Our Trip to Ethiopia, Days 1 and 2

 Thursday, June 30 and Friday, July 1, 2022

(I'd like to preface these posts by saying that the days leading up to our trip were very stressful. Our original intent for this trip was to take my sister, Larisa, and nephew, Sintay, back to Gambella to meet his birth family. Since he's from the same town as my boys, we decided that it would be a neat trip if the cousins could experience their culture together. A week after we booked tickets, my brother-in-law, David, was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. They had to cancel. Other people decided to go with us, including Chris's uncle who decided to start a farming initiative in the boys' hometown so the community could raise crops for their families. Some of his family members decided to go, too, and we all purchased tickets to fly to Gambella and spend 3 days there. One of our team members had trouble getting her passport, 3 of our team members used a fraudulent website to get E-visas, we had to cancel our trip to Gambella at the last second because of conflicts happening there, and on the day we were supposed to leave, 2 of our team members had to cancel because of a positive Covid test. All of this meant scrambling to change schedules, etc, but thankfully, we were able to make arrangements to fly J and J's birth family and a couple members of the farming initiative to Addis Ababa so we could meet them there. By the time we left for Chicago, I was very tired from all the last-minute trip alterations. Satan usually tries to discourage us one way or another before, during, or after our trips to Ethiopia, and we’ve come to recognize his not-so-subtle attempts. But God is faithful, and the trip went wonderfully for the most part.)

On Thursday afternoon, June 30, we finished packing the van and then dropped Quintin off at Grandma's. The rest of us (minus Shana, who went to Ethiopia a week ahead of us) drove to Fort Wayne, picked up Chris and Adrian, and headed to our hotel in Chicago.

At the hotel, we met a missionary whose family is planning to move to Ethiopia soon. We had offered to transport 6 totes for him, so when Russell, Vickie, and Marcy got there, we loaded the totes into their van. Then it was time to get some sleep before an early morning trip to the airport.

The next morning, Chris and Russ drove us to the airport, where we unloaded all of our totes and luggage. They then drove back to the hotel to park the vans and caught a taxi back. Check-in went very smoothly. A supervisor came over and helped us with all the donation totes (we had 19 total, plus a large rolling suitcase) and then offered to check our carry-ons for free, too, if we didn't need them on the flight. 

Our flight was uneventful. I didn't sleep well, which is usual. The lady sitting beside Jalen didn't speak English at all, but at one point handed him her half-eaten brownie and a pat of butter. 🤣

If you look closely at the center of this picture, you can see the Mackinac Bridge.