Progress!

So much progress has been made in my journey to get Meke since we passed court on Monday, where do I start?

1. Flight booked for the Ethiopia trip (5/23-5/31)
2. Travel companions will be Elena (another single person like me!) and her friend Gwen
3. Grace (from the agency) will be there at the same time, along with her adult daughter Miranda and her newly adopted infant daughter Addis
4. We are staying at the New Flower Guest House
5. I've told work that the first day of my LOA will be May 23 and have begun to transition project management and other duties
6. My sisters and parents collaborated and bought me "everything one would need to bring home a baby from Ethiopia" (as my sister Mickey so eloquently stated), including baby monitors, car seat, household safety items, healthcare items, bath items, sleepers, and non-plastic sippy cups (non-plastic because Mickey heard about this when shopping for them)
7. Pet-sitting for Mishi has been arranged.

I am so thankful for everyone's support! All of this is so foreign to me, it's like I'm now experiencing part of our culture that I only saw from the fringes before. It's the culture of parenting and joining together as a community of parents. I'm feeling very communal right now and so appreciative to be part of the human race, which is a strange feeling for me because I always feel so different from everyone else in the world.

I also am blessed to have such an amazingly wonderful circle of family and friends - how did I get so lucky?? You go through life every day thinking of all the things you DON'T have and all the things you HAVE to do, and all the things you WANT to do and so it kind of sneaks up on you when you see everything you DO have and all the things you CAN do. That's where I am right now, totally in love with my life. I not only have a wonderful life right now, but:

1. I have a daughter!
2. I get to go to Ethiopia!

It doesn't get better that that!

Meke is coming to a beautiful place and will have a beautiful life with a wonderful family and support system. I can't wait to share my life with her.

DISCLAIMER: Even I'm disgusted by this posting, it's so positive and optimistic and downright mushy. But it's all true so what can I say?