Home again, home again, Jiggity Jig!

I'm going to write a book. It's titled "Tips For Bringing Home Your Daughter From Ethiopia". Here's a little teaser:

1) Leave home for 5 weeks directly preceding your departure. This will force you to do everything last minute, which you probably would have done anyway if you are like me, but this way you will be pitied instead of rightly viewed as a procrastinator.

2) Take all your children with you for the immunization appointments. It will be really funny to see your daughter crouching under a table because even the thought of someone else getting shots makes her sick. It will also be really fun to have your youngest son say embarrassing things to the nurse who will not find him amusing.

3) Have two of your children get lice really bad 10 days before you are supposed to leave the country. If your daughter tells you her head is itching, be sure to ignore it and tell her that it's just really dry in Colorado. This will it a total surprise when you wake up to find an army of lice building a dynasty on her head.

I'm sure you are dying for more "wisdom", but you'll just have to buy the book for that. Seriously, the past week has been one of the most intense of my life. Every waking moment has been consumed with trying to rid my environment and my children's hair of those nasty bugs, thus the absence from blogging, email, or even answering the phone. We aren't sure how Emma got it, but we know this is how Jack got it...
Here we are in lice "search and destory" mode...
I am not a very particular housekeeper, but having lice around necessitated changes. I washed all the sheets every day. I followed Emmie and Jack around with the vacuum. I wiped down every surface and washed my hands every 5 minutes. Lice turned me into Adrian Monk.

In the midst of the crazy, there has been so much sweetness. We were so cared for by people who brought us meals, Sonic, Jamba Juice, researched lice treatments, folded our laundry and loved even the lice-infested among them.

And God Himself met me in such sweet ways in the midst of this inconvenience. Now I know that when He says that He knows the hairs on our heads that is saying a lot because THERE ARE A LOT OF HAIRS ON PEOPLES HEADS! As I scoured multiple times a day over my kids heads, I got to pray for them out loud and study every mole and freckle on their heads. There was also something so vulnerable and intimate about being so desperate before the Lord. I would literally cry out for Jesus to help me to find the lice and be able to catch the little buggers. He reminded me that I can't live in fear and I can't control my environment. I learned that I need to give thanks in all circumstances. Yes, I need to give thanks for the lice. Oftentimes it was through tears, but I chose to give thanks.

The lice invasion also brought a few unexpected changes for Team Kollar. Most notably...
Yeah, that's Jack. Gone are his curly locks. Emma got a haircut as well at Salon Momma, but it's not as drastic...
It was a relief to come home to a place where we know there are no lice. But even with the lice gone, they have left their mark on our family. I am still checking heads daily. They have left many loads of laundry and bags of discarded stuffed animals in their wake. Along with a significant paranoia.

But it is good to be home. We miss our "village" with our sweet friends in Colorado, while at the same time savor the sweetness of being home. Home with our friends here. Home with our "hairy beast", Ruby. And home to our house that is NOT infested with lice. A home that will soon be filled with a baby's laughter and a baby's cries. A home that houses a family that is anxiously awaiting who they are supposed to become with her addition. One week from today we meet our girl and we will bring her home.