Monday, May 30, 2011

One Step Closer


For those who want to know, I have a wonderful travel buddy for this Ethiopia trip. I happen to love him bunches. My favorite part of the day was when he opened the door of the van for me. So sweet.




Luggage is weighed and packed. Was able to fit some of Ingrid's amazing pics from last January to share with FOVC. Four bags at just under 50 pounds a piece. Hopefully our scale that we just bought at T9rget is accurate!!! Now, time to hit the hay for a few hours before our 3am alarm wakes us.




Thanks for praying guys. We are one step closer tonight.



And my daughter who for two days has wanted to go home with her grammy has finally changed her tune and missed her momma and her daddy tonight. Thanks mom for keeping them and for our many friends who will hang out with them at night. May they grow up knowing what it means to serve others - both at home and abroad. We love you babies!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Getting Ready

Yesterday while my kids were destroying my house and my kithen sink filled up with more dishes, I packed. What a tedious job. When are the airlines going to get with the program like the post office: "if it fits, it ships". Weight limits on carry-ons??? Seriously, that stinks. My carry on has NEVER been weighed... but once. And man, oh man could we have been in trouble.

On our trip to Ethiopia last summer, we stayed in Amsterdam for two days. When we left Amsterdam, they weighed Ryan's carry-on. Since my amazing husband is also way strong, he had the bulk of the weight in his carry-on. So, we took some out of his and moved it into mine. That one time, it could have mattered. So now, I pay close attention to the weight restriction.

A limit of 17 lbs for a carry-on stinks! It's horrible. I so could have packed ALL my clothes into my carry-on if it weren't for the 17 lb limit. Now instead of a neatly, tightly packed carryon that doesn't allow for crap to move, I have a 3/4 full carry-on where stuff is going to move around. So annoying to this slightly OCD person. And worse than that, it meant that I had to put some additional stuff into my checked luggage which means less room for donations.

Oh well, I guess I should get over it. The thing that really bugs me is if they're not going to check, then I would prefer to just fill my carry-on and let it be over by 3 lbs and be less stressed about it. Have you ever seen the commercial where someone is checking in for a flight and has layers and layers of clothes because of the weight limit of the bags. That's so going to be me on Tuesday. I'm going to have my sweatshirt on and every pocket filled with snacks, make-up, etc. Ug, so retarded... the rule that is.

Anyway, we're all packed. Mostly. Yesterday I packed myself and the kids. This morning I dropped the kids' stuff off at my mom's. Bethany had to pack every dolly she could find in her room! Ryan, well, he's packing right now. He carried the suitcases down the stairs for the 4th time lately. I had determined that we weren't using our luggage cause it was just too heavy. The big suitcase weighs 17 pounds. So, we've packed in smaller canvas luggage. I wanted to do the rubbermaids but Ryan didn't want to carry those suckers around at the airport. Down to our last bag to pack, we might have to move to the big suitcase and give up weight for cubic inches of space. I have about 15 pairs of crocs left to get packed. They don't weigh much at all but they take up space. And Ryan has 150 blade/needle/surgery things (sorry can't remember the techy term) and they weigh nothing but take up space too. So, we'll see what we get accomplished.

By the way, Ryan just came down and weighed his carry-on. It holds our camera equipment, and the laptop. It weighed 18.5 pounds. I told him to just go with it. Pray with us that our checked luggage makes it through customs (lots of vet meds that are worth moola) and that our carry-ons don't get weighed :)

Ciao.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Find me Elsewhere

Today, I'm a guest blogger on the FOVC blog. Check it out to read my thoughts on being an "average" person and being able to help.

Click here to read.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Check. Check. Check. Check

I'm a list maker.  It helps keep me on task.  But often times the list gets too long so I don't really pay attention to it.  One of my recent lists has been a great way for Ryan to jump in and help me get things checked off my list.  He's wonderful like that.  We make a good team.  Here are a few things off my list now:
 
1. Finish "A Hole in Our Gospel".  Check.
2. Finished prayer letter for our trip.  Almost Check. 
3. Weighed all our donations. Check.  Thanks to the many hands that provided 120 pounds of donation.
4. Received our tax return in the mail.  CHECK! 
 
Less than two weeks...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Sunshine State

I do not live in the sunshine state. The state of our sunshine sucks. I'd like to state how little sunshine we've had lately. To state that my skin needs sunshine is an under-statement.

You get the point, right?

We've had little sunshine. Lots of rain. Lots of cold weather. Even for Iowa. If it would actually warm up to normal temps here, I might have a chance to get a little sunshine on my skin before I skin both loves and hates the constant sunshine in Ethiopia.

What's today? I think it's 16 more days until we leave for Ethiopia!!!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Holt informed me today that they aren't staffed well enough to help me with a search for Judah's birth mom when we're there in a few weeks.  I'll take that as it's my own responsiblity to find her and the part of Holt that says I have to use them as the middle-man goes right out the window.  Thanks Holt for focusing on the orphans and not me.  I'm fine with that.  Please continue to focus on the orphans and not me when I seek to find his birth momma in a few weeks.
 
a to-do list a mile long,
TB

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

About the Widows

I was curious and asked Desalegn about the widows I will be working with. Here was his reply:

Hi Tamara, The widows are new to FOVC that means they have not been included inFOVC's other Widows Hope Programs (like Sewing Projects, Livestock forWidows Projects). The widows will be part of FOVC's Crops for WidowsProject only. They are some of 50 widows who will be included in ourCrops for Widows Project in Shanto area. By the way we are not includingwidows in two programs at the same time i.e a widow who is benefitingfrom FOVC's Crops for Widows Project can not be included in Livestock orSewing Projects or Small Scale Businesses for Widows Project. Crops forWidows Project is new to FOVC. So the widows are also new to FOVC.
Thanks,Desalegn


Isn't that cool!?!? Love that FOVC is working to serve many women and their families.