Kai took his first plane ride today.

Kai took his very first plane ride today. We received an email from our caseworker that he arrived safely in Kinshasa. He is now out of the orphanage in our agency's transition home!! When I read the email I just cried. Out of mixed emotions of happiness that we are that much closer to bringing him home and I felt a sadness for him. Everything he has ever known for the last two years of has been the orphanage. I felt sad for him that he is probably scared and confused and has no idea what is going on. He did travel with a few other children so I hope that was comforting to him and that he will have a couple familier faces with him at the transition home. The really good things is he is safe, he is secure, he is getting three meals a day, medical care and love from the nannies that are there. We've seen pictures from the children that are there. They are all smiling. Another adoptive mom referred to the transition home as a "summer camp" before we go to pick up our kids. I pray that Kai will have fun with the other kids, I hope to see a smile on his face. I'm thankful that he is now somewhere safe. The other really awesome thing is while we wait families who are traveling ahead of us to pick up their children have offered to take pictures of all the kids who are waiting for their families!! I'm so excited we will get to see more pictures of our handsome boy (I hope to get a shoe size) and when we travel we will be returning the favor for other families! Where does this put us on the timeline for bringing him home now? I'm estimating 2-3 months...but I really can't say for sure. We are filing our 1600 stateside and we still have to pray the birth parent interview goes smoothly (as in arranging flights, etc). The embassy is requiring all birth parents to fly to Kinshasa for a face to face interview. I understand why. They want to make sure the adoption has been done in an ethical way. Tonight we went out and bought Kai a couple more outfits to send to him in the transition home. I've only ever seen him in 1 outfit at the orphanage which was all pink (shorts, shirt) and red shoes. We went out and got him some plaid:) Also some cars and suckers to share with the other kiddos. The Elmo birthday card...he turns 2 on October 25th!! Happy Birthday to our son..we love you so much and are counting down the days till we get that call that says, "you can book your plane tickets."