Sleepless in Seattle.

Well, it's 1:15am on Friday morning and I'm sitting in bed, wide awake.  We need to be up by 3:30am in order to make our first flight, but I'm totally wired...thinking, thinking, thinking.  We're all packed, thankfully, and wow, was that a huge job.  We'll be checking six large pieces of baggage (all weighed so as not to exceed the 50 lb limit - we had to do some juggling to make that work!), the maximum we're allowed for the three of us traveling today.  Almost half of them are filled with donations and gifts, and the other half with clothes, toys, activities and other necessities.  We are loaded down!

It's finally happening.  I keep telling myself that over and over and still it feels surreal.  Man, I have to sleep...I'm going to be an utter wreck by the time we arrive in Addis.  But how do you tell your brain to shut down when it's whirring with activity?  Where's my old constitutional law textbook when I need it...that thing used to be the number one, no-fail, works-every-time solution to my insomnia problems - I don't think I ever made it past the first few pages!  Sadly, I think I eventually gave it away to some organization that probably gave it the burial it deserved. But at moments like these, it's that particular textbook that always comes to mind.  Not that I've had any moments exactly like this one.

A week from today is our 'gotcha day' (a term I'm not wild about but one which is commonly used by adoptive families to mark the day they bring their new children into their family).  Wow.  A week from today we become a family of five.  Forever.  And ever.  Amen.