Court Date!!!

Ethiopian airlines was running a special - BOGO tickets through Jan 31st. It was a long shot that we would have a date by then, as most take around a month to get and our referral date was just January 9th.

Our friends were praying REALLY hard for us. Cause with 5 tickets to buy. BOGO would be sweeeeeetttt.

Jan 31st, at 1:00 pm, Tony gets a call - "I've got good news!!! You have a court date of March 8th!!!"

Jan 31st, at 1:02 pm, Tony calls me and I almost wet my pants. Which wouldn't have been very nice considering I was at a friend's house for the first time ever. But hey, at least they were hard wood floors. And she got to do the happy dance with me. Well, figuratively, cause this white girl can't dance.

Jan 31st, around 1:05 pm, I message the travel agent to tell her we have a concrete date, so we might wanna get in on that BOGO deal. Stat.

Jan 31st, around 2:00 pm, she messages me back to say for me to call her when I get home because we have to have it all finished by 4:30 EST. No kidding. And here is where my heart starts a beatin!!

Jan 31st, around 3:00 pm I get home and call her... and call our friend Mindy who was going to go with me on trip #2 but hey, it's buy one, get one -- so don't you want to make a 20 minute decision about a life-changing trip to Africa, move the date up by about months, extend the time gone from your family by 7 days, and by the way - did I tell you that you only have a couple minutes to decide???

Jan 31st, around 3:45 pm, I get on phone with travel agent and arrange dates. My dear friend Stephanie messages me to tell me she is 'praying all the details fall into place'. Oh girl - thank you, cause they did!! Erica said it was 'the easiest package she had done'.... 'the smoothest trip'..... 'dates worked out perfect'..... 'can NOT believe it worked out that easy for you'.... oh yeah!

Jan 31st, at 4:10 pm, forward email to our travel coordinator at the agency for preapproval... call her to tell her to approve it. like now. please. The receptionist says she is away from her desk "but did you say by 4:30? as in 20 minutes from now? yes? ok, I'll go get her out of that meeting"

Jan 31st, at 4:15 pm, get preapproval from agency

Jan 31st, at 4:20 pm, get BOGO tickets confirmed. With 10 whole minutes to spare!

So dear friends, we will be on a plane to meet/hold/smooch on that precious baby girl in about a month!! With 3 kids and a dear friend in tow at a discount. And here I thought this adoption was going to be stressful from beginning to end!

Thank you God for answered prayers!