We checked in with AWAA and our court date is still set for this Thursday in Ethiopia. It's hard to beleive that after Thursday (assuming everything goes as planned) Ethiopia will officially recognize us as Noah's parents. We will be parents of a child on the other side of the world that we have never seen or been with, but that we feel very connected to and like he has been ours all along.

In a month we should be in Ethiopia picking up our son. As we think about travel we still have many questions. Several of these will be answered by AWAA in the coming weeks, others are questions any new parent would have and others are ones that only God knows the answer to. Here are the questoins that we frequently discuss and wonder about as we lay in bed each night:

• Our pictures were from Noah when he was about 3 months old.  He will be about 6.5 months old when we pick him up.  What does he look like now?  Has he grown much?  What size of clothes and diapers should we take with us?  Is he still healthy?
• What have they been feeding him in Ethiopia?  Will he like formula we bring with us?  Will he be used to the Ethiopia water or will he accept bottled water?
• Has he ever used a pacifier?  They probably don't give them to the kids in the orphanage (in Uganda the babies didn't have them) as they would be expensive and too hard to keep track of.
• Will he know we are his parents when we first see him?
• Will he have difficulty attaching to us as his parents? 
• Will he cry much?  When we were in Uganda at orphanages babies very rarely cried.  The reason was (sadly) that they learned that crying didn't help them out any.  Here in the US babies cry when they need something, don't feel well, aren't happy or want someone's attention... in orphanages babies get used to not having their needs met right away so they know crying won't make someone come running to their attention.
• Will he sleep through the night?  Will he be able to sleep well?  Will he be confused by the time change?
• What will the plane ride back be like?  Will we be able to handle him for two 6-8 hour plane rides?
• How will he react when he's back in the US?
• What will it be like when we land in the Indianapolis airport and walk out seeing our family and friends for the first time?  How will they react?