A Name & Some Travel Plans

It has been decided! His name is Addis Hambleton Carpenter. Woo Woo!

I wrote a little on this a while back, but our process was as follows: We wanted him to have an Ethiopian name, but not one that was so difficult to pronounce that he would be dogged by it his whole life. We liked Mussie, the name he got from the police officer he was taken to after he was found, but even we had trouble remembering how to pronounce it, not to mention everyone who asked about him. We also liked Moses, the English translation of Mussie, but felt that while it matched his story, it did not preserve his Ethiopian heritage enough. So, we spent the last couple of weeks perusing other Ethiopian names and landed on Addis. It means "new" and is also the first part of the name of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

The middle name is my own, and is a family name that has been passed down at least three generations and maybe more.

Regarding other things, we leave in less than a week! It is crazy and we are scurrying about trying to finish all the last minute planning, packing and buying. We were getting pretty bogged down by it, but I am thankful that we both came to the realization yesterday that we were losing the purpose and the excitement in the midst of the long to-do list. While we are still getting stuff done, I am excited that we have recalibrated our hearts and minds to prepare for this wonderful miracle! Even if we have a terrible trip, we are going to come home with our son and that is all that matters!

We leave on Wednesday September 10th and arrive in Addis Ababa on the night of the 11th. Almost immediately after that, we head north and then south to see Ethiopia and learn about Addis' country and culture. Not until Tuesday the 16th do we arrive back in the capital city to meet our little Addis. We then wait for his passport and come home about a week later.

We are not sure about blogging while we are there, but we are going to try. Stay tuned...

One last thing, the picture above was sent to us last Monday with the following update below. We can't wait!

“Enough is enough! Mussie is too nice! I heard he cries at bedtime when he is hungry, but I will believe it when I see it! We were staring in each other’s eyes and I tilted my head to the right; then he tilted his head! And then I tilted to the left and he followed! We both had grins on our faces a mile long! He can now ‘keep head level with body when sitting’ and ‘razz (make a wet razzing sound)’! Weight- 14.7 pounds."