Days 1 & 2 - Jan 20 & 21

Ok, despite my best efforts, I didn't get the pictures in order and they are a pain to move around, so I will highlight and mark as to what sections to read in what order if you want to read the first two days in order.

Read 3rd

We got checked into our room. We had room #403. It was nice and large. Tons of open space. We faced the back of the hotel, so we overlooked a parking area for the hotel and some of their other buildings/conference areas. I will talk more about that later. What we noticed this night was that it was a pretty view of the lights of the city. The pictures below are of the room. It had a King size bed, which was great later that week when we got Mason. It was quiet in the room and we had the windows open the entire week that we were there. At this point in was Thursday night, Friday morning in Addis. We got our luggage and just pulled out the necessities and headed to bed. We were excited, but exhausted. We were looking forward to the 2 days we had in Addis before everything started. We were hoping to get out and see the city and learn more about the culture where are son came from, but more on that later.

Here is a picture of the hotel from later in the week, but I thought it would be good to put on in here as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this long post. It was an exciting journey there, but we were there and that was all that mattered. At this point, I was feeling better, not 100%, but better. And we were in the same city as our long awaited son, does it get much better than that!

I will do my best to update the rest of the trip by the end of the weekend. So please, check back!

Read 2nd

Here is Dan after our 'picnic' with our airplane that was going to take us to Addis to get our little Man. We were so excited and exhausted at this point.

We finally got on the plane and could not have been more excited... that's all you get at this point in the trip, that's our excited face.

We stopped in Khartoum and some people got off and then we were off to Addis. It was fun to watch the screens with the progress of the trip on the map and it would tell us how long we had been traveling the current time in our destination location, the speed, the temperature and all sorts of stuff like that. It was neat. According to this map, we were almost to Addis.

We finally landed in Addis. Got into line to get our Visas quickly and were some of the first to go through the visa line. We then went to get into the line to go through customs and couldn't figure out where to go. There were people on our flight who were adopting through Holt, so it was nice to chat with them and not be the only ones who were clueless as to what was going on. We went to get into the 'foreigner' line, but there were others getting into a much, much shorter 'diplomat and other important people' type line. I went back into the visa room to ask where we were supposed to go. She said the shorter line! Praise GOD again! We got through customs quickly and got our luggage. many people have mentioned on the agency list serve about the men who would grab your luggage and try and get tips from you. We were prepared with $1 bills, but thankfully, no one was there bothering us. We showed the guy our baggage claim tickets (so have those prepared and know where they are) and he checked the numbers with the bags we had and then we went through security again. We got through that and we saw a sign with our name on it. A guy from the Riviera Hotel was there to pick us up. This is the outside of the airport at night. It was around 11 at this time. Our flight got into Addis about 1 1/2 hours early. This is a really blurry picture, but it was the little van from the hotel and the man with our cart of luggage.

The drive to the hotel was really uneventful. There wasn't a whole lot of traffic, so it didn't take long to get to the hotel and the driving wasn't really scary. We got to the hotel and got checked in and then headed up to our room.

NOW go and read the 3rd section of this post.

Start here - Read 1st

I am actually going to start writing about our trip as of Tuesday night the 19th. Dan and I both worked Tuesday, which was good. It was hard to concentrate on anything, but I think I would have gone stir crazy at home. I had Bible Study after work and Dan didn't get off until 9, so, we both made it home right about the same time. We finished packing the last few things that had to wait until then. We were thinking we were getting ready to load the van when we noticed one of the duffel bags we were using for carry on luggage had an almost ripped out strap. I tried to sew it, but broke two needles, so, low and behold, at 11 pm on Tuesday before we fly out, we make a mad dash to Walmart to find a piece of luggage that would hold everything we needed it to, still fit within airport guidelines, and hopefully not cost an arm and a leg. We found one, a little more pricey than we wanted, but it was a duffel with wheels, which became a HUGE blessing many times later. But, as you can see come a little after midnight, we were fully packed and got the van loaded. (Like our new red rolling duffel bag?) This is everything we took. 2 rubbermaid tubs of donations, 2 big green military duffels with mostly donations (and a few of our things), 2 carry on duffel bags for our clothes and stuff and Mason's stuff, and a personal bag for each of us (the diaper bag and the backpack). We never ran into any problems with the amount of luggage. No one questioned it and we were close enough on weight that no one charged anything.

The trip started out for us at the Garden City Regional Airport. We were supposed to be at the airport at 5, which meant we needed to get up at 3:30 to get us ready and out to the airport in time. Unfortunately, I woke up sick with a stomach bug a little before 3. Which means, 2 1/2 hours of sleep, I was not doing well. Here we are waiting in the 'line' to check in. Things were good at this point, we were so excited, we didn't care that we were exhausted.

My aunt Rhonda and cousin Michelle (who is now in England!) came to see us off. That was awesome, and another HUGE blessing. We sat around and waited at our little airport and come 6:15 (it was a 6:30 flight) we were informed that the flight was being cancelled because of fog. It was funny b/c it is such a tiny airport, you could hear the lady behind the counter talking to the pilot, and there was a guy on the phone with the people 'in control' of the decision making. The pilot is circling saying they can land and it's not that bad, and we could see him outside, and the guy on the phone wouldn't allow them to land, so they flew onto Denver without us. PANIC!!! Our flights were not with the same airline after we got to Denver, so we were supposed to get to Denver, get our luggage and recheck in for a 11:30 (mountain time - 1 hour behind) flight. I talked to the guy at the counter (who is someone I know) and he tells me our best shot is to drive to Denver and try and make the flight. WHAT! Ok, so we begin quickly figuring out the plan of action. It is 5 1/2 to 6 hours to drive to Denver, can we make it... Here is where Aunt Rhonda comes in as the HERO of the moment. She hands us her keys and says take my van, it goes fast! We had driven our 20 year old mini van that we did not trust to make it to Denver, so we would have had to go home and trade out cars, get gas, and basically waste a whole lot of time. So, in her van we got, and we took off for Denver.

One the way to Denver, we are calling the airlines to let them know what is going on, finding out what the plan of action is if we miss the flight. We were calling Dan's sister who lives about 15 minutes from DIA (Denver airport), whose husband flies a lot for work, and asking her what she thought our odds were and what we should do. Seeing if she can come pick up the van or what she thought we should do with it. So, it all came down to this. If we missed the flight, we were at the mercy of the ticket counter on whether they would just rebook our flights or if we would have to purchase totally new 1 way tickets to Ethiopia. (So, we had my mom online looking at flights, just in case). We stopped for one fast gas fill up and bathroom stop for me (under 8 minutes, we timed it) and were one the road again. Dan's sister, Trista, checked us in online and went to the airport with her two boys (2 and 4 yr old) and checked us in at the ticket counter and got that started as we were pulling into the airport. Well, Dan took the wrong turn and we ended up in long term parking hunting for a parking spot, wasting time we did not have. So, he dropped me at an elevator entrance with all the luggage and I called Trista to see if she could come help me get the luggage upstairs and to check in. Well, down she comes running, one boy in an umbrella stroller, the other running alongside. She could not find a cart of any sort, so we pull the 2 year old, Dylon, out of the umbrella stroller and put in a green duffel, stacked with a pick rubbermaid tub. I take the read rolling duffel (BLESSING that it rolled) and stack on a rubbermaid tub. I put a green duffel on my back and the other carry on duffel on my shoulder with the diaper bag. And I can't remember who had the backpack, but it all made it upstairs and down a long corridor with us all running, the two boys in two, all the luggage, and many people staring. All the while, Dan is hunting for a parking spot. We get to the counter, they check our bags, she already had everything entered into her screen (THANKS TRISTA) and she just needs to see passports. I gave her mine, but at this point, Dan had still not showed up. She uses the copy I had of Dan's passport to enter his information, but was still going to have to visually 'inspect' Dan's passport. We are standing there anxiously try to see if we see Dan come up from parking, we spot him down the corridor, Trista goes to wave him down and we make it through check in in the nick of time. They lady told us that the computer would not have let her check us in had we been five minutes later. So, finally, we are officially check in and just have to get through security and to our gate on time. We get to take a bathroom break at this point (praise GOD!), and head to security, and say our goodbyes to Trista and the boys. We thought this was fun because it was the flight we were on. Denver to Detroit via Delta (or Northwest/KLM - it was all the same). We made it through security and got to our gate as they were loading, so we just got in line and got on the plane. I don't think we stopped to breathe until we actually took off. We made it to Detroit in time to use the restroom and get in line to board that plane. We never even sat down at the gate. So, onto Amsterdam for us! Yeah!!! The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful and we got some rest and watched a movie or two. The one nice thing with KLM was that there were a ton of movies and TV shows to watch. There were games to play and tons of music. It was great! We got to Amsterdam and for the first time had a little down time, like a spare hour. It was great! We walked around and looked at shops. We exchanged a little money. It was ridiculous, so if you don't have to, don't. With fees and exchange rate, we exchanged $40 and only got a little over 21 Euro. It was the first time that I felt decent and wanted something to eat. So, we bought a sandwich (like you get at a gas station) and a little drink for each of us. We figured up it cost us a little over $16. Ouch! But, it was actually the first thing that sounded and tasted good to me. Here is Dan enjoying his half of the sandwich and his drink at the Amsterdam airport. It was a fun little picnic.

Now go up and read the 2nd portion of this post!