Long Road Trip......Make That Super-Long Road Trip

2,750 miles. That's the distance between Chesapeake VA to Chula Vista CA.
Five and a half days. That's the time we originally planned to tour America's heartland from VA to CA. Emphasis on "originally."

So how does one pack a wooden ship model into a car already crammed full of stuff? Very carefully. I'm grateful for our large cargo carrier on our roof rack.



Here's Chloe's expression from the back of the car - priceless. What makes this even more priceless is we're only an hour into a three and a half day drive! We have one day left on our journey, and we can't complain. This is the second cross-country drive we have survived with both of us in the car. We know we're very lucky, and the next tour of America's byways won't be this simple. Chloe (our 8-yr old dog) sleeps about 98% of the time, and we're pretty sure that a 2-yr old baby in a car seat will demand slightly more attention during a 2,700 mile trek in the car.

The good news is the driver of the moving company truck (actually an 18-wheeler) is a very nice gentleman and said we would be the first load off the truck in CA. The bad news is he will be at our new home on Friday or Saturday......not later the following week that we originally thought. Emphasis on "originally." I had planned a 5.5 day drive across country - allowing daylight driving and letting us get settled at the hotel at the end of each day before dinnertime. Trimming two days off a 2,700-mile-plus trip to make it in 3.5 days removes any sense of "leisure" from our journey.

Here's Chloe enjoying low windows from the hotel in Memphis, TN.



Alicia and Chloe relaxing after a long day on the road.

Next stop.....San Diego!

Step #4 - The First of Many AWAA Paperwork Packages

We mailed the first of many packages to AWAA today. This package was very simple and only required three forms to be signed and returned. Once they process those forms, AWAA will assign us a case worker, and then the real paperwork begins! We have quickly learned that adopting isn't for the faint of heart. By the end of this process, we both will have gone through extensive background checks, physical exams, one home study with two additional in-person interviews, and a ton of more stuff! It is all worth every bit of it. For anyone considering a domestic adoption and how the expenses of that compare to international........From the research we did as we prepared for our adoption decision, we learned that domestic adoptions can be just as expensive as those from Ethiopia. Many of the European countries and China are much more expensive than Ethiopia (and domestic adoptions), but we discovered the range of average expenses for Ethiopia are comparable to those of domestic adoptions.

In the paperwork we recently received, we learned that the wait time for adopting an Ethiopian infant boy is slightly less than that for infant girls. At the moment, we are planning to adopt an infant boy. We say "at the moment" because Alicia would prefer to adopt a girl while David would prefer a boy. It's interesting we both provide the same reason for our preference: "Girls/boys are more fun." The home study is where we make the final determination as to our adoption preference. We hope to do the homestudy within the next month, but we won't know anything until AWAA processes the forms we mailed today. Based on feedback from other couples who have adopted from Ethiopia, we plan to keep a broad perspective regarding the age. We'll most likely say we're open to adopting in the age range of infant to 2 years old. As far as whether we'll put a boy or girl, we're still discussing that!

Our Church has a "Blessing of the Animals" every year in October. We call it "Animal Sunday" and we have been fortunate that our church here in Va Beach as well as the one we attended when we briefly lived in San Diego both observe this custom. Everyone brings their pets (of all sorts -- we've even seen a ferret!), and the pets sit in the pews for the entire service. I must admit that communion is a different experience with half the congregation on all fours. It's even more of an experience when a ferret is in the pew behind you.......and your dog knows it! Animal Sunday is this Sunday, and that gave us reason to look at the pictures from last year. Chloe has been our completely-spoiled-rotten dog for about seven years. It's hard to believe she's been with us for that long. She's a mixed breed we adopted from the local animal rescue society. She's got a lot of Chow and a little Shepherd which means we could vacuum every 15 minutes in the summer!