Ethiopia- Day 1 or However Long it Took Us to Get There

October 30, 2012

Ethiopia- Day 1 or However Long it Took Us to Get There

Now that I'm home I have to quickly record our trip or I'm afraid I may forget some of the best parts, so here goes nothing...

Thankfully we have trusted friends and family that we were able to leave our 9,11 and 13 year old girls with, but even at 13 it's always a teary goodbye when Jason and I leave. Jen (a friend in her 20's that lives with us) and the girls dropped us off at the airport. After a sob session they made their way to ihop, and got to be late for school... mom and dad who? Jen knew the language to speak to those tender hearts. Then my sister drove 4 hours, left her 3 kids, and loved on mine... She gets the gold star, though, because she had to-got to take Aly, our 11 year old to her first orchestra concert. Enough said:). I hated having to miss that. Then my mom flew in from New Jersey and took over. The mom that is "the best cook ever", although they got to eat out a lot! My girls are nourished by hugs I think more than food sometimes, and my mom is a great hugger too. So the girls did great while we were gone. Our only way to communicate was via email or facebook, since skyping is illegal in Ethiopia and punishable by 15 years in prison (we chose not to risk it:).

Our flights were long... And can I just say that economy class seats that lean back a whole extra inch to recline are not made for sleeping?! We did get to watch movies, so I'm done with movies for a while.

We had a major delay that was going to cause us to miss our connection in Canada, so Babe (yes, her name was babe) did flips and jumped through all sorts of hoops to get us a direct flight to Frankfurt. Brandon asked her what kind of chocolate she liked, because he thought that'd be a nice gesture of gratitude, and she said "human"... oh... Brandon still went, and bought her some not-human chocolate:)

Who is Brandon? Brandon, and his awesome wife, Emily offered to come with us and photograph the entire trip! Brandon has his own studio in Lowell, and has done all our family portraits since we moved here. So gifted, and what a gift the two of them were to us in every way, from support in the intense deep emotions to belly laughing with us through our cultural stupidity and my weak stomach. And the pictures are amazing. Oh, God had a whole different plan for them than they thought though!! I'll share more of that later.

So we arrived in Sudan, yes, Sudan... In my ignorance I freaked when I saw we had to stop there, because all I could imagine was machine guns raiding our plane (maybe just a little dramatic). We were sitting in the plane waiting for them to refuel, and for other passengers to begin boarding, and this guy walks up to Brandon, and introduced himself (Brandon was wearing a Tigers hat, so totally gave away that he was a Michigander). We knew that there was a couple coming on the same trip, but I was too embarrassed to go up to a person and ask, "Are you Kara?". And I'm glad I didn't because I thought I maybe figured out who she was, and I was wrong:) Anyhow, we got to meet Kara and Rob, Kara's amazing parents and their super sweet girls Elli (9) and Kate (11) (yes, our girls were so jealous when they found out a family brought their daughters:). Rob and Kara, you think God sent you to meet your precious Anya, but I'm pretty sure he knew how much we needed you to be there for us through this whole week. What a gift God gave us in this family!

We finally arrived in Addis Ababa. I was a little nervous, because we had to apply for our in-country visas, exchange our money, pick up our baggage and find our driver. But we just followed Rob and Kara who had been through this twice already, and knew exactly what to do.

While waiting in line to get through customs this guy stood with us and talked so fast with his strong British accent that I could only understand every fifth word her said. Jason was either being polite and filling in the blanks to make conversation or he really could understand, but the guys intelligence level was far above mine, so I just smiled and laughed when everyone else did to make like I was following, but that alone about made my brain explode.

We were starving so grabbed something that looked like bread with herbs in it, because it was 10pm-ish, and we knew we wouldn't be able to get anything before bed. Somehow our driver was able to cram all 10 of us and our suitcases in this Toyota van that by the way would be a good transition van from mini-van to 12 passenger. We were crowded, but so fun (and no seat belts:).

Our hotel was the Sadula Lodge (lhttp://www.sadulalodge.com/ look it up if feel so inclined). It was clean!!! Bonus! I can go anywhere, and do just about anything if I know I can have a clean bed at night, and a hot shower...Jason exclaimed from the bathroom that we will be having cold showers all week, because there is no hot water! All you gotta do is ask:)...So I asked, and they have a switch for their hot water. Easy, and I got hot water:)

Ambien is a beautiful thing when you are trying to adjust your body to a time zone seven hours ahead of Eastern Standard. We slept great! Arrival was a success. I really don't like flying especially over the ocean for hours, so I finally sighed a sigh of relief, and slept like a baby.

God was with us, and answered specific prayer:

1. Our girls. I needed to know they were ok, so that I could be fully present for our boys, and I was able to be just that.

2. Jason needed to be able release church responsibilities to be fully present, and he was able to do that (Thank you, Jon, Chas, Jennifer, Bonnie, Dave and Ryder!!)

3. I called told my dad about our flight delay, and he specifically prayed that we could just get a direct flight then from Newark to Frankfurt... I'm so thankful for praying parents!

4. We felt secure just meeting Rob and Kara who lead us like lost sheep to where we needed to go upon arrival.

5. Our luggage was all there and accounted for (we grabbed the wrong suitcase, and Kara noticed one on the belt that matched Jason's carry-on. So she hollared for us and asked if it was ours! YES, it was ours!)

6. Slept great first night...actually second night. Didn't sleep first night on the plane:/