The Long Way Home - Leaving Ethiopia September 2nd, 2010

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

We woke up around 6:30 and Abera slept the entire night again, sleeping 11 hours, a champ sleeper!  We fed him, got ready and went downstairs for breakfast.  Our agency had a pretty light itinerary for our last day but did have a couple of things to keep us occupied.

After breakfast the cooks put on a cooking class, showing us how they prepare a traditional Ethiopian meal.  They took us inside the kitchen and demonstrated the spices and processes they go through for prepping and making the vegetables and meats.  Then we went outside in a hut next to the kitchen and watched them make the injera, the bread that is the base of the meal.  It is made like a pancake on a large spinning platter.  We had seen this before but the cooks take great pride, so it is nice to see them show off their craft.

After the cooking demonstration, there was plenty of down time.  Danielle, Patrick and Tegegn came to our room and we got some fun pictures of Tegegn and Abera together on a blanket.  Then we took some nice family photos on our balcony with the care center in the background.

The day before were supposed to see the doctor but for some reason we did not.  So the doctor came to the guest house in the morning.  We brought Abera down and she said that he looked good.  With the all clear, Abera proceeded to projectile vomit on the ground (his first time doing this with us), just missing the doctor's staff.  As we were cleaning him up, the next baby to see the doctor pooped and vomited on the nurse and doctor.  It was a rough morning for them.

For lunch, we enjoyed the Ethiopian food that the cooks were making in the morning.  This was our first time eating traditional food this trip and it was excellent.  Most of the time the cooks made more traditional western fare but we preferred the Ethiopian food.  The Ethiopian food was so tasty and their version of the western food was not that good.



The cooks, staff & dolly enjoyed the meal with us



View from our balcony - travel group hanging out


In the afternoon, I continued to take advantage of rare down time and read my book.  I read upstairs on our balcony (another beautiful day) while Abera napped.  Most of the group gathered in the courtyard to play and talk.  Michele got out her jump rope and got others to show off their skills.  Patrick was actually skilled with it and showed off, impressing the group.  Michele then had to show off some skills and when she did a trick, the rope and handle came apart and the rope almost hit Patrick in the head.



Looking around our balcony, we could see around 10-11 houses under construction.  But they looked like houses that could take years to complete.  For all the construction underway, very little was being done.  We only saw work actively being done on one to two of the houses.  There was no construction equipment and mainly the foundations were poured with concrete, that is it.  The most work we saw done was a house near us that being worked on by about 6-8 women (depending on the day) who were removing dirt from the area by hand.  One to two women would dig in the dirt to break it up.  Another would shovel the dirt onto a piece of burlap (about 3'x4') with two long pieces of wood on each side.  Once it was filled up, two ladies would carry the dirt up, out of the house foundation to a dirt road and would dump it in a pile on the side of the road.  All week long we would watch this going on.  Dig, shovel, walk...  A painfully slow process and looked really hard on the women.  There are so many examples of how things are different in the US, how a house gets built is just one of many.   

There were some boys next door that liked to talk to the Americans in the guest house.  Anytime they saw you, they would try to talk to you.  They would call to you, ask your name, where we are from and then go into their translation book and ask other questions.  They were cute boys, around 8 and 10 years old.  But it got old quickly since they would ask the same questions over and over and would yell to you anytime they saw you.  So after a while, even though I hated doing it, I would ignore their calls. 

Around 3PM the media team came and interviewed all the families to get feedback about the week and the entire process.  Michele and I were first and said told them our thoughts that it was a good week and where we thought they could improve. 

They fed us an early dinner for the departs and Christy and her travel companion from California were the first to leave (fly to Dubai, stay over the night, fly 15 hours home to California).  The last official thing we needed to do was get our paperwork at the main office.  I decided to stay at the guest house with Abera while Michele went.  We were irritated that they made us go to the main office when they could easily come the five minutes to the guest house.  The director of the program did meet with the group and asked them for their personal feedback and how they can improve.  The first trip we did not have a chance to meet him, so they was a change for him to reach out to the group.

Abera's shirt reads, "Are we there yet?"

Michele and the group got back around 5:45 and we packed up and left the guest house at 6:15.  Mike and Cindy were staying one more night in a hotel, so we dropped them off first (which was close by).  Steve and Suzi, Patrick and Danielle (both of which were on our flight), Kim from DC (flying Ethiopian Air) and Heidi and Erwin, who were staying one more night at a different hotel, filled out the rest of the bus.  The rest of the travel group, Trent and Cindy, Joel and Amy and Ali and Tom were staying one more night at the guest house. 

Driving through the city one more time was filled with sadness to know that we would not be back for a long time but relief that our trip would soon end and we would be a family of four in the near future.  It is a stressful trip to make sure everything goes well and so far so good, but 24 hours of traveling to go.  Again, seeing the streets just filled with people, walking up and down, astounded me.  The amount of people who travel by foot would amaze Americans.  It is like the busiest time of day on the Chicago sidewalks times two but not just at 5PM but almost all day.

We hugged goodbye to the house director in the parking lot and went through security as we entered the airport.  We went and checked in on our flight and it took a really long time for our lady to get our tickets (like 20 minutes).  It took so long that Michele went to feed Abera in a separate spot, finished and came back and I was still waiting for our tickets.  We had requested a bassinet for the ride home on both legs and that was slowing our ticket agent to make sure we had this.  We were plenty early, so there was no rush on our end.  Finally we got our tickets and went to customs.  On the walk to customs, we ran into the couple that sat behind us on the flight in, Chris and Mary, now with their new child.  We promised to catch up at the gate. 

We went through customs and started our airport waiting.  We were not flying out until around 11PM and it was now around 8.  There were some shops, so we bought some coffee and picked up some other odds and ends.  While getting a soda, I ran into Chris and Mary and stopped to talk with them for about 30 minutes.  Patrick and Danielle came up and I introduced them.  Both couples were from the Denver area, so I was glad to connect them.  Plus both families ended up being on the same three flights home. 

At the airport, you need to go through security again to get into your specific gate.  So we went through security at around 9:30 and sat with a group  (about seven families) who had all adopted.  To give reference to show how much adoption has grown in Ethiopia, when Michele and I flew home with Mehandis, there was only one other family on our plane that adopted.  We were able board early and to our amazement, we were upgraded to Business Class!  I guess our wait at the ticket counter was worth it as she worked to find us a spot with a bassinet and got us upgraded!  The seats were really wide, comfortable and plenty of space.  I would go horizontal and still my feet would not touch the wall in front of me.  Sweet!

Abera had fallen asleep in the gate and stayed asleep all during takeoff.  The main stewardess came up to us as we were taxiing to the runway and asked if we had a camera to take our picture before we took off.  We had just taken it out and had it handy.  She took a nice picture, very sweet of her to think that would a special moment for us.

The flight to Amsterdam went very smoothly.  Abera slept great in the bassinet, but Michele and I slept very little.  I think we wanted to take advantage of our really comfy seats and set up.  I watched Up in the Air, which was a good movie to watch on an airplane, especially when in business class.  A half moon rose in the east outside my window, it was beautiful.



After my movie, I tried to sleep but just could not.  So I read for a while and listened to music.  Michele and I tried to watch a movie together, Leap Year, but got bored of it about 25 minutes in and gave up on it (says a lot about a movie that you give up on when you have nothing but time). 

Abera woke up towards the end of the flight and we fed him before we landed.  He did cry a bit as we landed but for the most part, he was really good.  We got into Amsterdam around 6AM and met up with the other people that we knew from our flight.  We talked about where we were off to next and we were the only ones going to Chicago.  So even though I think most of us had a couple of hours until our next flights, we said our goodbyes and split up.


Enjoying the comfy quarters with a sleeping baby in front

We walked around the airport and found the baby care area, which was really nice.  It is an enclosed room with about seven private crib areas with couches and a sheet to pull around the couch and crib for privacy.  So you can have a private area for your family as your baby rests (this is the coolest airport).  We laid Abera down and he went right to sleep.  Michele and I took turns to freshen up in the bathrooms.  Soon Abera woke up, we changed him and then walked around the airport.

There is an art gallery in the airport, so with nothing but time, we walked through the gallery.  The lack of sleep was now catching up with me and was started to drag.  But we continued on and explored other parts of the airport.  As I mentioned this is a great airport, many unique places to travelers to relax, sleep and hang out.  There is a casino, lounge chairs for people to sleep, the baby room, neat and unique furniture and good restaurants.  The airport is full of international people since that is the main use of the airport as an international hub.



Eventually we went back to the place that we had breakfast at a week earlier and I had the same tasty dutch pancake.  There were large tea cups for booths and we choose to eat in one of them.  After breakfast we wandered over to our gate to wait for it to open up and go through security.  We were an hour early, so we found seats to sit.  I tried to read but now I was really tired, so I kept falling asleep.  I think I dozed off for maybe 10 minutes but it helped.  However Abera got worked up and needed to be calmed and woke me up.  Michele took him to go for a walk to calm him and while she was gone, an Ethiopian lady sitting across from me introduced herself.  She was going to Chicago to study at UIC and works with post placement adoption.  She was knowledgeable about adoptions but had some cases that did concern her about international adoption.  She asked a couple of times about our court process and meeting the birth family.  I was glad when our gate opened and we ended our conversation.  I was too tired to have that conversation. 

The security was tighter than we had anywhere on our trip with up close and personal pat downs.  We found a spot up near the front to wait and we were supposed to board at 10:30.  At 10:25 Abera began to melt down and I tried to convince Michele to stay up front because we were going to be boarding really soon.  But we continued to not board and his screams just got worse.  So finally Michele won and took him to the bathroom to change him.  I think the entire gate area could still hear him crying in the bathroom.

Michele made the right decision because as she came back out, they announced that there was an issue with the plane and we were delayed.  We had a really nice couple from Illinois next to us, so we talked with them while waiting.  The flight crew came out and served us drinks and a snack while we waited.

After about 45 minutes, they started loading us on the plane and soon enough, we started our final leg of our trip home.  This time we did not have business class seating but did have a bulk-head seat, so Abera got to lay down and sleep on the flight.  We watched some TV shows on the flights and tried to make the time pass quickly. 

While getting water for Abera in the back of the plane, one of the stewardesses asked if it was Abera's first flight.  We said his second since we started in Ethiopia but in essence, it is his first flight.  She said soon she would have something for us.  About an hour later she came up to us with a KLM bib that said "My first flight" and on the back had a full listing of the crew.  We were really touched, so we got a picture of her holding Abera with the bib.  We cannot say enough nice things about the KLM staff.

Finally, after about 24 hours since arriving at the airport in Addis Ababa, we landed in Chicago (around 1PM CST).  Abera slept on our way in but began to cry after we had to wake him up as we moved through customs.  Customs went quickly and once our luggage was accounted for, we made our way to the immigration area.  Luckily this time the guy who processes the paperwork was there (he was at lunch when we got there with Mehandis) and about five minutes later, we were free to enter the country!

We walked through the double doors and as what happened with Mehandis, we did not see our parents waiting for us.  We saw a group to our left at a different exit, so we walked down in that direction and that is where we found them, my parents, Michele's parents, Mehandis and Erin (she apparently had  not had her baby yet), all anxiously awaiting us.  I think Erin saw us first and soon they swarmed around Abera.  Mehandis was more excited than we have ever seen him, he REALLY wanted to meet his new brother.  He did not care much about seeing us, Abera was the star in his eyes. 


Our family waiting for our arrival



After our hugs we walked to the parking lot and split up in cars to drive to Twin Lakes.  First though, Mehandis had to hold Abera.  So we asked him to sit and he sat right down in the middle of the parking lot.  We put Abera in his lap, who immediately started crying. 

Even though it was a holiday weekend (Labor Day), the traffic was really light.  I rode with my dad in the Subaru with Abera in the back (my dad drove).  About halfway there, Abera started to cry and I thought he was hungry, so I tried to feed him.  But it turned out he needed to be changed and cried the rest of the way to the cabin.

We got to Twin Lakes and quickly changed him and soon the rest of the crew arrived.  The weather had turned cold, so we stayed inside, told stories about our trip and the family had a chance to get to know Abera.  Mehandis, still extremely excited, had a great time getting to know his brother.  We learned that one of the flight attendants saw our family waiting for us and came up to them to ask if they were waiting for Abera.  After they said yes, she told them that he is beautiful and is a great baby!  That made our parents day. 

I fell asleep while waiting for dinner and soon after dinner, we went to bed.  We put Abera in a pack-and-play and Mehandis, who wanted to sleep near his brother, moved his sheets and slept next to the pack-and-play.  It was really cute. 

So after 2-1/2 years, we were finally able to go to sleep as a family of four.