COLLEGE GAME DAY!

Hola fellow Husker football fans! GO BIG RED!!!

"Go Huskers!"

"OK, gotta run!"

"Hmmmmm....how can I get through here?"

"I guess I'll sit for 30 seconds and play with my toys."

"Ha! I'll get you Guido!"

"SAVE ME!"

Another exciting college game day at the Johnson house!

smj out.

HOME

As our spunky little girl sits on my lap while I type away, I look down at her beautiful face and am amazed. We are home - finally rested up enough to update the blog, check facebook, etc., and we are amazed at all the wonderful people still out there cheering us on! We were blessed to spend our time in country with our family, and we were blessed to make it to Arrivals at DIA with family waiting there for us, too. Truly a time in our lives to remember.

Koko is a special little girl to be sure. Even now, as I type, she wants to help! She is on the go, go, go. From the moment we met her, we have seen her energetic and loving personality shining. She loves walking, hates sleeping, loves eating, hates waiting, loves saying hi to people, hates sitting still! She is perfect for us - she will challenge us, and bless us all at the same time. Oh, and Guido is suprising us by wanting to lick her face, feet, hands all the time, and Koko seems to like him, but doesn't really sit still long enough for us to really be able to tell!

More on Ethiopia later - for now, some photos of our first day and first week getting to know our new daughter Koko Mimi...

Above: Koko with her special caregivers in the Ethiopian dress they gave her.

Above: Koko with our driver Henok - she loved him! And he was fantastic!

"Hello Family! I'm HOME!!!"

Ciao - Susan, Chad, and Koko

KOKO MIMI ON THE BRAIN

You know you have Koko Mimi on the brain when...

You're sitting in a meeting at the nursing home where you work and you hear the word 'continent' and instantly think - "Africa!" (as opposed to the more typical nursing home usage of the word!) Hmmmmm.....yes, it's time to go!

We're packing (trying to pack efficiently, but holy buckets, we're packing for a kid here!), we're remodeling (now? yes, crazy, I know), we're clearing out a space for J & A to sleep (they're stopping by before heading to Rome), we're giving Guido a little hair cut and bath before dropping him off at Kirsten's for our time away (he can't wait for his hair cut - ha!), we're pulling extra hours at work to 'get it all done before we leave' (right, we both work in 24-7-365 businesses - it's never really done!), we're watching for everyone's care packages to arrive to pack away to deliver to waiting families' kiddos (totally blessed to pay it forward), yes, we're dreaming of flying off into the sunset on Thursday...

We. Are. Almost. There.

wow.

smj out

PREPARING

Preparations are being made. It’s hard to believe we are finally talking about these kinds of things – plane tickets, where we’ll stay, seeing Koko for the first time, meeting Koko’s birthmom, what she’s eating/drinking, and the list goes on!

We’ve got house projects to finish and jobs to prepare to be away from. Wow. Just wow.

After a minor glitch with CIS fingerprints not yet received in Addis, we’ve learned all is well with that now (whew). We’ve got air booked – we leave Denver Sept 10 to stay in Dubai for a couple days before arriving in Addis on Sept 13 . We are staying at a guest house called the Ayat House with some pretty cool people we know. We hope we get to meet Koko Mimi for the first time on the 13th. And the in-country staff is working on arranging a meeting with her birthmom while we are there.

Slightly surreal to be at this point. But it's also...

Absolutely. Totally. Perfect.

smj

TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

Today, Friday, August 14th, 2009 is THE day. The day we are privileged to be given a daughter.

How very grateful we are to be at the end of this part of the journey. Our lives are forever changed – and, finally, a new journey awaits!

But, for now, we will bask in the glory of this day – today. A beautiful day, with beautiful news, and a beautiful new reality that we are indeed parents to a beautiful little girl.

And now, all thanks be to God for this precious gift!