Sorry we were not able to make any more updates while we were gone. We only made it to the internet a couple more times, but blogspot does not do well in Ethiopia (as we know now) so we were not able to login again while we were there.
We had 2 amazing days with our little girl before we went to the airport Thursday afternoon. We checked in and got to our gate when we noticed the KLM flight to Amsterdam was listed as "postponed". Andrea and I (along with 5 of the other families) were luckily on Ethiopian Air flying through Rome and our flight was still on schedule, but 4 of the adopting families that were with us were flying KLM. We then heard about the volcano in Iceland that was causing flight cancelations throughout Europe. Yesterday morning we finally received an email from one of the families flying KLM and they said they were still in Ethiopia and may not get to fly out for another week (hopefully they can get out sooner).
As for Andrea, Abigail and I, it was a very long 17hr flight from Ethiopia to D.C., but we made it. We then had to fly through Atlanta and on to OKC. Things were running behind a little but we still arrived on time. Andrea's sister Adrian had just flown in an hour before us so she was waiting with her camera as we got off the plane. We then made our way back to the lobby to be greeted by about 30 of our friends and family, which was wonderful. Abigail was a little surprised and hesitant by all of the flashes and people, but seemed to enjoy the attention and was smiling and laughing a lot even though I'm sure she was completely overwhelmed. Andrea's family stayed in a hotel that night so they could spend the next day with us. Abigail did very well with so many unfamiliar faces around, including a couple very active cousins. She just sat in the floor and played with her toys and balloons. Andrea's family went home yesterday except for her sister who is visiting old friends and hopefully getting a few family pics of us today.
Abigail's temperment has been very good so far. She doesn't like her diaper changed and definitely let you know if she needs something or something is wrong, but she has done very good so far. She loves to laugh and play with her mommy and daddy, and she knows she's funny and loves to laugh at herself.
It has been a long process to get to this point, but we trusted that God had a special little girl for us and we were absolutely correct. We believe God gave us the name Abigail for our little girl and it fits her perfectly because it means 'joy' or 'father's joy' and that's exactly what she is. I know people have always said it is different when you have your own kids and now I know exactly what they meant. I absolutely love to hold her, play with her, rock her to sleep and feed her, and I changed a pretty bad diaper this morning and 4am and didn't even mind that (which is big for someone who had never changed a diaper before last week).
WE LOVE OUR LITTLE GIRL ABIGAIL and that pretty much sums it up.
