Our Trip to Ethiopia, Day 10.....

Saturday, July 20, 2013

The flight to Turkey went well, although again, I got little sleep. We arrived in Istanbul at about 6:30 in the morning, and had a seven hour layover. After standing in line for awhile to get our passports checked, we headed to the food court.

Adrian enjoyed eating a real burger again!

After walking around the airport for a bit, we found some chairs to camp out on. Shana and Adrian took naps:

Finally it was time to fly to Chicago! Yay! The flight was LONG, but eventually we were in the good old USA again. Once we went through customs and collected our bags, we headed outside to wait on our shuttle back to the hotel. It was 45 minutes late, and we were SO tired! But the Marriott gave us a $50 voucher to use for dinner because of the delay.

It was so good to be back! We collapsed in our room, called the kids, and finally got up the energy to shower before we headed to dinner. Once again, I was reminded of how much we take for granted. We no longer had to worry about keeping our mouths tightly closed in the shower, using bottled water to brush our teeth, carefully choosing something from the menu that wouldn't make us sick, etc. And even though we stayed in what was just a regular hotel suite according to American standards, I couldn't help but compare it to the Baro hotel. We are so blessed.

We crashed into bed once we got back to our room after dinner. Tomorrow, we'll be home! And we get to see our kiddos after 11 days! Yay! Ethiopia has taught us so much again, though, and we have an even deeper love for our boys' birth country. Somehow, I feel like our work there isn't complete yet; and I can't wait to go back again someday.