Coming Home

I want to thank all the wonderful people that met us at the airport on our trip home! They came wearing Africa shirts with a heart on Ethiopia and brought toys, flowers, candy, and American flags. You have no idea how glad I was to see familiar faces after that very long trip. I'm not sure how long it was, but it was tough! There was several airport changes as we flew to Dubai, Houston, and then Dallas. Lots of waiting, running through airports, and one missed flight.

I don't blame the kids for being restless during the flight. Liyone couldn't watch a movie for more then 10 minutes. Lots of flipping, turning, sitting on the floor. I thought he handled it very well, but the man in front of him might think differently :) And an apology to Emirates for the silly putty stuck to the seat :)

We were not able to get the bulk head seats that had the bassinets. So, I put Kidist in a baby carrier that you wear so I wouldn't feel guilty for going to sleep. I was hoping she would be more secure and not fall out of my lap. Two hours later, I woke up in a complete puddle. She had soaked us both. Of course I had clothes for her, but silly me didn't pack anything extra. That made the trip extra-long in pee-soaked blue jeans! And thank you to the nice men that picked up every toy she threw in the aisle. She does have a good arm.

And I do have to say there were some very understanding people on our first flight. When one lady across the aisle found out we had just adopted them, she started crying. Really crying. It caused a big stir around us that led to more questions from the other passengers.

When we entered the Houston airport, they asked me to enter a room that looked similar to DPS. They needed to review the packets that Embassy handed us. When they finally took the twelve seconds to look at the paperwork, we were minutes away from our flight leaving. We ran!!! We showed up at the gate with red and sweaty faces just in time to see the plane pulling away! Looking back, it all worked out ok. It gave us a chance to stop and eat at Chili's, clean up, and catch the next flight out.

Also welcoming us at the airport were two of Liyone's friends that he knew from the orphanage. We traveled on our first trip with the family and they were able to bring their boys home in June. He was a little confused to see them in Texas, but that made the surprise so much fun! So glad they came.

There are not any words to describe how relieved you are to see all FOUR of your kids together in the same car going HOME. It has been two years since we began. It was worth every tear, every hour of missed sleep, every worry line on my face. Moments like these make you drop on your knees and praise God. He has truly blessed us!

Random pictures from our trip

The Lion Zoo

We also visited the Lion Zoo while we were in Ethiopia. This was a great way to spend the afternoon. It is very small and probably has less then thirty animals. There were lions, birds, antelope looking-animals, and some monkeys. Of course, the crowd was in front of the monkey cages. I have never seen a monkey jump straight up about 15 feet!! It was craziness!

The zoo also had a few rides for the children. We paid extra for this, but it wasn't much. The funniest was the jeep ride. The child climbs in the car and a young man walks him around for about 15 minutes. They did turn the motor on and give Liyone a few seconds alone at the wheel, but after he came inches from crashing into the tree, they decided to steer for him again :)

I do have to admit it was awkward walking around the zoo with our driver and our two new children. Many people would turn away from the animals and give us more attention. We had several people stop and ask to take our picture. I felt like a movie star! The second time, several young men would take turns getting in the picture with our group. All we could do was laugh about it. When they were gone, we asked our driver why they were so interested. He said they probably have never seen our skin color before.

The funniest part was one of the men with cameras knew our driver. He insisted to take a picture of him and Melanie alone. He threw the driver's arm around her and pushed them close together. Both were very embarrased, but Adrian and I were standing in the background rolling with laughter.