Sun 12/14 – head to Washington, D.C., arriving about 4 p.m. drop stuff at the hotel and take the bus/metro into the National Mall area and see some monuments with Dustin & Jen who have never been to D.C.; try to stay up kind of late so we can sleep on the plane

Mon 12/15 – leave for Addis at 9:30 a.m. It’s a 15 hour flight with a short stop in Rome to refuel

Tuesday 12/16 – arrive in Addis around 8:30 a.m. Get our visas, exchange money and claim our HUGE pile of luggage. Find our driver and get to the guesthouse where hopefully we can check in and freshen up. Then we plan to go back out and do some light sightseeing/shopping

Wednesday 12/17 – spend time at Hope for the Hopeless. Jen has some Bible lessons prepared and we have games to play with the kids and crafts to do. Assess needs and figure out how to spend the nearly $800 that you guys gave us for them.

Thursday 12/18 – More time at H4H – another Bible lesson. Hopefully go see their new building. Do some shopping for them.

Friday 12/19 – Final day at H4H – Bible lesson and pizza party (or some sort of fun treat for them).

Saturday 12/20 – Sightseeing and major SHOPPING!!!!

Sunday 12/21 – Church?? Visit Grandma Hailu (kid’s grandma)

Monday 12/22 – Get Wendemagegn & Beza!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday 12/23 – Hanging out at the hotel which has an indoor heated pool and game room. Plus we have lots of games and toys and things to do.

Wednesday 12/24 – Embassy appointment. Pray all goes smoothly.

Thursday 12/25 – Merry Christmas. Hang out at the hotel.

Friday 12/26 – Get all of our kids paperwork; fly out of Addis at 10:30 p.m.

Saturday 12/27 – Arrive home – via D.C. and Denver

Noah and Natalie will have the next week off of school still which is great. As a family we’ll be laying low for awhile, trying not to overwhelm the new kids with too many people or too many things too soon.

We have internet access at both places we are staying although I have no idea what it will be like. We really hope to post updates while we are there so keep checking the blog.

UPDATED: Praise the Lord – Jen is cleared for travel. The doc gave her some beta blockers and sent her on her way!!! Our God is awesome!

I am asking for some serious prayer for our beloved friend and travel buddy Jen. They are scheduled to leave with us for Addis on Sunday morning. It has been amazing to watch God work out the timing of our journeys so that we can experience this together. The things that have happened in both of our journeys to bring us to this point together can be nothing else than God’s work. We all feel confident that God has us embarking on this journey together not just for our fun and enjoyment but for a much larger purpose that we will only know when we get there. So I can assume that today’s developments are surely an attack from Satan to try to prevent what God is doing.

About an hour ago we got a call from Dustin. Jen was at her sister’s when all her extremities started turning blue. It started in hands and feet and kept spreading up arms and legs. They called the paramedics. Her blood pressure is extremely low and they are taking her to the hospital.

Please pray that they will discover QUICKLY what is wrong and get her on the way to healing! I know that she does not want to delay her trip to get her son or worse, miss out. We serve a powerful and mighty God who can work miracles and we are asking him to do one today.

Updated 7:32 – They did an EKG. Still waiting to talk to the cardiologist. While they were waiting they did a dye injection to check for blood clots in the lungs. That came back clear (praise God). Her heart rate is still really elevated. She snuck on her phone to tweet (I love that girl 🙂 and said she may need beta blockers for wacky pulse rate. Keep praying!!!