merry christmas and we're off!

in just a few short hours we'll be getting on the plane for Ethiopia!!! i truly cannot believe this day is actually here. and that we're actually packed! all we have to do today is give the dog a bath and clean the ceiling fans. and find ben some socks. considering yesterday ben had to tell amanda we hadn't even started packing i feel pretty good about the state of things. hound is a mess. he's curled up on the bed right now and actually whimpering - he knows the jig is up and is coping by following us from room to room.
so we're having our friend Bob pick us up from the airport and i need to take the car seats over to him today. last night as i put the bundle-me's into the seats (thanks aunt kristie!) it hit me that we're going to have little babies in them so soon. ( i guess the two cribs and everything weren't enough...) it's so amazing. i know it hasn't actually been that long but i feel like we've been waiting an eternity to be parents, that we've endured hours of advice, and as of Christmas morning when we meet our daughters for the first time it will all be up to us and I am so looking forward to it.
i want to extend many many thanks to those of you who have supported and loved us through this - we truly could not have done this without you. our mothers, sisters, and mary alice especially, for being constant sources of encouragement. when i was home for the benefit show john and isaac made me give a speech. and of course i cried like a baby because so many people showed up to support us and looking around the room i realized how many people love our daughters without having met them.
we won't be posting from ethiopia so you'll all have to wait until we get home to hear about how we fared in africa and on the plane ride home. of course if they scream for 20 hours straight i'll have clawed my eyes out so it probably would have looked like this anyway hgjdjghjdfshguewihfv huhfuhgbvl fhsalhvjl.

i hope everyone has a blessed and exciting 2008!

thanksgiving in catawaba

benjr. and bensr. at mill mountain coffee in the early morning


meme ( the real saint frances - ben's grandma), aiden, and gaga on thanksgiving -


this is my first of two plates at meme's lunch. that's right, lunch. i was hungry.


this is the hill where everyone wants to build their house - we're going to draw straws. (we'll win)

catawba - this will be the view from our front porch. when things get to be too much in the city, ben and i daydream about life here, at the foot of mcafee's knob where he spent so much time as a kid. (it's half country life and half being so close to meme's kitchen).

favorite pics from thanksgiving

we kicked a$%&# at taboo


Mama Deb


like father, like daughter


lily and aiden


and by the end we had all gone a little crazy


can't imagine what it's going to be like next year with even more kids in the mix!

trip to the nooga part deux

i also got to see isaac play


got to serve wine at the benefit show john and isaac put together for the pancakes


i got to hang out with my broskeezy sam and paul david
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and got to remember the plagues of starlings that make sunsets my favorite time of day when i'm home.

trip to the nooga

a few weeks ago i went home for an entire week! it's the most time i've spent there in a few years and it was very very fun and busy and just so amazing. i still don't feel like i got to really catch up with everyone but there were tears and lots of jokes and a few beers too.
i got to see mary (and baby) and henry

and went with friends to some old haunts which are now haunted by very young people who crush beer cans on their heads.

laughed while asher had his first bath

they threw us a babies shower at kiko and vincent's

i got to drive up lookout mountain for church at rock creek