Greetings from Addis Ababa! How is this for some dedicated blogging??? :)

I was skeptical that this would work, but the Hilton here has high-speed broadband internet access in the hotel rooms. I plugged in my laptop and it worked right away. We figure the $20 US dollars a day charge will more than make up for itself with what we will save on our phone bill.

So, let's see...the flights, as expected, were LONG and exhausting. But everything went smoothly...all of the connections were right on time and our bags made it too (I was really paranoid that the bags would not make it.) I know a lot of people don't like when we compare adoption to being pregnant and giving birth, but honestly, these "around the world flights" are truly much like labor. Long and painful and hard to endure...then you sort of "forget" how bad it is as time dulls the pain and suffering! :)

And, of course, like labor...it is well worth the rewards.

Our dear friend Tesfaye picked us up at the airport with a bouquet of roses for me, and kindly drove us to the Hilton where we are staying.

The room is nicer and bigger than we expected, and we are awaiting our room service meal to be delivered before we crash and sleep the sleep of the dead.

And of course, the best news is that in just about 12 hours or so, we will be on our way to Belane. They are picking us up in the morning at 9:30 a.m. to go and pick her up. I can hardly stand being so close and not being with her.

On the paperwork front...we called our Senator's office before we left to have an "insurance policy" of sorts to get out of here quickly, and they were very helpful and encouraging and got right on things. So, we hoping to have a visa in hand in the next few days.

So, I am going to go eat pizza and have a well-deserved sleep after almost 36 hours of traveling.

I promise to post tomorrow once we have our sweet girl with us!!!