Coming up for Air

Whew! The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind to say the least and I don't think things will be slowing down anytime soon (although, given the circumstances, I certainly don't mind). I thought I would take a moment to breathe and give a short (believe me, you want the Reader's Digest version) update to all of my faithful followers!

We moved into our new home a week ago today and are almost settled in (well, okay, the garage is still full of boxes, but the inside of our house is coming together quite nicely). The kids have adjusted well, thank goodness, and we are working on getting back into a solid routine before I take off and leave them for two weeks which will really rock their world. My brother-in-law, Rob, and his wife, Mariette, will be helping Richard with the kids for the first week that I am gone and then Rob and my good friend Stacey will split the next week. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family who are so willing to step in and help us out. Knowing that my kids will be in such good hands makes me feel so much better about leaving them for so long (although it will still be incredibly difficult to leave them). I am working on putting together a video of me reading their bedtime stories and we will be going to Build-A-Bear on Monday evening so that they can each make "Mama Bears" for them to hold onto while I am gone (thanks to Shelley for the Build-A-Bear idea). I know that a video and a few bears definitely won't take my place, but I am hoping that it helps makes my absence a little easier on the kids (who have never been away from me for more than a few days. . .although I am thinking they might actually enjoy a nice break from me!).

Our plane tickets are booked and are safely in my possession and we received our visas a few days ago. We are now working on gathering all of the paperwork that Richard needs to sign and notarize in order for us to complete this adoption without him actually being there. On top of all of our travel preparations I am also trying to get our other home ready for tenants who will be moving in on November 4th (the day I return from Uzbekistan). Fortunately the house is in good shape and just needs a good cleaning, some spackling and some paint here and there and I am hoping to knock most of that out this weekend.

I still cannot believe that we are at this point in our journey already. In some ways it feels like we have been at this for an eternity and in others it seems like the time has just flown by. It is just hard to grasp that, in less than two weeks, I will be holding Joshua for the first time! This precious child that we have talked about, dreamed about and grown to love will actually be ours forever in just a matter of weeks. I just cannot wait!