Journey to Ethiopia - Day Nine

One year ago today: 

Thursday, January 22, 2009

We had one day left to pack our crew up and get ready for the long journey home. I was dreading those flights like a tooth extraction, but I was so ready to come home, and the only way to get there was on those exhausting flights.

Incredibly, the Good Lord had blessed our entire family with good health for our whole trip. All the things that could have happened, didn't. We were so thankful, and to be quite honest, I simply cannot imagine getting us all packed and home if we had been ill. It was almost too exhausting while we were well! Our only problems had been a few headaches due to lack of sleep and smog, swollen ankles due to altitude and salty snack foods, scratchy throats from the smog, and one more throw up incident.*

*Note to self: Kudos for bringing the Ziploc bags in the backpack

 in case of car-sick kids while our driver navigated the nauseating traffic in Addis! 

It would have been perfect if your reaction time had been about 2 seconds faster.

 Since you missed it, kudos for bringing that extra shirt in the backpack, as well. 

That day we took turns playing with baby S throughout the day, and she was her cheerful sweet self. Her sinus infection was already improving.

R and baby S in the Union Hotel

We tried to follow the care center schedule as best we could, which meant frequent naps for her. Our other babes had all been pretty light sleepers, but not little miss. We could go on packing all around her during her naps and she slept until she was ready to wake up. What a dream. R sang Jesus Loves Me to Baby S, and got the biggest smiles from her. It was precious. HA was my best helper, scurrying to bring me a burp cloth or a blanket or a diaper whenever I needed something. And HW was best at making S squeal with his silly faces. The kids had been so, so great on the trip, and Mike and I were happy we'd been able to experience Ethiopia together, as a family.

The hardest part of packing was trying to fit in some breakables and large items we bought at the market. We finally succeeded in getting them properly cushioned. We were also certain that we should leave as much of our extras behind, along with any suitcases we didn't need. It turned out that we were able to fill two giant bags and one smaller one with all our medicines, toiletries, extra snack foods, and extra baby supplies that didn't fit S or that we no longer needed. We were glad to pare down our luggage totals to much more manageable amounts for our travels home.

The staff was glad to get the extra donations, and we passed out gifts we'd brought from home, and said our goodbyes to everyone who had taken care of our sweet baby S for us. We thanked them for working so hard for the children, and for all the wonderful experiences they provide for families like ours while we are in country. It was great to be heading home, but we were so sad to leave our new friends and the all the precious children. Tenderhearted R staid many times during our trip that she wished we could just scoop up all the children we saw and take them home with us. Me too.

We ate lots of snacks that day, then gave the rest of our goodies to the hotel gateman and his crew of handy helpers, always ready to lend a hand. Mike and DaddyDon made special rounds to visit with people who'd been especially kind to us and they were able to tip them and thank them again before we left. We bid farewell to our travel buddies, and we were glad both our baby girls were feeling good for the trips home. We also took some more pictures and video of the area around the Care Center and the Union Hotel. Then we ate room service one last time, bathed the kids and dressed for travel, then stacked our bags in the hall and waited for our drivers to pick us up for our late night flight.

HA with our luggage in the hall

At every leg of our return trip we always specially requested seating together, bulkhead, bassinets, aisle seats~ basically anything to make caring for a baby easier. We already knew what it takes to survive a long flight with a new baby ~ after all, the boys were born in Korea, and that is no short flight home, either. So, we made a special effort to request special favors at each leg.

Well, our hopes were dashed when we boarded Turkish Air for the first leg from Addis to Istanbul, and our family was split up all over the stuffed airplane. Two of the kids had to sit several rows up from me where I couldn't even see them, squashed next to a grouchy man, then Mike was with the other child several rows away, DaddyDon and Gram were way in the back, and I was alone with the baby on the inside by the window. Nice. We were packed in like sardines and the traveler beside me let it be known he was none too pleased to be stuck on the row with a baby. I tried my best to stay out of his way, and baby S did her usual charm job by smiling at him every chance she could, so we made it OK for that first 5 hour leg. We'd missed an entire night's sleep, so by the time we landed in Istanbul it was early Friday morning, and we were all thoroughly exhausted. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning.