Our Trip to Ethiopia, Days 1-3

Friday, June 10 through Sunday, June 12, 2016

I took the kids to Mom M's late in the morning, and then Malia, Quintin, and I headed to Fort Wayne to pick up Chris. We ate at Cracker Barrel, where Malia picked out some candy for the trip, and then we headed to our hotel by the Indy airport. We had Jimmy John's for dinner and went to bed early.

Malia wanted to listen to an Odyssey on the way, and handed me this cd. I thought it was fitting since I changed the name of our Ethiopian school project from 'Mission: Metekle' to 'Mission: Accomplished.' :)

These 2 will be making their first overseas flight tomorrow!

We got up at 2:00 in the morning and headed to the airport. I realized during the taxi ride that we had left Quintin's pacifier and clip at the hotel, so we turned around when we got to the airport and went back to the hotel. The extra taxi fees made for an expensive pacifier clip, but I knew I needed it for the trip. The taxi driver was from Kenya, and told us his grandfather had been attacked and eaten by a lion.

At the airport, we met Alyssa and Rachael and checked in. We flew to Washington Dulles, where we met up with Larisa, Yikealo, Phil, Richard, Jill, and Carson. We weren't able to get a bassinet seat for Quintin on the flight to Addis, but the gate agent blocked an empty seat between Chris and me so we could lay Quintin down. I was so thankful...tired baby boy slept most of the time. There was a couple hour time period when he fought sleep and fussed, but he really did great. I didn't sleep at all.

Airplane food, anyone?

We arrived in Addis, went through customs, collected our bags, and met Danny, who drove us to the Ordinary Hero guest house. We checked in and got situated.

The view from our room:

 

Our room:

Today is Yikealo's birthday! He is glad to be back in his birth country.

 A little while later, we drove to meet Tom and Seble for jebena buna. It was so good to see them again. We got a medical report for Tom, and gave him the natural supplements we had brought for him. We also found out he needed more testing done.

We went to Kaldi's for lunch. Malia, Carson, and Yikealo were all sick due to the altitude and lack of sleep. As soon as we arrived back at the guest house, Malia went to bed and slept the rest of the day and night...about 16 hours straight!

Chris and I sorted through all the donations we had brought, and then met Omod, the pastor of the twins' birth family. We have been emailing him and keeping in contact with Jalen and Jordan's birth family through him. It was so good to meet him in person.

A while later, we visited with Almaz, who came to the guest house to meet us. It was so good to see her again, and we gave her the items we had brought for her. She had her adorable twins with her, and it was fun to see their personalities. We were exhausted, so we then repacked our luggage in order to fly to Mekele in the morning and went to bed.