Tentative Travel!

We are told to plan for tentative travel for June 14-18th. Why tentative? Because the CDC has changed the law and now the kids must be tested for TB there in ET. If the results are negative, we travel. If positive, we wait..for a long time..until they are healed. That could prolong for up to 6 months.

I am NOT claiming that!! We hope to hear this week that they don't have TB.

So the flights I have found this far are:

option 1: 2800.00 each for us round trip/girls 20oo.oo long lay over

option 2: 1800.00 each for us round trip/girls 1500.00 long lay over in Amsterdam

option 3: 1300.00 each for us round trip/girls 1400.00 NO lay over

I put option 2 and 3 on hold.

I keep thinking, we will be travelling 15-18 hours with 2 girls we have never met. What snacks do they like? Can I keep them out of the snacks while at the hotel? How do they stay entertained? Especially M, she looks like a pistol! :0)

Time Out~ Fun Pic Break ~ This is how our boys have fun!!

Here is an email from my dear friend about some of my MANY questions.

We booked our flights with Sue Parr travel. I think they're all the same. Ask for the mission rate - you're on a mission. We thought the prices were high, but they are what they are. I think we paid near 5500 total for flights. It was painful. The part thats hard to swallow is that your not in country for very long and very restricted. Then we remember that it's an adoption mission. We can't wait to go back when the kids are older and can handle it. The hotel, food, shopping is all very inexpensive!We had a huge layover in DC on our way out, 12 hours. Are you taking a laptop? That gave us something to do. We just hung out and walked around, window shopped, ate, walked, hung around, window shopped etc. It was harder on the way back b/c suddenly we had these 2 children who didn't eat any thing we offered them, they were exhausted and Mulugeta was shutting down. Selam was winding up. She took off on us and I had to run and grab her. It was a bit embarrassing esp when everyone looked at me and figured out that I was .... inexperienced with her and she looked a bit 'wild'. That stage went by fast.... My suggestion is coloring books, crayons, stickers, small toys. I found a 'flatsy patsy' (?) doll. Hand sized, with a tiny comb and hair bows. Selam loved that. I also found a few activity books, they didn't LOVE them, but colored them a little. buy a couple of sets of crayons or coloring pencils. The kids share and lose their things at the hotel. This way you can keep stuff for the flight home.The kids like fresh foods. Canned tomatoes aren't appealing to them, yet fresh ones are. And like our own kids, their likes and dislikes are as varied from one to the next. Mulugeta and Selam have totally different tastes.We did pack 6 bottles of water in our check in luggage to have when we got to the hotel. We were told that we might not get anything until the morning and we arrived around 11pm. There were people on staff when we got there. The water was good to have back at the room before we figured out the whole system. Keep your tooth brushes out of the bathroom. There is a little desk/mirror/shelves just outside the bathroom in your room. That's a good place to keep them so you're not tempted to brush with water. OH BY THE WAY - it's ok for the kids to use the water. You may double check with Almaz, but our kids did and they did ok. All the kiddos have parasites that are regional and they'll rid their bodies of them within 6 months of eating in America without medication. Get ready for their.... stink.... when they go to the bathroom... they're still quite potent.....(sorry - too much information?) :-)A women on our trip had altitude sickness, dizzy, light headed, nauseous. I had those blue wrist bands from Walmart that use pressure points for treatment. They're about $5. YOu might want to get a pair. I didn't have any issues. I'm a water drinker and don't know if that helped. I also operated in survival mode....I cried a lot when I was there. I'm not a public crier - but that didn't stop me. It's a very emotionally quick brutal visit to the third world. I cried a lot for the loss of our birth family and the need for us to even be a part of this whole unreal experience. I cried at night a lot. We didn't sleep from about midnight til 3o4 so. We were just awake. It was a good prayer, talk time. We didn't realize we were both awake at first. I also cried b/c I had doubt that I could do all of this, and I was very scared. It's such an experience. The whole hair thing was pretty foreign to me... The kids wet their hair daily and my new hairdresser said that would dry it out, but we just started doing that. It's pretty dry, and unmanagable. We wash once a week. I rub her head a lot. There were a lot of dry crusties in it, now there are very few. She itches her scalp at times and this tells me the shampoo is drying. I like Caroline's Daughter products, but they are expensive. They use coconut oil or olive oil on the babies hair, I think olive oil will get on every thing, and I just started using the coconut oil before bed. A women told me to comb it out each morning and night, and apply lotion. She even suggested vaseline, she used it when money was tight. Doing your girls hair is such a wonderful bonding time. I had that with my daughter and felt guilty b/c my son didn't need me to do his hair. (20 yrs ago -oh that makes me feel ....old-er) So now when I'm doing Selam's hair I feel that same feeling with Mulugeta. I let him in my personal space - lean on me etc. The Special Mom's will do your girls hair during your shopping trip. They'll do what you want... if they can understand you. I didn't request anything but some of the moms did.