Photos from Ethiopia!!

Kidus in the middle "throne"!
Kidus being silly!
Wave.....
Kidus with our card!



Natinael with his card!

My friend has returned from her trip to pick up Beti, their eleven year old daughter. Her and her husband took pictures and also took our cards for the boys! Here are the pictures they took of the boys getting their cards! Mommy, daddy and your sisters are coming soon......

One Week Before Travel!

We will be leaving in exactly one week from today!!!! We are so excited and hope that we have thought of everything. We installed the car seats in the Excursion today. We also loaded the 50 lb duffle bags with all the donated items that we are also taking over. Our suitcases are packed except for the last minute stuff and they each way just slightly under 50 lbs. We also had to pack for the boys. Assuming that they will want to come with us the first day, we figured we would need about 6 days worth of clothes. And of course, PJ's, undies, shoes, etc. So needless to say, we are just about at our weight limit!!

The girl's are at their dad's for spring break this week and we will pick them up Friday on our way to Denver. Our flight is on Sat the 22nd at 8:15 am. If we can get the boy's visas on Friday the 28th, we will get an early flight out on Sat. the 29th. If we do not get them on Friday, we will have to wait until Monday and fly out on Tuesday the 1st of April. I know we will be ready to come home by Friday. So.... wish for quick immigration paperwork!!

This is our last week of life as we know it now. Things will never be quite the same and I have so many emotions. I have not been sleeping very well for about a week and I wake up worrying about all sorts of strange things. I hope this will pass once we are home!!
Clint has a very busy schedule this week. Our Nurse Practitioner is off this week which will make things a little worse. Clint will just have to keep up every day so that we can get out of town on Friday!
I talked to my friend Rhonda that traveled in January to get Efrem. She gave me a lot of advice on many different things. It was great to talk with her!! I also have received several emails from Kristy and her husband, Travis. They are in Ethiopia right now getting their daughter and took cards over to the boys for us. I am anxious to see Kristy's pictures.
We will try to keep in touch by email or through the blog while we are gone. There is no cell phone service in Ethiopia!! Thank God! It will be good to be away from phones while we are there!

We love you all and will be in touch!

Family Pictures from Heptagonals

Hello All
I wanted to get these photos on before we leave. Aaron had his first Outdoor meet in CA this weekend. He did really well and that is an understatement. He ran the 400 M hurdles and beat the school record!! He ran a 51.04 his personal best and good enough to win the meet and beat the Cornell school record. It was last set in 1948 with a hand time of 51.1. He also ran the 110 M hurdles and got 3rd with a personal best of 14.27. He is off to a very good start with his outdoor season!!!
I will still try to get his videos on here. It just might be after Ethiopia!

So Much To Tell!

A lot has happened since I last posted. We have been to New York to watch Aaron compete at the Indoor Heptagonal Championships at Cornell University in Ithaca. What a great time we had and Aaron did such a great job. We are so proud! He ran the 60M hurdles and placed 2nd overall, he also ran the 500M and placed 2nd overall and their 4x400 team placed first. The men's team for Cornell won the overall team trophy. What a great senior year fot Aaron! I will try to get a video or some pictures posted soon. It was very exciting and not just to see him compete, but to see him in his role as co-captain and really a leader for all the underclassmen. The girls all had a great time and it was hard to leave Aaron and come back home. We miss him so much! We will be making a few more trips back east in May to watch the outdoor season and to watch Aaron graduate. I can't believe he is a senior?!

On to our next adventure.....Ethiopia!!! We leave on Saturday the 22nd of March. That is less than two weeks away! It really is going to happen! We did get heights and weights on the boys. I am not sure how accurate they are like all the other information we have gotten.

Kidus Geremew Merrill = 37 in tall and 35 lbs.
Natinael Afework Merrill = 48 in tall and 54 lbs.

The height for Kidus seems a little taller than the photos indicate? Ha!

We are so excited! The tickets are bought, the hotel has been reserved and the social worker in Ethiopia is ready for us!! The girls will be working hard to get all their homework caught up. It is spring break the week prior to us leaving so they will actually be gone from their friends for two weeks. Heaven forbid!!! Bailey seems to be freaked out about this a little more than Sierra. They will be spending spring break in Yuma with their dad. We will have to have all their things packed prior to them leaving for spring break. We have packed 4-50 lb bags of donations that were sent to the agency, then on to us. Each of us can check two 50 lb bags and then one 20 lb carry on. This should be interesting!! We have decided to fly directly out of Denver. We were originally going to get a flight from Laramie and then on to Denver. But the times were just not going to work out. So we will drive to and from Denver. We should return on the 31st and the girls hopefully can return to school on the 1st of April.
We will have internet connection in Ethiopia. I am not sure how good it will be, but we will try to keep in touch with all of you during our stay! There is no cell phone service!

Today is Natnael's birthday!! He is 7 years old. My friend, Kristy, is in Ethiopia today and has a card for each of the boys and I can't wait until I can see a picture of Natinael getting his card. It won't be long now and we will have more than just photos!!!
To my friend, Karen, hang in there dear and your boys will be home soon also!

Thank you all again for your love and support along the way!!
13 days and counting!