The Jumping Off Point

Feeling a bit out of the loop lately. We had Parent Orientation at the elementary school and Liam's IEP meeting this week, and I still don't know how I did it. I haven't kept up with the news, my blog, other blogs or even my own life these days. In exactly 1 week we'll be sitting on an airplane taking Sky up to Chicago so he can stay with my sister and her family! I think Sky will have a blast on the airplane because he's completely fascinated by every type of transportation imaginable. He's been claiming the window seat endlessly!

We'll be saying our goodbyes at O'Hare airport and we're a little nervous about the unknown there. Will Sky greet Aunt Stephanie with a smile and controlled emotions, or will he be a blubbering ball of sadness and raw, gutteral moans? There is no real way to prepare him for this, and like all things with travel, we'll play it by ear. If the latter happens, we may resort to something tasty in my purse. Food does magic for him. It's how he became potty trained at age 3. Oh, the promise of those Chips-Ahoy cookies for every flush, and how quickly he got it when he knew food was involved. Works every time for our future connoisseur!

I'm looking so forward to the whole experience. I'll admit it- I feel childish, but I'm giddy. I feel like a kid about to go to a theme park or something. As if Christmas is right around the corner. My child, I will finally get to hold the baby girl I've been holding in my dreams! How can one not be giddy? On top of that, there's the night we'll have in D.C. together, ALONE, in peace and quiet and the whole entire adventure in a new land.

I have always been an adventurer, since childhood. At age 4 when we lived in Crete, Greece I have memories of exploring several blocks on the dirt streets. Exploring buildings, meeting kids from all over the area and driving my parents mad with worry. I'd walk to the bus stop there and watch people get onto the bus, wishing I could go, too. When I was about nine, living in American suburbia, I recall discovering and exploring the woods across the street and how completely excited I was about it. I spent hours there, sometimes until I reached pure exhaustion. I haven't lost that spirit, so this trip is feeding that ever-curious little girl in me. I can't wait to see Ethiopia, it's people, the diversity of religions and the tolerance people speak of between Muslims, Orthodox Christians and Jews. I look forward to all the unfamiliar sights, smells and sounds of my daughters homeland. Those things are gifts we take with us, and when we come back home we are changed forever. I love change, have always embraced it, so maybe that's part of why I love travel so much.

So I'm basically on the edge of my seat here, almost everything is done. We have so little left to do that if we had to leave today, we could. It's a strange place to be, like standing at a 'jumping off' point. The true jump off point is going to be the start of our lives when we return home. That type of travel is the most real and valuable of all; the journey of our lives and the exploration of our selves. I have a feeling Miss Amelie will be taking us to some new and beautiful places.