Last Stop: Embassy!

I still have a hard time believing I can write this...but:
WE HAVE OUR EMBASSY DATE SCHEDULED!! -
March 10th!
I can't believe I will be holding my baby in less than 5 weeks!!And even thought I thought I may not write this (because it still really bums me out) I will...for those of you still in the adoption process wanting to know how long things take. We were given the opportunity to travel for the Feb 24th appointment!
(So...all in all, from court to being embassy-ready would have been only 4 weeks!)

Here's the story:
It had been a little over a week after we passed court, so we were anticipating another week or so until we had any solid information. And because Tim's last 'working' Sunday is the 21st of Feb, he booked a moving truck for Monday the 22nd. I booked flights on the 22nd of Feb.
Flights - non-refundable, truck - changeable with fees attached.
Everything was running as expected, until we got an email on Friday with Megersa's birth certificate attached. I thought it would have taken longer! In my head I started fantasizing about going to get the baby earlier than March 24, or April 7...but still tried to keep my hopes in check.
I know I mentioned that I wrote to my agency director and she said we should find out our travel dates "soon."
Well, sure...soon COULD be a week, a few days...but surely not a few hours?! But it was!
NOT KIDDING here - I got this email at 2:02am on Saturday:

Hi Katie,
Gail informed me that she has already received your court decree from the court! Gail is stating that your documents would be ready in time for an interview on February 24th. This would mean arriving in Addis no later than the morning of Feb 23rd and departing as soon as Friday evening the 26th. Would your family be able to make travel arrangement for this date?
Alternately, your family could interview on March 10th (arriving by the morning of the 9th and departing as soon as the evening of the 12th). Please let me know which date your husband prefers.

WHAT??? I MEAN, WHAT????
I was shocked beyond belief. Of course I have to tell you that it was the middle of the night when I saw this message, and I COULD NOT sleep after that.
Why was I checking my mail in the middle of the night?
Good question.
See, I'll have to admit this ugly truth in order for you to understand: I am in love with my Blackberry.
There - I said it!! Seriously, when I got a scratch on it last Sunday, I wanted to cry! It's kinda ridiculous....
At any rate, I woke up at 3 am to the sound of Cale crying, so I went downstairs to comfort him, and as I came back upstairs, I noticed my blackberry blinking at me.
For those of you without blackberries - they 'blink' red when you have a new text, voicemail, email, missed call...etc.
Why did I NEED to check this in the middle of the night?
I don't know. It's a compulsion.
But, I did...and I saw an email from AAI. My heart stopped for a second. What could this be about? Was something wrong with Megersa?
NOPE! We had our travel dates!!!
Wow, what a rush!
I woke Tim up immediately to tell him the good news, but he told me that we could chat more about the dates when he was "awake."
How he fell right back asleep I can not tell you!
My mind was whirring! The wheels were turning. I was determined to SOMEHOW make the Feb embassy date work. ((You know, if it had - I would be holding my baby in 2 weeks))......................
As you can see from the new countdown 'ticker', there was no solution to be found.

But I spent the hours of 3am-6am thinking of every possible solution to moving and getting Megersa in the same week:
~I could fly out with both of Tim's parents (Tim REALLY wouldn't want me to travel with just another women - ie: my mom, or his mom...but if BOTH his parents went, that'd be okay, right?)
Ugh...I didn't get the shots...oh well, I could rush to get them, right? Sure, it'd be another $300+ and we'd lose that $300+ we spent on Tim getting shots.
Plus, I booked the flights to PA for Cale and I. I checked to see if I could get a refund - Nope. That'd be wasting almost $900. This was not the solution.
~Maybe Tim could still go, and I could handle all the moving? I could do it! I'd just need to: arrange people to help pack the truck...lose the money spent on my plane tickets, and drive, alone with Cale for 12 hours to MD, then arrange for people from our new church to help unpack the truck (all this while entertaining Cale without Tim). hm... - not likely.
~Maybe we could move earlier? We'd just pay the extra fee required to change dates on the rental truck. Oh, and ask our current church if that was okay...and skip out on the farewell party they're throwing us....then lose the money we spent on the tickets. - Doable, but kinda selfish. :(
~Could we move LATER?...losing the tickets...and not getting paid from either church (from our last paycheck here, until the first one there). Not feasible.
Though I thought through each scenario very carefully, I was STILL giving Tim the "puppy eyes" and telling him I was sad...
Unfortunately this went on for most of the morning, until the last "no dice" roll was cast - Tim called his parents (remember the plan was/is for Tim's dad to accompany him to ET to get Megs)...and both said that the week of Feb 24th would not have worked.
Humph. I kinda figured it wouldn't work out as soon as I saw the dates in the email, but what kind of Mother would I be if I didn't DESPERATELY want it to work out? I've been waiting to see and hold the baby God has given me for almost a year and a half!
Looking back, 2 weeks was like NOTHING to wait, but looking forward - 2 more weeks is an eternity! I'm still getting over it.

BUT...in all reality, March 10th is NOT that far away! It's sooner than we thought, and it'll give us time to settle in to our new place. It would have been extremely hard to get a new baby/move and unpack all at once...so this is the right decision.
I'm just so stinkin' excited!
We're at the last stop! It's all a dream, I think.
A dream coming true: