and a little short on sanity, but we're back and we have our boy. This trip was by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life -- overwhelming in every way, good and bad. I'll post more on that later, but here's a pic of us right before we left the guest house to go to the airport to come home. The other family there are the Viola's, a wonderful Italian couple who adopted sweet little Helena! They were our best buddies at the Yebsabi Guest House, and we've made a pact to visit each other in Italy at some point. There will be more pics and video to follow, but for now, laundry (and sleep and a Cosmo) calls.....

Why am I still up??

It's 12:30am, and we leave TODAY to go get my baby! I can't really believe that our day has come. To all my fellow IAN families with babies in Ethiopia -- please don't worry! We will love on all your children and bring home lots of photos and videos to tide you over for a little while. Saying that the adoption waiting is hard is like saying that getting Typhoid or Malaria is a "nuisance". It sucks. It really sucks. We will do our absolute best for you all!

I will *try* to update my blog from Ethiopia, but I can't promise anything. We are bringing a laptop, and if the internet connection is good enough, we will probably send a few emails.

Till later my friends....

I'm too OCD....

to actually post a picture of the disaster that is my closet right now! Seriously, I'm not sleeping well, and I think it's because my closet is in such a state. OCD? Me? Nope -- for me it's CDO. People who really have issues have to put the letters in alphabetical order. Ha ha ha.

But all joking aside, it's awful. I keep "stacking" stuff in there for our trip, thinking I'm being organized, and it just looks like a hot mess. And to top it off, we're "cat sitting" a friend's cat. Something happened to the floors in her apartment and she had to vacate for a few days. So this cat lets loose the most incredible amount of urine on the Lovesac upstairs. For those of you who don't know, Lovesacs are these awesome yet overpriced, beanbag-like pieces of furniture. Did I mention overpriced? So this cat that isn't even ours just ruined a $350 piece of furniture. Smelled cat pee lately? Nasty. So, now this cat is locked inside our closet with her own litter box, food, and water, until it's owner comes to retrieve it. And she's decided to make her bed on my stack of pajama pants, so now those are all hairy. There's a reason I have hairless cats, people! Gross. And the feel of cat litter on bare feet as I walk on the carpet in there is just a bonus.

So, now we have only to get through this 3-day weekend. Gawd, I hate it when school's out. I don't understand how homeschooling moms do it. At the same time that I take my hat off to you, I think you're nuts. You know who you are. My parents arrive on Tuesday, and we leave on Wednesday at noon, so I'll have a few hours of assistance in pulling together last minute details.

Big thanks go out to my wonderful brother-in-law and fellow Ethiopia-bound traveler for giving me a quick haircut and saving me an hours-long process at my regular hairdresser. Ok, back to my disaster. Er, I mean closet.....

A very cool new artist I've found!

This woman is amazing! Her art is so cool, and it's obviously about a subject I care dearly about -- adoption! Check her out here:

http://jqueenan.blogspot.com/2010/01/art-give-away.html

Enjoy!

We're almost on our way!

The days are drawing close -- 14 to be exact. We leave on January 20th for Addis Ababa via Amsterdam to pick up our SON! We can hardly believe that the day is coming, and it is completely surreal. I am keeping very busy with travel arrangements, paperwork gathering, prescription filling, T crossing, and I dotting.

I received Eli's Ethiopian birth certificate and adoption decree today -- on my birthday. I truly feel that there is NO better birthday gift than seeing your last name on your new child's birth certificate! Other than actually getting my arms around him, that is.

Many thanks go out to my parents, who have volunteered/insisted on coming out to stay with our boys while we are gone, and of course, to meet their new grandson. We also found out today that Eli and his grandpa T (my dad) have the same birthday! I sense a special bond growing.....

Very exited, very happy, and feeling very blessed here at the Briola house.

Merry Christmas!

Snow! In Plano, Texas even! It was snowing so hard, we could hardly have our eyes open. Kai lasted about 10 minutes, and Ian about 4. Good thing we don't live in Wisconsin, huh??

Merry Christmas!