A year ago today we arrived, for the second time in 2006, at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In the wee hours of the morning on October 21, 2006, Josh and I drove out of our driveway, leaving my Auntie at our home with Marcus, Shane, Ben, Maggie and Amanda, and the other kids settled in at friends' homes. I remember that it felt very unreal to be on our way to Ethiopia again, as we had just done this trip back in February, and yet at the same time it felt like a life time had passed since we had met Belane.

I was beyond excited to be on my way to her. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve! At the same time there was a lot of stress, as we knew we were traveling before her immigration waiver paperwork was completed. Of course I was also worried about how her health would be, her adjustment to us, how my kids would do back at home, etc. etc. etc.

Such is the reality of adoption. It is often a swirl of emotions and those emotions, whether they be joy, excitement, fear, worry, sadness, stress, etc., are almost always very strong emotions.

So, a year ago today we arrived once again in Ethiopia, after a ridiculously long and tiring trip. We were more prepared for a lot of things this time around. We knew a few phrases in Amharic. We knew about the begging we would experience. We knew what the food would be like, what the traffic would be like and how wonderful most people would be. As we exited the airport, the familiar sites, sounds and smells were wonderful, and the knowledge that we were just hours away from being reunited with Belane was incredible.

While we had no idea at that point how stressful our trip would be, even if we did, I doubt it would have dampened our excitement and our joy of knowing we would soon have our little girl in our arms.

You can ready my post from one year ago today, by clicking here.

I love looking back to where we were a year ago, and to think of how far we have come and how much has changed. I know that if I knew then that we would get Belane home in just a couple of weeks and how wonderfully she would settle into our family and how healthy she would be, that it would have been a great comfort. And as I sit here now, incredibly anxious to go on that journey once again to get our Solomon, and I worry about how long it will take until we can go and get him and I worry about his health, I take comfort in imagining where we will likely be a year from now.