a Perfect Day

We left Dallas on Monday afternoon, and arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Tuesday night.  We took pictures of ourselves before and after the flight. We had a lllloooonnnnggggg day of travel – we flew Dallas to Atlanta, Atlanta to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Khartoum, Khartoum to Addis Ababa.  Yeah. It was long.  And I still can’t believe that we are on the other side of the world! That seems so crazy!  Our dream…this long off, ‘when will it ever happen’, is happening. And we could not be more excited and happy about that. Don’t ask Will about Economy Comfort. He’s working on his Dear Delta letter.  The ‘extra legroom and recline’ for the extra $100 per person, each way…that one stings.  As he puts it, ‘this is not to scale’.  Let’s just say we aren’t sure where the ‘comfort’ part came in or the ‘extra legroom’. Oh, and he also doesn’t want me to forget to mention the lack of under the seat in front of you storage…there was a big box that took up half that space. One of the lovely stewardesses from KLM was talking with us, asking about our trip and we said we have been traveling and been awake for many, many, many hours in a row – she agreed we looked like we hadn’t slept… and then she said, ‘I hope this trip is worth it for you.’

We arrived about 30 minutes early. We deplaned at 9pm ET time, went and changed some money, went through immigration, collected our baggage, and waited for our amazing guide and coordinator from Bethany, Abel.  There is was with a sign and a big smile there to greet us and take us to the guest house.  We hugged, and went to the van.  It was much too dark to see anything – but soon we pulled up to a gate which was opened for us and we were greeted by a young man who unloaded our bags and walked us inside where we were greeted warmly by the young woman who was awaiting our arrival. The room type we had requested was not available. We are watching our pennies and had requested the most economical room type. I was holding my breath when she informed us of the room we were assigned… and she said it…the King Suite. This was almost double what we had budgeted. We smiled, as I swallowed hard. And she filled in our room rate on the card…the amount of the room type we had requested.  Thank you, Jesus for this gift!  We went to our room and found this amazing, beautiful huge room! And then a walkway to the bathroom that is super big too! And then the bathroom!! WOW…you have got to see the shower!

We got settled, sent a quick email home saying we arrived, and then we went to sleep. And woke up at 3am ET time.  And was wide awake. We finally fell back to sleep until the alarm rang at 6:45am.  We were excited to get up. Today…today our first stop is the orphanage!

But before we get going, I go and take a shower. We woke up quick as there was cold water to shower with.  It was a fast one to say the least, but one way to jump start the day and kick jetlag to the curb!  We headed to the breakfast room after we were ready to eat a wonderful breakfast prepared by some amazing Ethiopian women.  We had French toast, fresh fruit, coffee and juice. It was a great way to start the day.  There were other families having breakfast too – three families who were here for their Embassy meeting {also Bethany families} and two other families here for court – also Bethany families.  We met Julie and Jessie from our travel group – Julie and I have been emailing each other getting to know each other prior to this trip, so it was so nice to meet her in person!  We also met another family in our travel group, Kevin and Shawna another great family!

After breakfast, we got in the van and headed to the orphanage.  The ride was about 25minutes or so – it took us all throughout Addis Ababa.  What a city!  There are approximately 5 million people who live in Addis…the streets were lined with purveyors of all kinds of different goods and foods. There was a goat market, all kinds of animals walking the streets too…it was very interesting to see what Addis looks like!  There are paved roads, a highway of sorts, and it was very busy.

We arrived at the orphanage and the kids were playing in the courtyard.  They all ran to the fence when they saw us arrive and get out of the van.  We walked through the gate and were greeted with these charming smiles of all these little ones!  They ran up to us, and wanted hugs. We picked them up, loved on them, one after another, after another.  Each one repeatedly looking up into our eyes with these big brown eyes and bright, big smiles saying, ‘momma’ ‘papa’ and lifting their arms up to be picked up.  We held those children. And I had to do everything in my power to hold back my tears.  In my heart, I was crying out, God, please send families to these precious, precious children of yours!  We did learn that some of them are matched with families – so I was praising God for that.  But the need is huge… and I pray more people open their hearts to adoption.

We played with the kids – I played ring around the rosie with one little girl – we must have done that about 25 times…her tiny little hands in mine, holding on ever so tight, not wanting to let go. Another little girl came up and tried to take my hands, but the littlest one pulled on me even tighter and refused to let me go.  Oh my heart.  After a little while, we made our way inside and down the stairs to wait for our children. It was naptime, so the nannies went to wake the babies.  Our social worker, Soliyana, was there to meet us – she talked to us for just a few minutes, and then she went upstairs to one of the baby rooms to go get Baby T, and she brought Baby T down to us. The moment we saw him was the dream come true.  Our son, whom we have been looking at photos of was now right here. We could see him with our own eyes. Everything that we had been anxious about melted away. Everything that we were frustrated with along the way in this process disappeared when we looked into his big brown eyes.

Baby T wasn’t too sure about us – he looked, and clung to Soliyana. He whimpered just a bit as he continued to study our faces. We made our way to the big blanket on the floor and Soliyana put Baby T into my arms. There he is…his head in the crook of my left arm, cradled, his eyes locked on mine and we just gazed into each other’s eyes. I held him there, gently rocking front to back…holding God’s chosen one for us.