attempt at an overview / journal entry

Travel days

Wow – a LONG trip – we left Friday evening at about 6 pm Eastern Time (Detroit time) and then arrived in Addis Ababa Saturday around 9 pm - and its 8 hours different – so one pm local Detroit time. Just crazy.

We flew Lufthansa – its really nice – and as Craig pointed out – VERY efficient! WOW – They had us loaded and on that plane so fast and organized. It was a pretty big plane – 2 -4 – 2 was the seats. We had the one set of 2 with a window – too bad it was dark or it would have been fun flying into Frankfort early Sat morning. It was nice -but not enough. We saw the sunrise in Europe! Ha.

So we had a few hours to hang at the Frankfort airport – really nice.

It was nice flying with Connie and Rick too – just to have another couple.

Unfortunately the flight had not just a crying child but a SCREAMING child – ugh! I got less than an hour of sleep – NOT fun – but it did help with the time change -

So the next leg was packed from Frankfort to Addis – wow – and we were in the middle. It was nice though – we liked it. The airport was a total adventure getting a visa, money, passport checked, luggage – yikes. Shannon – I will need to tell you a LOT of little things for the airport.

We met up with another family at the airport – so all 3 couples ended up on the same floor at the hotel. Its been nice. Our room is nice – waking up we could see the mountains and some really nice buildings and homes. And other construction projects – oh man for the safety person – NOT good scaffolding – a lot of “what not to do” pictures. But room is decent – we have to put the room key into a slot to turn on power, there is not heat or AC, and our TV doesn't really work – NO cable. We can see blurred or fuzzy stuff – so glad we brought some DVD's in case want to chill one night.

SUNDAY -

Ok – its beautiful here – we have ventured out a little bit – to the market to get some water and other things. Craig and I just wanted our own water – the elevation here is about 7300 feet! So needless to say we are out of breath and headaches with being so high. And we just figured easier and cheaper to get our own. The 6 of us took of on this adventure and NOW realized we went to far and turned down the wrong spot. Lots of kids asking for stuff – to shine our shoes for money and people selling every where! It was intense – we now no longer are taking a backpack out there – we are using the money belt and pouch – we each have one to use.

We did meet Sarah – her and her mom returned from the trip East – sounds gorgeous – she said she will share pictures for me to have! Yeah! They left to meet her daughter.

In 10 minutes the rest of us will go visit the two orphanages! To meet Sami an the other 4 kids (Rick and Connie are adopting 3 kids – they are so nice - their kids are at the same place as Shely and Mike's son). It will be cool to just check it all out! We all just want to get our hands on the kids! It was hard this morning – we had NO idea what the schedule was or what we were doing – but we know now! Just need to get there. I want to hold our son!

So I'll post more later – it will be fun.

Oh – the other thing – ONE towel for us, barely any toilet paper! Water pressure we knew would be low – but at leats it was hot! Just interesting. Our convertor and adopters work – so I was able to dry my hair -just still frizzy. And yes – it started to sprinkle as we came back from lunch! Had a cheese burger and fries – ok – the meat was spiced or cooked in something they use- not really for me. But it was lunch.

Ok – off to meet Sami! Yeah!!!!!

Meeting all the kids – Engida is a great place – the woman that work there just absolutely love the children! There are 8 babies and we saw 4 older kids. I brought some little cars and knew other kids would play with them – Sami wasn't too interested in them, but one of the little boys were. And the other loved the bubbles. The girls liked seeing their pictures and the videos we took. It was so cool! Sami – well he was just adorable. He is mellow – but loves music, watching Tv, talking to – and smiling! They had great ways for us to get him to smile and play. And he likes tummy time! Nate hated tummy time – so a little different. Sami is very strong and was slipping himself over – and can sit up – not the best -guess its good we registered for a Bumbo Seat – I think that's what it is called. He will love that if we can get him home soon!

After we saw Sami – we went to another location where two couple kids were all at with one other boy – I got to play with that little baby he was so cute. And their kids – again amazing. Its just so wonderful, the people that care for these kids are just so amazing, love them so much! And the kids love them - which is all good for attachment purposes. We are happy to know that. Its good. It was fun to be with Connie and Rick and Shelly and Mike as they met their kids!

Tomorrow we have breakfast at 6:30 – which is about 10 pm tonight for you all at home. And we will be going to the north for a tour of Ethiopia outside of the city.

Ok the battery is dying on here. Today was perfect – skyped with Nate too! Yeah – thanks to so many people that helped get my dad down to the basement to the computer! Yeah.

God bless you all!

Gail