Are we EVER going to get travel dates?!

We're still patiently waiting to get our travel dates from our agency... wait a minute, did I say patiently? ;-) Our agency recently changed it's practices as far as when they will give a family their travel dates, now erring on the side of caution. They won't give us travel dates until the new birth certificates have been issued, which can be 10 business days... so we may not even hear by the end of the week! Ugh! However, they ALSO still say the embassy date will be 3-4 weeks after court, so we may end up with almost no notice prior to departure.

Joe and I have been carefully watching airfare, based upon both embassy dates we believe are likely to be our dates, and are disappointed to say that prices have been steadily skyrocketing. It makes sense since gas prices in general keep on climbing, but the other problem is that now we're looking at very late bookings. Last minute travel is rarely cheap... especially when you're not flexible on dates and destinations! I've spent more time than I can stand to think of searching for decent fares via travel agents, my own online searches, and LONG phone calls to airlines. Hopefully by day's end we'll have something workable. Had I only booked our tickets on Ethiopian Air by last Thursday, even if we ended up having to pay to change our tickets it would've been cheaper than waiting due to an increase in fuel surcharges that went into affect on Friday.

Sound like fun? Well, it isn't. I normally have lots of fun planning a trip, organizing the details, and finding a great price. Problem is, I just want to get to our babies! I can't help but think about how they are just waiting for us. Last I knew, Ezra had a cold that he still wasn't over from a few weeks before. Joe and I get so excited thinking about getting them home and starting out as a family... it's incredible to think that it really isn't so far away, even though time seems to drag a bit. I'm sure our time will fly by between now and travel... at least it will once we end up getting travel dates!

Now, onto our progress getting ready to travel! This past Saturday we had a lovely baby shower hosted by Joe's wonderful and incredibly generous aunt and uncle, and his cousin. They did a safari theme, and it was awesome! The cake was so super cute, and they had so much yummy food! It is so exciting to have others share in the excitement with us and celebrate the addition of Olivia and Ezra to our family. They are already well loved by many! We were so bummed that so many of our friends couldn't make it, many of them we had expected... so I hope you're all ok and just got busy! We were worried about those that didn't show up for fear they'd either gotten lost or who knows what! We missed you all! :'-(

After the shower, my mom and I headed to Babies'R'Us with Crystal who was in town for the big shin-dig. We worked on completing the registry... filling in gaps where we still really needed things (like sheets for the cribs), and mom (the new grandma) splurged a bit more. Once we were home, it was back to laundry (baby cloths, towels, washcloths, blankets, stuffed animals, you name it!), folding laundry, figuring out an organization system and putting away laundry, rearranging the nursery, putting up the wall hangings in the nursery (almost done!), and so forth. Basically, it was a CRAZY busy weekend.

Poor Crystal's flight to Colorado was CANCELLED on Sunday morning, so she was stuck most of the day Sunday as we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off. I felt so badly that I couldn't even come up with fun tasks for her to do to help... hard to "assign" anything when you're not even sure what you want to have done next yourself! Yet, somehow we all survived the craziness and are now that much closer to getting our arms around the ultimate prize... our little angels. The harder we work to get to them and become a family, the more lucky I realize we are to have been brought together at all.