ETHIOPIA ARRIVAL DAY - TRIP ONE - FIRST NIGHT

Leaving Rome Airport

On the plane, Jacob and I sat together in a row but it didn't have a window-and Adam sat in front of us next to a man from Nairobi Kenya, who worked for Freedom Force International and was going home after a conference. He was super nice and Adam and him chatted a lot during the flight. We loved his accent! (side note-when we got back to America, he had called Adam's work phone because they had exchanged info. to wish him a Happy Thanksgiving and it was a cool message and very sweet). So the flight went OK, it was long, but not nearly as bad as I expected. Flying Ethiopian air was NEAT because all of the stewardesses were African and it was fun to hear them speak and just be there in a plane almost full of Africans. When you wanted to go to the bathroom, you did have to wait about 10 minutes, but that was OK. The food was good I guess, not wonderful, but not horrible. They fed us a lot-pretty much just as I would get to sleep, they would come around and it was a meal time. :-)

Boot of Italy

















Airplane dinner Yummy-sometimes!

Nile River

















Sierra Desert















Arriving at Addis Ababa Bole Airport

When we arrived in Ethiopia-I was just overcome-we were actually the first people off the plane-I was actually the first person that disembarked because the door just happened to be right by where we were sitting. I got a little teary as I walked off and we met a lady that works for Ethiopian air and she led us down the corridor and into the airport and pointed us in the right direction to go get in what we were surprised to see was a short line that was for people getting a visa (this allows you to be in the country for a certain amount of time and to leave the country when you depart). This was a bizarre experience as it was a small but long room and there were about 5 people sitting behind what looked like long lunch room tables. All they had was a pen, and a small carbon copy book that they hand wrote your receipt and took a crisp $20 bill (they only want like new bills and that were newer than 2006). They looked at our passport and sent us on our way-no computer, nothing but the pad and a calculator.

We then went through customs and it all went fine. We got our passport stamped and then had to go and pick up all our luggage and take it to a long line of people waiting to put their bags through an x-ray machine. This took a few minutes but all was good and as we got our bag through, we were met by what I would describe as a mob of people watching for their friends/family and observing as we ran our bags through the machines-they were all just staring at us-we guess about 200 or so. They were all fairly quiet and just waiting there-like there was in imaginary line on the floor and they couldn't cross it-but we had to cross to them. We just smiled and walked through and prayed that someone would be there holding a sign with our names! They were-it was the Riviera Hotel driver and he led us outside. This was a great moment-I wondered what the air would smell like, what it would feel like-was it going to be humid, hot, stinky, etc.....but no-it was actually just like living in Oregon-not humid at all, cool and crisp air that smelled the same. I teared up as I was thinking "Oh my word, we are actually here in our baby's birth country and she is here IN THIS TOWN!" That was a wonderful moment!! I couldn't believe we were actually in Africa!!! Our driver then helped us load our luggage into the van and we were off. The car ride was interesting to say the least-it was dark and so we couldn't see much, and we were all so tired that we just wanted to get there.

Out Front of Bole Airport

Our baby Powder Blue bathroom-it smelled like a sewer-that seeped up from the floor drain(the 80 degree room didn't help this), and as an added bonus didn't have a shower curtain-but hey, at least we had a shower AND our toilet flushed!!

Jacob crashed a few moments after we got in our room-it was a long flight!!!

We arrived at the hotel at about 11pm it was about 10 minutes from the airport. We were nervous and didn't really know what to do as we only had US cash and hadn't exchanged our money for Birr yet, so we had nothing to tip with -only large bills. We didn't know how to get water or anything, so knowing that there were a couple other All God's Children families there that week, I asked the front desk for their room numbers and called one of them up, introduced myself and asked them how to get water! They were SO sweet and brought us 2 lg. bottles-so at least we could brush our teeth and drink some before bed. They told us that they (who were on their 2nd trip and taking their kids home with a couple other families) were going to go to Hannah's Hope in the morning-and that we could probably go. We were SO thrilled because we were told by our caseworker before we left that we WOULD NOT be able to go to the orphanage and meet Seble until the day after that. She told us to get the schedule that was left at the hotel desk for us, so we did and sure enough-we were going to meet our baby girl in the MORNING!!! We were SO surprised and excited!

We unpacked our stuff and tried to organize it a little bit. Then hit the sack with sweet dreams and wonderment that tomorrow we would REALLY get to meet our daughter! Amazing!

Overall our room was nice, the funny moment of the night was when the hotel manager walked us up to our room and when he couldn't find somewhere to set our bags, he said, "I am sorry, there used to be a table at the end of the bed, but some newlyweds had the room last and they broke it somehow taking pictures or 'something'." He was sincerely apologetic and serious, but I about died and we cracked up after he left the room-TOO MUCH INFO PEOPLE!! :-)