We're going to Ethiopia!

I've been waiting 10 months to say these words:  We're going to Ethiopia to pick up the twins!  The twins are REALLY coming home.  As Liliana would say: "For real, they coming home!"  We are beyond thrilled.  I can't wait to get them in my arms, give them bunches of hugs and kisses, and never let them go.  Ever.  They're ours now, forever.

We got the coveted email Thursday at 1:30 AM.  I woke up to go to the bathroom and decided to check my email.  The Embassy had just emailed me moments before I got out of bed.  Incredible!  I emailed them back right away requesting an Embassy date.  We got our first choice - January 17.  We'll be in Ethiopia for about a week.  I am so excited to finally be a forever family under one roof.

Michael and Liliana are just as thrilled as we are.  I am amazed at how excited they are.  This has been a long time coming, especially for them.  It's precious to hear how much they love their brother and sister already.

The other day I overheard Michael say the following to Liliana: "Liliana, when Sammy and Sadie come home, we will need to give them lots of hugs when they are sad.  They are brown and so are we, so they will know it's okay when we hug them.  There are other brown people too.  And we are all from Ethiopia."  Seriously, melt-my-heart precious.

So, the daunting task of packing has begun.  I would say, thus far, it has gone much smoother than anticipated.  I am pretty sure we have everything packed except for clothes for Matt and me. 

Remember how cute Sammy's and Sadie's room looks now that it's all ready for them?

 

Well, now it's a complete disaster because we are using it as a staging area for packing.

 

At least there's a really good reason for the mess.  :)  As you can see below, our suitcases are looking pretty full already.  But, like I said, all we have left is our clothes.  We put everything we pack in ziplock bags with all the air sucked out.  It saves a ton of space in the suitcases and keeps everything clean and bug-free.  We pack each ziplock bag with one complete outfit in it.  That way, while we are in Ethiopia, we can just grab a bag and get dressed very easily.  And it keeps our luggage super organized, which I like.

And, finally, here are some pictures of the "remodeled" mudroom!  The way we had it set up previously made it feel small and crowded.  There was no way we could fit six people in there to get ready to leave the house.  It was hard enough with only two kids, we couldn't imagine how we were going to do it with four!

The new-and-improved mudroom!

We hang our laundry baskets to keep them out of the way.  We bought these really nice shelves with drawers for all our laundry and cleaning supplies.  I like how much more clean and organized it looks now.

Each kid has a different colored rug to sit on while they put on their shoes, hats, mittens, etc.  We put the hooks at the end of the wall to see if that would be a good placement for coats.  The mirror is probably going to be taken down at some point since it's not centered anymore... we're not quite sure yet. :)

Above each child's colored rug are two bins.  The top bin has their outdoor gear in it and the bottom has all their shoes.