Jumeirah Beach

 The beach here is beauiful, these pictures do not do it justice.  The water is so very warm, almost too warm in the 100+ degree temperatures.  It is very clear and a bright turquoise blue.  So Stunning!

 The Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) can be seen from everywhere in Dubai

 This is the park entrance to the beach

We both got horribly sunburned on our legs here today.  I think we will heve to stay out of the sun tomorrow!  :(

Our Hotel Room

We have a really nice room here in Dubai, the spread at breakfast is quite something.  Everything from American food to middle eastern food and a few other nationalities in between.  They have a really amazing omlet bar and their eggs have a very bright salmon colored yolk.  The amount of fresh fruit is unbelieveable and the different types of breads and pastries is insane.  I definetely think I have put on a few pounds here.  It will be quite the transition going from one of the most luxurious places on the planet to the third world country of Ethiopia.  The amount of money here is rediculous...almost every car you see is a luxury car.  Most of the people you meet are friendly, I should say mostly the people working in the hospitality/service area are friendly.   There is definetely a lot of people who look at you with very evil looks, I mean don't even try to smile at them, they will look back at you with such hatred.  I have never experienced anything like it.  But all in all you feel extreamly safe here and very welcome.  We have only seen 1 police car driving around and not a single police man walking around.   They place feels peaceful and it is rather quiet for the amount of people around. 

There are some very exotic smells also and a rich aroma every place you go.  It is so distinct I feel like I will remember it forever.

Taxi anyone???

Paul and I are not what you would call international travelers...actually we are not really what you would call travelers.  This is kind of a funny story of our first steps off the plane in the middle east no less...

First off we arrive at 8:oo at night.  It gets dark in Dubai at around 7:30 pm so by the time we got our luggage and went through customs it was very dark outside.  We go to where all the shuttles are only to find out we aren't being picked up by a shuttle.  Dropped the ball on that somewhere along the way.  After about 30 minutes of talking with our hotel we realize it will be cheaper for us to take a taxi.  We start heading to the exit toward the taxis when a Arab man walks briskly up to us and takes one of our pieces of luggage and says "Taxi?  Follow me!" 
We do for some reason...right past the row of taxis and into the deserted underground parking garage.  My heart is starting to race at this piont when I realize that there is not another person in sight.   When we get to the "taxi"  we see that it is not in fact a taxi but an unmarked black SUV.  Oh .My. Goodness!  This is not good I think to myself.  As he opens the back of the SUV I tell him I need to go to the bathroom and he tries to usher us to a parking garage restroom.  Paul insists to him that we will not get into his unmarked Taxi and the man insists that it is all the same.  Finally we get our luggage back from him and we very quickly head back outside toward the awaiting row after row of taxis.  What were we thinking???
The Lord was definetely watching over us.  He could have been an honest man and really just taken us to our hotel, who knows.  Maybe he was trying to make a few bucks on the side.  Maybe he would have beat us up and taken our money and left us in the garage!  Dramatic I know but we sure did get a scare our first few minutes of ever being in a different country.

(Kevin, you are not allowed to post a comment about this!  :) LOL )

Were leaving on a jet plane!!

Found out last night that our 11:48 am flight out of Colorado Springs was cancelled and we now leave at 9:20 am out of Colorado Springs, please arrive 2 hours early for check in.  UGH...we didn't really want those extra 2 hours of sleep.  The kiddos got to skip school today and come to the airport with us.   

Goodbye beautiful Colorado Springs
Hello Denver!

We had a 3 hour layover in Denver!  Brutal to be stuck in Denver for 3 hours.  I spent all my time on the phone with the kids and emailing pictures to them.  Saying good bye in the air port was very hard...I don't want to ever leave them again.  We know we need to one more time though, when we go back to Ethiopia to pick Butula up.  At least Caitlyn will be with me...that will help.  We think it will be so good for Butula to have her sister Caitlyn with her for the trip home.  It will be a good bonding time for them.

                                         Goodbye Rockie Mountains ...

                                        Hello Los Angeles

Yes Los Angeles, CA.  We flew 3 hours to LA just to board an International flight to Dubai.  Because of that little jaunt we added 6 hours to our flight.  15 hours in the plane to Dubai...brutal!!  Luckly we flew Emirates Air and that flight was pretty amazing.

                                         Bye Bye LA...

                                         Hello Emirates Air...

                                         Our food was amazing for plane food

 This is the 1st class lounge, polished wood grain around those large tv screens, seats that fold out into a bed.  That would be the was to travel.

This is a picture of my tv screen.  The line shows our flight pattern.  We could watch a GSP of our flight tracking through or travel.  It was depressing at some points to see how far we still had left to go.  15 hours on a plane is a long time.  The nice thing was that the kept feeding us.  At on point I even turned down the pizza I was offered and opted for just a candy bar.  You know me I never turn down food but I was FULL!!  The food just kept coming and coming and it was all included.  I was even given a bottle of red wine with my dinner which I couldn't finish either because the bottle was so big.  Paul  was even able to eat because they offered so many different options that we were able to pick a mostly gluten free option for him. 

We had over 50 different newer released movies to choose from.  We were able to watch 2 movies during our awake time.  All in all the flight really wasn't that bad.


FINALLY...Dubai!!!

Packing...

We leave in the morning for our court date trip to Ethiopia.  We are so excited to finally be at this stage of our journey to meet our sweet little Butula.  Waitling til the last minute to pack is such a Melinda thing to do.  We have been so busy this past week it seems there really has been no time.  We leave Monday morning and travel first to Dubai where we will stay over for 3 nights and then move on to Ethiopia on Friday morning May 27th.  We will be in Ethiopia until Wednesday June 1st and arrive home on Thursady June 2nd.  It is killing me that we are going to be away from the kids for so long, in a panic at the thought of being away from them, I have almost booked them a ticket to go with us so many times.  I think Paul would have killed me if I would have done that.  Buying 2 tickets is bad enough, can you imagine buying 5!!  Yikes!

Soccer Tournaments...

What a crazy weekend.  Colton had soccer tournaments all weekend and they kept winning so we kept playing.  It was so exciting.  They ended up taking 1st place in the Prodigy Cup.  Their last game for first and second ended up in a tie so they went to a shoot out.  Each team was allowed 5 players to shoot at the goalie.  Colton was the last to shoot and he ended up scoring the last point to win the game.  Our goalie was so great he blocked all but 1 of their shots. 

We had a picnic in between games and the kids all got to play around and have a good time.  They presented  the kids with their trophies also. 

The Ups and Downs of International Adoption

Sometimes I just have no words...


We received this post tonight.  Yesterday was such an exciting and emotional day and then we get slammed with this.  I know the timing of everything is in God's hands and that He is sovereign over everything but some things are just really hard to accept.  I know the Ethiopian government is very much trying to make sure every i is dotted and every t crossed so I hate to complain.  Please pray that this new procedure is temporary and that they can fix any problems that need fixing.  The ideal situation would be for a much better procedure and policy to be found and put into place making the entire process less lengthy. 

This, 1 day after we accept our referral of beautiful Butula...

*********************************************************************************

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Bureau of Consular Affairs

Office of Children’s Issues

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Government of Ethiopia Plans Major Slow-Down in Adoption Processing

March 9, 2011

Citing the need to work on quality and focus on more important strategic issues, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA) will reduce to a maximum of five the number of adoption cases it processes per day, effective March 10, 2011. Under Ethiopian adoption procedures, MOWCYA approves every match between prospective adoptive parents and an Ethiopian child before that case can be forwarded for a court hearing. The U.S. Embassy is working with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to learn more about this change in procedures. We will continue to share information as it becomes available.

Given MOWCYA's current caseload, the U.S. Embassy anticipates that this change could result in an overall decline in case processing of some 90 percent. If this change is implemented as proposed, we expect, that parents who have begun the process of adopting from Ethiopia but have not yet been matched with a child could experience significant delays. It is not clear if this change in procedures would have any significant impact on cases in which MOWCYA has already approved matches.

Prospective adoptive parents should remain in close contact with their adoption service provider to obtain updates on individual cases.

The Embassy's Adoptions Unit can be reached at consadoptionaddis@state.gov.
Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov/ for updated information as it becomes available.

We got our referral!!!

Yesterday while I was driving home from lunch at Panera Bread with Caitlyn, Carson and my Mom, I received a call from our adoption coordinator saying she thinks she has a referral for us.  Not a cool thing to say to someone who is driving.  :)  I screamed and about drove off the road!  She asked me if I was at my computer but unfortunately I was driving and had to wait until I got home to read "her" file.  I called Paul and told him to get home NOW!  He left work and picked up Colton early from school.

I always thought I would be able to wait for Paul so we could open the file together but unfortunatly he was at work and ...I...just...couldn't...wait!!!  The kids and I ran into the house and were so excited to open the email.  She is a beautiful 4 year old little girl.  She is from the norther part of Ethiopia and is absolutely beautiful and very healthy.  The kids were so excited and had tears in their eyes as they looked at her.  It is a very hard thing to describe how you feel connected to a picture on a computer screen but this is the little angel we have been praying for and loving for about a year now.  Caitlyn kept kissing her fingers and placing them on the screen saying "we will bring you home soon."  It was so bittersweet.  Carson was so excited about her age.  He said he "wants to play on the same soccer team as her."  :)  Colton couldn't take his eyes off of her and said that he "knew that was going to be what she looked like." 

We now wait until our paper work is finalized in Ethiopia and then we will get our court date. At that point we can start making our travel arrangements.  Our best guess for that will be in about 3 to 5 months.  We will make 2 trips over to Ethiopia, this court appearance is our first trip and the second one (about 2 months later) will be for our Embassy appointment.  Our adoption will be final at that point and we can bring her home!  I though that the wait for the referral was a hard wait, but these past few days have been really hard.  I now see the light at the end of the tunnel and just want to get our little girl HOME.