We were driven to the Bole Airport in time for our 7:30 p.m. flight. We were accompanied by our friends from Kansas City and Buffalo. As a bit of a last hurrah, we had french fries and a drink at a little bar in the airport. The french fries nearly broke our teeth off at the gums and I was thankful to have a mandible full of titanium. Craziness.
Boarding the plane went very smoothly, although this plane wasn't very clean and not nearly as nice as the others we had been on. Thankfully, it was going to be a short flight. I was VERY sleepy and don't remember much of it. After about four hours, we were in Dubai and had to say goodbye to our new friends. It was amazing how close we were to these people that we had just met days before. We have ties with them that will bind us forever and really, really look forward to a reunion some day.
While Kansas City and Buffalo rushed to their next flight, Daddy and I took the shuttle back to the Capthorne for a few hours of sleep. I was absolutely beat, crawled into bed with my clothes on, and slept HARD for about three hours. We had time for a quick breakfast and then caught the shuttle back to the airport.
We prayed, crossed our fingers and toes, threw salt over our shoulder, and did just about anything we could do for good luck - hoping we would be bumped up to business class for the long flight home, but no such luck. Not only did we not get bumped up, but our travel agent's genius idea of booking our seats with one in between us so that we would have extra room backfired and we had to get real cozy with another woman. She was petite and quiet and friendly, but she still seemed to eat up a lot of space. I was next to the window, Daddy was in the middle, and she was on the aisle.
I was miserable.
I am not going to go into much detail because it is just too darn painful. The flight was over 16 hours, and I became quite nauseous and couldn't sleep for most of it. Daddy's back and tailbone were killing him - quite possibly bruised from our trip to Durame and back. We were incredibly uncomfortable and our mental status was deteriorating rapidly. I was seriously doubting whether or not I could do this trip again. Seriously. By the time we touched down in San Francisco, I was ready to tell Daddy that he would have to take someone else with him for the second trip. Seriously. I felt lousy the whole time we were there and there was just no way I could do this flight again. It was absolute torture. I had now been to Ethiopia, experienced my son's birth country, and could share some wonderful memories and experiences with him has he got older, but I couldn't go back.
We were greeted by armed AMERICAN security guards with a "welcome home" when we got of the flight and have NEVER been so happy to see someone in our whole lives. It was all I could do to keep from kissing the ground and hugging the security officer. We went through immigration and customs...or something along those lines. I think it was the man in immigration (who looked an awful lot like Daddy) who said, "Why on earth would you want to go to Ethiopia??" Ha ha. At this point, I'm thinking this is a really good question. It was so great to be home.
We battled the rudeness at the luggage carousel, and were saddened to watch others being greeted by their family and friends (Note to self: Must fly into Sacramento next time.). I got some trail mix and Daddy got an energy drink from a vending machine, we found our parking lot shuttle, and we made it to the car uneventfully. We started the drive home and I don't think we were even on the freeway before I was out like a light. I can't stay away in a car, but I can't sleep on a plane. Go figure. We had only made it about an hour before Daddy said he couldn't do it anymore. Even after an energy drink, he was so exhausted that he couldn't drive the two hours home, and I certainly couldn't take over. My eyes wouldn't go past half mast. We pulled into a parking lot, reclined the seats, set the alarm, and slept for a half hour. Daddy didn't even hear the alarm, and I had to wake him up. We grabbed some Jimboy's (ahhhh...sweet Jimboy's) from the strip mall and got back on the road. We couldn't wait to see our girls...
About an hour later, we were home. We were greeted by our beautiful girls with an amazing welcome home sign (thank you AK!) and lots of tight squeezes. Little Bit was surprised that we didn't really smell like Africa, although I think Jake, the dog, would disagree. We shared pictures with my folks and the girls and then my parents left us to spend some quality time together. We shared stories, ate popsicles, and couldn't believe that just the day before we were in Ethiopia.
We were affected by the jet lag more than we anticipated. I slept for about a week and finally got my appetite back. Daddy was a little better when we first came home, but it finally caught up with him too. We both had minor issues with diarrhea, lost 5-10 pounds, and it took a good two weeks for us to get back to "normal."
We missed our son so much and it was so hard to do justice to the trip with words and pictures. I still wasn't sure how I was going to do those flights again. We had no idea when we were going back. We were in awe about where God had taken us.
I couldn't stop thinking about Enat and wasn't sure how I was supposed to proceed with this process without doing something for her as well. We can't support her financially because it would look like we were "buying" her son from her. I was devising plans to figure out a way to adopt her as well. Bring her here, educate her, give her a hope and a future. While I missed my son terribly, I knew that he was eventually going to be "home" and safe and well. I didn't know this about Enat and it was tearing me up inside. She was in my thoughts most of the day and I knew that was intentional. While I don't know what we can do now, when this adoption is all said and done, I need to figure something out to make sure that she is okay. We can send her letters and pictures, but that's about it. There are lots of wonderful programs in her region, and I would LOVE to know that she is being supported by them. I'm really looking forward to seeing where God takes us in this part of the adventure.
So, now we wait...again. We wait to hear about being submitted to Embassy and travel dates for our second trip. We are not anticipating this any earlier than late June or early July...God willing.
Are you exhausted? I sure am.
No comments:
Post a Comment