Operation Get Eden Adopted is underway! We got all of our oversized checked bags onto the plane, maneuvered the car seats + carryons + kids through three airports now and we’re about to head off towards the final flight to Nairobi. God has been watching out for us: they almost checked a bag through without a tag, they lost Andy’s paper lap ticket, and the room reservation here in Amsterdam was booked for tonight instead of today. But all of the potential snafus worked out without causing any major problems.

The kids have been doing better than expected, we’ll see how they do on this next 8 hour one with only 5 hours of sleep and a few missed naps.

The last couple of months have been very busy for us and we haven’t been very good about updating our blog.  So, here is a quick update of what we have all been up to and also a long update of what we have planned for the next several months.  🙂

Andy: In the last couple of posts I forgot to include Andy’s stats from his 1 year check up.  Andy weighed 25 lbs, 6 oz, and was 30 1/2 inches.  He had tubes put in his ears on March 14 and did really well with the surgery.  He hasn’t had a sniffle since the surgery (pretty much the first time since birth!).

Eden: She still loves attention and is talking so much now.  After church today she told us about what she did in Sunday school and it was fun to be able to have a conversation with her.  She had a touch of pneumonia at the end of February which landed her in the ER.  We’ve upped her nebulizer treatments and now she does two a day to help strengthen her lungs.

Meghan: I’ve spent a majority of my days in the last month packing; packing for Kenya and packing to move out of our house.  I’m also scheduling and shuttling to many doctor appointments for vaccines and check ups before the trip.  I’m tired of the chaos in our house but I’m thankful for all of the help we’ve had.

Ben: Ben has been busy doing all of the legwork for our trip.  He has scheduled flights and rides, bought a van and cell phones and leased our house and is selling our car.

We leave for Kenya on April 6 and fly to JFK, then to Amsterdam where we have a 14 hour layover and then to Nairobi.  From Nairobi we will rent a taxi and ride to Eldoret.  Even though it will take about 4 hours to drive instead of 1 to fly, we decided that it would be nice to have a more flexible trip after spending 18 hours on planes and it is cheaper than paying overage fees for all of our bags.

We have a brand new house that we are renting in Eldoret.  The house was built by a Kenyan family that we lived with when we were first given custody of Eden.  We will be in the compound with all of the IU people which is really nice and it will be fun to have our own house.  The house has three bedrooms and a porch and that’s about all we know about it.

Ben bought a minivan from Japan that will be shipped to Mombasa, Kenya in a couple of weeks.  It’s a 2004 gold van with DVD and navigation systems.  It holds eight people and looks like it has a fair amount of trunk space as well.  Ben and a friend will fly to Mombasa after the van arrives and then they will drive it back to Eldoret.  We are looking forward to having our own vehicle this time, especially since we will have 2 carseats every place we go!

We will continue to update the blog while we are gone so that you can stay up to date on our travels, life in Eldoret and Eden’s adoption.  Please keep us in mind over the next 8 months and remember to fill us in on your lives.  We’ll miss a lot while we are gone and will look forward to hearing about things in the states.

Last, but most important, here are some ways that you can pray for us:

• Travel: Please pray that we would have safe and efficient travel and that the kids will be pleasant.
• Adjustment: Pray that we will all adjust to the time change, new house, new food, new weather, new people, etc.  There will be a lot of changes and we all need to be flexible.
• Health: We (mostly Meghan) have a lot of fears about the health of the kids with the extended time on the plane and exposure to new germs and unusual diseases in Kenya.  We anticipate colds and intestinal issues, but hope to avoid more extreme issues such as TB.
• Adoption: The point of this trip is to complete Eden’s adoption.  Pray that the court process goes smoothly and quickly and that Eden will legally be a permanent member of our family as soon as possible.  Also pray for our petition to return to the US.  That is the most daunting part of our trip.

Andy is now 13 months and he is changing so quickly these days. He has learned several new words and one more sign. He can say: Mama, Dada, Papa, bye-bye, up, go go go, and he signs ‘more’. Andy is very brave and wants to climb on and over everything. He is bouncing a lot now and is starting to do little dances. He can do some of the motions for The Wheels on the Bus and likes to clap his hands with any song that Eden sings.

Andy is still very happy and easy going although he’s definitely starting to let us know that he has an opinion about things. He loves to play with Eden but every once in a while they get into a little scuffle. Unfortunately for Eden, Andy has a lot of weight behind him these days. Today they were both trying to play with the music table. Andy wanted to use the piano portion and so did Eden. She knocked him down and he pulled himself back to a standing position, pushed in front of her and then sat down, knocking her into a sitting position and placing himself in her lap. I came in to the room when I heard her screaming because she couldn’t get out from under him. 🙂

We’re a little behind on the updates because February was very busy month for us. Andy turned 1 on February 20 and he’s practically a real man now!

He walks every where and hardly crawls at all and has even started speed walking, especially when he sees the gate is open to the stairs. He says a couple of words but doesn’t say them very often. He can say ‘sausage’ and ‘bye-bye’ and recently started waving. He also signs all done when he is ready to get out of his high chair.

He still loves to snuggle and is very easy going, but occasionally lets us know he has an opinion about things by letting out a loud squawk when we do something he doesn’t like. Andy crawls on everything and knows how to use Eden’s little riding train as a step to get up on to the couch. He loves to play with Eden and it’s really fun to see the two of them interacting so much.

Andy will be seeing an ENT in March to look at tubes for his ears. If he has to get them, we would like to do that before our flights to Kenya to make the take off and landing more pleasant. Please pray for wisdom and safety as we look at our options.

Andy and Colin shared a special day this month as Andy turned 11 months and Colin turned….a little bit older than that. 🙂 Andy is really into peek-a-boo and loves to clap when someone else claps. He’s walking more without being forced to do it and he is much better at standing alone. He makes a break for the stairs whenever he sees the gate at the bottom left ajar just a tiny bit.

Andy has pretty much stopped eating baby food which means we don’t really have many leftovers. He is an eating champ and these days eats 1/4 cup of baby oatmeal and 2 sausage links for breakfast, which is more than Eden eats. Plus he’s then hungry again 3 hours later!

We’re looking forward to celebrating Andy’s 1st birthday, even though we can’t believe how quickly the year has flown by!