Saturday, February 27, 2010

Travel Group #5!!!

Well many of you know that Monday our sweet little Matty girl had her adenoids removed (isn't that a new cell phone?) Anyway, she was a big six year old and braver than her mother and I. She apparently had a blast while being put under anesthesia while I was in the waiting room holding back tears. (I didn't tell Shawna but I really didn't have to go to the bathroom all those times!) She did fantastic and on our way home we stopped at Albertsons to stock up on some ice cream and popsicles.

We got her home and comfortable and our first order of business was to check email. We have been (im)patiently waiting for travel info from the adoption agency. I logged onto email, with Shawna inches above my right shoulder, and there it was, a new email from our adoption agency with a subject line, "Ethiopia Travel Dates." WOOHOO!

We found out we are part of Travel Group #5. We spent most of the week getting things in order, scheduling flights, finalizing some paperwork, packing, more paperwork, checking checklists, double checking checklists... and so on.

My sister, Michelle, will be traveling with us and Matty and Katie will stay with Gramma Myron (spending lots of time at McDonalds and Chuck E Cheese I'm sure). We are happy to have Michelle join us and know she will be a huge help during this emotional roller coaster.

We leave Portland at 8:30 am on Wednesday March 10th and after a couple stops (including enough time in Amsterdam to claim residency) arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia just after 10pm on Thursday March 11th. (Ethiopia is 11 hours ahead of us west coasters)

Shawna and I were talking earlier, and after waiting for what seemed like an eternity for travel dates, the news of its impending arrival turned from excitement to more impatience realizing that we now know when we travel, but still have to wait two weeks for it! The last time I felt this way was as a child waiting for Christmas. If you happened upon this blog and are waiting your travel dates, good luck! It will be here before you know it, it was the fastest, slowest process! ;)

The Blog Keeper

Earlier this week Shawna assigned me the new duties of "The Blog Keeper." After rolling my eyes and reluctantly agreeing, (what's the point of these stupid things anyway, nobody reads them...), here I go.

My first order of business was to figure out what the heck blogging was. (I heard about it on the news and that Twix commercial) After snooping around the forum our adoption agency hosts, I found someone that had a blog about their adoption in Ethiopia. Then I stumbled upon another, and another, and another...

It is now after 4am and I have been reading blogs for about three hours now. (Head cold keeping me up for the second night in a row, at least I'm getting in tune with Ethiopian time) Wow! What an incredible online journey. These things are pretty amazing. I have found tons of information and have connected with some people. My only wish was that I had done this sooner! Many questions could have been answered from families going through the adoption process as opposed to emailing the adoption agency and waiting, and waiting, and waiting for information that might not have even been accurate. (Needless Yellow Fever Vaccinations come to mind!)

So hopefully this will be updated periodically. More so the next few weeks as we travel to Ethiopia. Shawna and I are rookies at this so if this isn't aesthetically pleasing or helpful, then sorry. We're hoping to keep family and friends updated, not only on our adventure to Ethiopia, but the Myron Family Adventure to come...

-Chris

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Decision to Adopt

So a lot of our friends have asked us how we came about on our decision to adopt. I thought I would tell the [short] story of how it came to pass.

I don't know how to begin the 'summary' of our long story with our adoption. The Lord had put this on our heart in a miraculous way about a year and a half ago. I had been interested in adopting and never thought Chris would go for it. I thought "hey, if I do a lot of research and get all my ducks in a row, he'd at least have to give me kudos for trying."(!) I figured he would never go for it, or even consider it. Well, as I began the process of "looking into it", the Lord was already working on his heart.

The following I had not known when I began the quest for adoption knowledge...
He had taken a train down south to Keddie (freight train engineer with BNSF) one day. Upon his usual walks through the desolate dustbowl, he happened upon an adoption agency with a sign in the window that said they were in need of families. Thoughts started crossing his mind about how wonderful it would be to adopt a child. He began thinking about how he might present this desire of his to me and wondered if I would go for it. (um, yeah) Anyway, he came home from his trip and I greeted him at the door as usual. Unknown to him, I had the "Holt International" web page up doing my research. I quickly closed the computer when I saw him come in.....but never closed the web page...

A couple days later, he confessed that he saw what I was looking at...yes, a COUPLE DAYS LATER. So one thing led to another and....we're pregnant with a paperwork baby.

The sequence of events and the timing of it all was all the work of the Holy Spirit. It took no convincing (or manipulating!) on either side, it was all the hand of God.

Newby

Hello? So this is the first time "blogging" as I understand it's called. This is my trial post, if it works, then I will attempt to further this expedition...