Oh.....so much easier!!

Alright, most of you know that I've been keeping a private blog for the adoption of our newest daughter. That darn blog has been nothing but trouble. I'm not going to bore you with details but trust me it has just become to complicated for a non-computer person. Plus, many friends and family have had a hard time gaining access to the private blog and I don't want them to miss out on our latest adventure.

Let me get any new readers up to speed: Ted and I leave on Saturday to adopt our 5th child. You can read our story if you want all of the details http://homan1.blogspot.com/ . I should be packing but I work best under pressure so I'll save most of the packing for Saturday morning. I so have Rita's bag and a suitcase full of orphanage donations packed. I need to get the 4 kids at home packed up before I can even think about Ted and myself. It has been crazy trying to find places for all four kids to stay while we're gone. My mom is helping out a majority of the time but she only has so much vacation time.......plus, I don't want her to go totally crazy while we're gone. Lots of other people are chipping in to help out...so here's a BIG thanks to you wonderful people - Dave, Kathy, Patty, my brother and SIL, Ted's parents, Rose, Donna and my dad. I told my mom that I never want to adopt again just for the stress of figuring out what to do with the kids left at home.

Like I said Ted and I leave Saturday evening out of Ft. Wayne. We fly to Chicago, then onto London ( I HATE Heathrow airport with a passion!!!!). We arrive in Yerevan shortly after midnight on Sunday/Monday AM. I believe we will drive to Gyumri first thing Monday morning, complete some more paperwork and then go to meet Rita again. Ted has the heart necklace and heart ring already to give to Rita for their first meeting (Rita's request.....the girl know what she wants). That same day we should head back to Yerevan to stay at a furnished apartment for the rest of the trip. Tuesday our facilitator will start our paperwork with the US Embassy to attain a visa for Rita to enter the USA and become a US citizen. For all of my China friends this part of the trip is similar to when you head to Guangzhou to get their visas. In between appointments we hope to make it to the Genocide museum http://www.armenocide.am/ , maybe the circus and make a visit to a dentist office (yes....I want to take a tour of a dentist office in Armenia). I'm sure we do other things too but these are a few things on my list. We plan to be back home on May 21st. Hopefully I'll have better internet access than we did on our first trip to Armenia. Our facilitator said that our apartment will be close to internet cafes....we'll see. I'll leave you with the picture that started it all. I came across this picture on a "waiting children website" and my breath was taken away. She is such a beautiful girl....on the inside and out. It was a year ago yesterday that we officially started the paperchase to bring Rita home. My next post will be from Armenia :o)