We made it! Our plane ride was full and so it was a little crowded and uncomfortable for 13 hours. This crowded flight felt twice as long as our 17 hour empty flight last time. Knowing the reason we were on the plane in the first place kept us calm. We arrived at 7:40 this morning, but it took a couple of hours to get through the visa and customs line. Our drivers from the guest house waited 3 hours for us, and they still had huge smiles on their faces when we arrived.
It was lunchtime when we got to the guest house, and we were hungry. The power was out so we couldn’t take showers. Instead, after talking a bit with our friends Brian and Hollie (who arrived last night), we hopped back into the van and went out for pizza, grocery shopping, and we even stopped at the Hilton Hotel to exchange some money. The hotel is gorgeous! Right outside it is a beautiful park that we want to take the kids to sometime this week.
Now we are back at the guest house for some rest and relaxation before dinner. We are completely unpacked and ready for Alemitu to join us! We are staying at Ethiopia Guest House, which is the same place that we stayed at last time, but we are in a different guest house (they have 4). It is the newest and biggest. We have a one bedroom suite that has a queen bed, crib, bunk beds, living room, two balconies, a storage room, and a bathroom. Last time, we had one room that had a bed in it and it fit nothing else — not even a dresser. We had a tiny bathroom down the hall. So we feel like we are living in luxury right now! The only downside is that we are on the 4th floor. Altitude is like 7,000 – 8,000 feet and last time we really struggled going up 3 flights of stairs, and now we have 4 flights to deal with. It is not easy! We have to sit down as soon as we get upstairs just to catch our breath.
We are so happy to be here right now and we feel so comfortable. When we walked out of the airport, both Adam and I had the same thought “this feels like our second home”. It feels good to be here and there are so many things we want to do/see this week — especially with our good friends Hollie and Brian. It’s funny how we got the closest with them during our last trip, and out of 10 families that we traveled with, we are the only two families in Ethiopia right now. We are so blessed to be traveling together and we are already making plans for the Roy family to come to Phoenix in May and us to go to Nashville. Hollie and Brian are adopting a little boy, Ty, who just turned 1.
Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. A van will pick us up to take us to the transition home where we will get to pick up our kids and take them with us forever! We hope to get to spend a little time at the transition home checking on children from our other friends/families that we passed court with in January. I am so excited to pick up Allie I don’t know if I can sleep tonight!
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