Travel

Noah Travels Awesome

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

I am exhausted.  We are home.  I am tired but it was so much fun to get to meet the most awesome people ever…The EOR board ROCKS and we are going to do some really awesome things.  I will certainly be writing more about it here and if you are near me and want to help/volunteer let me know. 

I have a bit of a cold and am a little tired from the whirlwind trip.  I will post more in-depth later.  But it was so awesome and I can’t wait to get together with these wonderful women and their absolutely beautiful children again. 

I Hope I Survived

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 4 Comments

I am now safely in Portland–I hope.  Noah and I are travleing to Portland for our first Ethiopian Orphan Relief board meeting.  Noah hasn’t been on a plane in a while and the last time wasn’t all that much fun.  So much not fun that I cannot even remember when it was we went or where it was we went–I am thinking San Diego in February, but I could so totally be wrong. 

I have packed all of Noah’s favorite dvds and am hoping all goes well.  I am so being a bad parent and not making him fly in his car seat.  Part of this because I am traveling by myself and don’t want to have to lug the car seat for our connecting flight, when Noah will probably already be close to asleep and I’ll have another carry on to lug around.  Also, those seats on the plane are so small that his car seat barely fits and it’s a complete pain in the ass.  I am checking it to use in the rental car.  I know–please don’t send me comments telling me how much safer it is, etc.  I know.  I know.  But you gotta do what you gotta do and I promise to hold him tight if there is any turbulence… And lets be honest.  If the plane crashes from 30,000 feet, carseat isn’t really going to help all that much.

I am so looking forward to meeting in real life some amazing women who I met through the blog world and now I am part of this terrific organization that I know will do great things. 

I won’t be posting until Sunday.  Have a great weekend. Think of me on Saturday afternoon and hope that my awesome son decided to cooperate and fly nicely.  If you are sitting near me on the plane.  I can’t do anything with him when he is loud, excited and tired.  Feel free to offer all of the unsolicited advice you have–because chances are you don’t have a two-year-old and I am sure you know what you are talking about. 

Leaving On A Jet Plane (or Two)

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 5 Comments

It’s early…My first flight doesn’t leave for 6 hours but who could sleep at a time like this?  I am so excited and nervous and happy and anxious.  This adoption is slightly different from our first.  Peepers is a little more than 2 months older than Minnow was.  Peepers was nearly 4 months old before she was moved to Wanna from Sele Enat whereas Minnow was at Wanna from the time he was 20 days old.  Peepers is a girl and Minnow was a boy.  I know each child is different.  I worry about the ease and/or difficulty with attachment.  I hope she attaches as well as Minnow did.  I love her so much already.   I hope that she likes me.  I know she will because I will feed her, hold her, shower her with affection and really awesome clothes.  What girl doesn’t love clothes.  But I am a stranger.  She does not know that I am coming.  She does not understand why these people are taking her away.   I know she will eventually–I am hoping sooner rather than later–come to understand that we are her family.  I am worried because she is older and more aware of what is going on.  Those of you who brought your Ethiopian babies home when they were 7 months or older–have any awesome reassurance for me? 

I am packed and ready.  I have everything I need. 

Now off to the babe.  I hopefully will have brilliant and amazing stories to post on Monday.  Keep a look out for tales of my meeting with Peepers and my 58-year-old father’s first reaction to a developing nation and his first trip outside of the United States.  So much excitement. 

See you soon.

Friday Weigh In

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 8 Comments

Well sadly I gained a small amount of weight this week.  I know it is totally related to my stress.  I am stressed and haven’t been eating the best and I only made it to the gym twice.  I hate making excuses, but life just got in my way this week and I didn’t try all that hard to combat it.  These weeks will happen and I am okay with that, as this is a long term goal and I have a long road ahead of me.  I also know that I will most likely not lose any weight next week while in Addis.  I will certainly try to eat reasonably and healthy but it will be a little difficult to do. 

So, I am no where near closer to my mini-September goal, but when I get back I will have plenty of time to be focussed and using WW to the best of my ability and I know it will work for me, as long as I work for it. 

For the first time I am at peace and not totally feeling like a failure.  Yay!

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Well, my carry-on crisis has been adverted and only cost me more money.  I think I actually have nearly a pound to spare in my carry-on.  I have my bags packed and both of them are under 50lbs which is nice and something I don’t have to worry about now too.  I am so ready to go and cannot wait to hold my baby girl.  I have crossed nearly everything off of my list except for cleaning up the house and going the grocery store. 

I am going to try and blog while in Ethiopia.  I imagine I should be able to because my site is not hosted with blogger or wordpress.  I use wordpress on my site, but I don’t have a wordpress address.  So we will see.  It would be funny if my site was blocked in Addis, but I seriously doubt it.  I didn’t blog on my trip to get Minnow and I am sad that I couldn’t because I would have like to have had a written record of my feelings.  I tried to keep a handwritten journal, but I sadly have become unable to write significant ideas and thoughts with pen and paper.  I really need a keyboard to do real writing.  Hard to belief I use to do all my writing longhand–I wrote a novel longhand and now I cannot even write a journal entry. 

Did I mention that I am leaving for Addis tomorrow? 

Time Won’t Stand Still

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

And I have to say that I am glad because I am leaving in 5 days for Ethiopia.  I leave on Saturday at 12:50 cst.  I cannot wait.  I certainly have a lot to do before I take off and leave Minnow and Hubby on their own for a week.  I think Hubby is much more anxious and nervous as I am.  He isn’t all that confident that he can do this whole single-parenting thing for a week.  I know he will do awesome.  He still will work during the day as we have my bonus mom watching Minnow for 3 days and then  my MIL arrives and will watch Minnow for two days.  I know it’s tough being the sole parent but he’ll do awesome.

This weekend was a lot of fun.  Hubby and my dad both finished their first 5k.  It wasn’t pretty but they finished and neither were last.  My baby bro was third overall and finished in just under 20 minutes. We had a great time.  The weather was gorgeous and we were able to enjoy an afternoon at the beach.  I made a quick slide show of the finishes of my brothers, my dad and Hubby.  A great time was had by all and I am glad that I didn’t have to run. 

slide show to come….off to bed