Surreal silence

Here I sit in the middle of the afternoon on the day that I leave for Ethiopia to meet my daughter and start the rest of my life with her. Mishi is already settled in at Rick's house for the week and my house is eerily empty and strangely quiet. It is utterly surreal that these are my last few hours in this house as a single person.

Wait! You mean my life is going to change???

I actually had someone ask me last week "Are you sure you want to do this?" after finding out I was adopting a child and leaving for Ethiopia to pick her up. Ummm... No, I'm not sure. That's why I've been working on this for almost a year!

I don't even feel very overwhelmed about completing my final preparations, I believe I actually prepared sufficiently and didn't leave too much go to the last minute. It must be the calm before the storm -- talk to me at midnight tonight and see how I'm doing!

Anyway, I depart from Pittsburgh at 6:00 am on Friday so I'm leaving Johnstown around 1:30 am. I'll make a quick stop at WalMart for last minute supplies: Cheerios for Meke to have as a snack on the return flight (how the heck am I going to feed a child all the time when I can't even feed myself on a regular basis and I'm buying Cheerios for her on the way to the airport?!), an additional memory card for my camera (so I can take more pictures of all the kids at the orphanages and of the scenery in Ethiopia), and some lice kits (I just learned some information which makes me think these will come in very handy). My flight goes from Pittsburgh to DC, where I will meet Elena and Gwen for breakfast. Then we board our flight for Ethiopia! I think as soon as we arrive in Ethiopia, we will be taken to get our children at the orphanage. So for all of you back here, by the time you wake up on Saturday, I should have my daughter with me.

Here's the itinerary and the number of the cell phone I'll be renting while I'm there in case you need to reach me for any reason. You'll have to pay for international calling fees but I think my end would be free. Ethiopia is 7 hours ahead of the Eastern Standard time zone. I don't know if the cells will work when the electricity is off in Ethiopia.

Cell: 011251912214723 (I'm told this is exactly what you dial)

Itinerary:
UNITED AIRLINES 23MAY PITTSBURGH PA WASHINGTON DC 620A 725A
UA 7312 FRIDAY INTERNATIONAL DULLES INTLW

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES 23MAY WASHINGTON DC ADDIS ABABA 1005A 820A
ET 503 FRIDAY DULLES INTL BOLE 24MAY

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES 30MAY ADDIS ABABA WASHINGTON DC 1015P 755A
ET 500 FRIDAY BOLE DULLES INTL 31MAY

UNITED AIRLINES 31MAY WASHINGTON DC PITTSBURGH PA 118P 220P
UA 7255 SATURDAY DULLES INTL INTERNATIONALW

That's all for now! I'm off! I'll try and post while I'm there but Internet availabity is very sparse.

My final words before the trip:

drumroll please

this is gonna be so eloquent

hold your pants on

here it is!

HOLY CRAP! I'm going to Ethiopia tomorrow! I'm going to meet my daughter in less than 48 hours! HOLY CRAP!!!