36 hours and 6 minutes

I will be boarding a plane to Addis, via Atlanta and Dulles. 
I will land in Addis around 7pm Thursday night.
I will meet Gman Friday am for the first time.
Saturday will also spend time with Gman.
Sunday will travel to Durame (south of Addis) and hopefully meet Gman's birth mom, if she can make it. 
Monday will travel back to Addis and spend more time with Gman that evening.
Tuesday will have visa appt at US embassy then will take custody of Gman and he will spend the rest of the time with me and family in hotel.
Wednesday will be a farewell coffee ceremony at the care center for all the families leaving.
Thursday we will be issued our visas and our flight leaves that evening at 10:15pm (ET time).
We will land in Dulles at 7:55am (eastern time). 
We are supposed to land at 3:24pm, but we are flying delta from Atlanta, so who really knows if we'll be on time.

Looking forward to showing all of you the pictures and times to come!

Update!

So it seems I go weeks without anything to tell you and then in a week I've written 3 or 4 blog posts.  Today I got an update on Gman.  He's gained 4.4 pounds and grown 2.5 inches.  He's still small for his age, but I'm just so glad to know he's getting bigger.  The nurse of the care center says "he is the happiest child."  As my brother said, I love that line.  The nurse also says "he is a lovable child, smiles, with affection."  I'm so ready to get him home.  Two weeks from today I will meet him for the first time.  Two weeks.  Right now it feels as if that is forever away, but I do have a lot to do in the next week and half.  I leave in 12 days. 12 days.  Okay before I start completely freaking, I better get back to work. 

Airplane Tickets Booked!

Mom, Steve, Gman and I all have plane tickets from Addis Ababa to Alabama booked.  It will be about a 16 hour plane ride from Addis to our first stop in Dulles.  16 hours in a plane with a 3 1/2 year old whose known me for 5 days.  Its gonna be interesting to say the least.  You might have to remind me that I've said this in 3 weeks, but I CAN'T WAIT!!! I know it will be long and tiring, but it means we are headed home.  I will give more details for the time we are there as the departure dates get nearer. 

I've been doing some reading... Attaching in Adoption and I'm getting ready to start Parenting your Internationally adopted Child.  When you are bringing home a 3 1/2 year old home to learn to trust and love you it takes different parenting styles than those children that you birth and bring home from the hospital.  So I'm working on figuring out what that might look like.  Attachment parenting...something different. 

TENTATIVE TRAVEL DATES

So I guess it's time to announce that I have tentative dates for travel.  We will be leaving on Wed, Aug 18 and arriving in Addis on Thursday, Aug 19.  We will board a plane on Thursday, Aug 26 and will land in the States on Friday, Aug 27.  The reason that it is tentative is due to the fact that the US Embassy requires visa submissions to be done no earlier than 2 weeks prior to the visa date.  This would be August 10.  So we won't know for sure that we've been submitted for a visa appointment until August 10.   Confirmation will then come from the Embassy 3-5 days later, which could be Monday or Tuesday before we leave on Wednesday. CRAZY!  So that all to be said, I'm going to go ahead and plan to leave on the 18th.  That is 2 weeks from tomorrow.  TWO WEEKS!!!!!  Lots to do in that time.  But I can't wait to have Gman in my arms.