Travel Call!! (and other important things)

A few things worth mentioning before I get into the excitement of "the Call" to get our son.... :)

I want to say a sincere and heart felt thank you to my friend Monica for really spear-heading the Adoption Auction we held online to raise travel funds. I sort of spun the idea by her and she not only offered to help she really did most of the work (and made a spread sheet. you guys... spreadsheets mean business. they're the real deal!)  To the crafters and small (and large!) business owners who donated their time, talents, gifts, goods and services: THANK YOU. Adoption reaches far and wide; these people not only enthusiastically said YES! when asked to help out- they recruited friends, and friends of friends.  Some of the donors of the items have never met me, do not know my family, and may never ever cross paths with us. Just people with a heart for adoption, for giving, for being good humans. They took time out of their busy lives to correspond with me, arrange donated items for delivery, and do all that so that their work could go to bring our son home. Wow.  To those who bid, wether you "won" an item or not: thank you. The generosity of those who participated is humbling. To those of you who "Shared" the link, who's friends saw and bid, who were willing to ask on behalf of our family for participation from your circle of people- my heart is big and full of love for you.  Everyone who supported the auction made a conscious decision to do so- and for that I can not find words big enough to express the thanks we have for that- and BECAUSE of that, we raised enough money to purchase our son's ticket HOME. That thought alone blows. my. mind. He is coming HOME, to us- and he's doing it directly with the funds from that auction.

Also, to my friend Katie who organized the adoption shower for us this weekend, and my many other co-workers who baked & helped with that; thank you. I'm genuinely grateful to have people like you in my life. It's safe to say Elias has a closet full of clothes, a toy box full of goodies and a bookshelf full of books because I have awesome friends.

All of last week's excitement with showers and auctions led up to Monday's event: the "travel call". For the record- it's not a call at all. We were told that our Embassy clearance would come in the form of an e-mail, between the hours of 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. or so (Ethiopia's business hours here in Central time). Another family we traveled with last time was in the same boat- so Sunday night texting with my fellow waiting mama and we both agreed if we saw the e-mail we would text the other. I woke up about 1:30 and did not have an e-mail. I heard my text notification a little after 2 a.m. and I grabbed my phone- she had her letter! So I checked my email again and there it was. Clearance! We replied as we were instructed and had confirmation minutes later. Embassy appointment 8/17! Several e-mails and texts later that day it was official, flights were booked & we were going back for our SON! We will leave Kansas Thursday and get to Ethiopia Saturday morning, where we will finally have him in our arms for the rest of forever. We will be returning on Thursday 8/20 to Wichita in the afternoon where my family has very kindly offered to bring my daughter to meet us- so we can have our little airport reunion, and have our family of four together on Kansas soil as soon as possible. Have you ever googled adoption airport homecoming? I dare you. :)

People.
We are going to Africa. We are bringing our son HOME.
My heart.
It's full.