packing....

Looking at the photo of stacked toddler girl outfits below...I see a trend of animal prints. No, I am not bringing all this.



Anna, Miriam and I leave in six days for China! It is finally time to pull out all the little girl clothes I have been stashing in the closet for the last eleven months since we started this adoption. Since then we have twice received weights, heights, and feet length on the girls. My guess is that both Elsie and Charis wear about size 18 mos clothes. A guess is all that is. I am packing clothes in sizes 12 mos, 18 mos and 24 mos. The truth is that it's possible very little of what I am packing will fit. In that case we will hit the Walmart in Nanning. Walmart has revolutionized travel to China. I think we could go there with just the clothes on our back and buy all we need in China...if we wanted too. I don't want too. I want to be prepared to hunker down in hotel room snuggling my new babies...not dragging brand new kids to big department store to find clothes, diapers and snacks. It is going to be rough on Charis and Elsie to do all the stuff we HAVE to do.....like official adoption appointments. These two toddlers will not be used to car travel or shopping at all. Hopefully the outfits I'm bringing will fit. I think they will look adorable in anything though.

Our first adoption was from China ten years ago. Mike, Michael and I traveled to adopt Anna. We went COO (carry on only). I loved it. No checking luggage or waiting long hours for luggage to be unloaded off plane. COO is not as practical nowadays with airline security. I do pack all basic necessities in my carry on bag though. Meds, camera, IPOD, basic makeup, change of underwear and tshirt, and all important paperwork. I like to feel that even if all my luggage is lost we could still get by with what is in "carry on' bag and what we could buy in China. This has worked well. 98% of the time your luggage winds up with you after your flight. The other 2% of the time it is sure good to be prepared

Mike & Julee's Big Adventure

Mike and I are finally taking a honeymoon! We got married eighteen years ago so it’s about time. We have done amazing trips together to China and South Africa for adoptions. We took children with us those trips and of course were getting new children to take home. Really cool times but not so great “couple” time. After the South African adoption of Maggie and Josiah we had too many “littles” at home for both of us to go on adoption trips. We have taken turns since then traveling to bring home new children from foreign lands. This is the first time we have taken a vacation or trip just the two if us. What brought this about you say….?

Yes, we are adopting again. Wanting to meet our new children had a big part (BIGGEST part) in planning a trip to beautiful Ethiopia. We also decided we wanted to be able to experience an enjoy Ethiopia as a couple. Our plans include a trip to Lalibela and some other cool tourist kind of stuff. Of course we will also be visiting orphanages every chance we get!

Our grown daughter Kayla is coming to be here at home with the eleven youngest children. Bless Kayla! Without her we couldn’t ever even dream of this kind of adventure. She knows the children’s needs well as she cared for them so much when I was away from home with Jonathan in the hospitals. We’ve all missed Kayla so much since she moved to Oregon. This trip has precipitated her deciding to move back to our town. Yah! Yasab is helping me finish fixing up her new room to make her feel extra welcome. I’m so happy to have one of my “big” kids and best friends around again.

We fly tomorrow afternoon to Seattle to spend the night. Early the next morning we fly out at the crack of dawn to Ethiopia via WA DC and Rome…till we land in Addis Thursday evening. Please pray for us and whatever God lays before us on our trip. May we be open and watchful to His plans for our time there. Please also pray for the kids here at home and Kayla as she lovingly cares for them. We are asking God to keep them healthy when we are gone, especially Maggie.

We’ll be away from Sept 30th-Oct 11th. We are taking the laptop and plan to update the blog and check email…as often as we can get internet access. I am so overwhelmed this morning with gratitude to the Lord and my husband for the chance to take this trip. Thank you Jesus and Mike! I love this photo of Kayla with some of the kids. It was taken this past May when she visited home.

Julee
all packed and ready for adventure
pretty much recovered from anti-malaria meds induced psychosis

Blue Jeans & Malaria Med Nightmare

Mike and I are planning a very special trip* and started Malaria meds three weeks ago. The medicine is called Mefloquine and you are suppose to take one tablet once a week before leaving and once weekly thereafter until four weeks after you are leaving area of exposure (malaria danger zone). We haven’t ever had to take it for a trip before but this trip we felt it wise to do the meds. Our doctor and pharmacists explained all the side effects possible…but it just sounded like “blah, blah, blah” to me. I figured we’d for sure get a little tummy upset but couldn’t imagine anything worse happening. You know those warning labels? They just have to say all the worst things that could happen…not the average side effects (I thought). I spent the first few days after taking the first pill with my head in a toilet getting sick. I had horrible migraines too and just thought it was bad migraine sick…not the malaria pill. Then the second week still crazy sick with migraine, dizzy, feeling awful. I even took a pregnancy test as I was very “late” and so nauseated. Nope, not pregnant. Then one morning I had a hot flash. Heard all about those hot flashes, but never had one before. I cried. I was “late” and having hot flashes. I really cried hard. “Great!” I thought. It’s menopause. Ugh. I am “only” 49 years old. But I don’t want to be in menopause yet! The thing about the hot flashes I was having is they came every five or ten minutes for hours on end and were AWFUL. I couldn’t figure out how women survived them?! Then I started hearing things…like voices or weird sounds. I even saw things that weren’t there. Fun. I was more mental (crazy uptight and sensitive) with poor Mike and the kids. My anxiety level shot through the roof. I really thought I was going crazy. It was only when I got a rash, some hives, and itching all over my skin; did I consider digging out the paper from the pharmacy listing the Malaria drug side effects. There it all was listed: Nausea, dizziness, headache, numb hands and feet, night sweats, hallucinations, aggression, anxiety. You may be wondering why it took me so long to realize what was happening to me. I was just so ill and fuzzy in my thinking that I wasn’t connecting the dots. And I also wasn’t being totally honest with Mike about all my side effects. When I heard the voices that didn’t belong to anyone calling me from the other room, or saw the kangaroo wearing a very snappy jacket sitting at the kitchen table…I just thought it was a very extreme atypical migraine brain trip.
Okay, so I can’t take the anti-malaria meds. Thankfully Mike is doing okay on the Mefloquine. My side effect symptoms are fading a little every day and the drug should be mostly out of my system in about ten days. Since I still plan to have the adventure of a lifetime and do not want Malaria I am taking other precautions. I am treating all my trip clothes with Permethrin to reply mosquitoes. I also added long sleeved shirts and long pants to luggage and pulled the skirts and T shirts. We packed some nice strong DEET too!
Yesterday I bought a pair of jeans. I needed them for the trip. I only had one other pair of long pants, the khakis I take camping. The last time I bought a pair of jeans for myself was 11 years ago. Yes, really. I’ve worn just dresses and skirts for years. Since Jonathan died I have changed. I don’t wear only skirts or dresses anymore. Finding a pair of jeans was mind blowing. So, I went to JC Pennys. I steered clear of the Junior section and went to “women’s casual wear”. There was 100s of different kinds of blue jeans. Oh my. I grabbed up twelve different pairs of size 12 jeans to try on in the dressing room. In a few minutes I put those all back and grabbed 4 more pairs in size 10 this time. (that was at least cool to discover!) A few minutes later I paid $40 for a soft as butter pair of Levis and walked out the door. The whole shopping trip was 30 minutes. I had forgotten how comfortable a good ole pair of Levis are.

Psst: don’t tell my kids jeans costing over $20 are allowed.

* post about our “trip” and adoption news next!

Julee