For sure, there is a great need in Ethiopia, but how does that awareness intersect with our lives? I am amazed at how gracious and warm the people are in spit of living such a difficult life. They are so "service" oriented.
It's been an exhausting yet exciting journey. I guess the "re-entry" begins now. Searching for clarity of the vision.
The trip itself was full of many problems from the 11 hour delay and almost missing the time to meet our daughter to loosing our luggage - really a hard start. Yet, I think about John's blog - The Orphaned Briefcase and I now see how much time I lost fretting over that silly bag instead of being in the moment. That is the story of my life - can't see the forest for the trees. Sigh. I hope I change.
So, back to the reason for this trip - our sweet Evy. Admittedly, I feel emotionally detached regarding her right now. I think in part because we are forced to leave her, also due to the uncertainty of our court appearance, and lastly because we had so little time to bond with her. (I think after some time of reflection, it's likely more self-protection).
The first day of the trip was insane. For starters, I really didn't think I could leave Ean. The night before, I told Carlos I couldn't go. He reminded me that Ean is God's son - not our own - and that we have to trust Him. Not to mention the fact that we are following His heart for orphans by bringing Evy into our family. Somehow we managed to pull out of the driveway but not before waving over and over to Ean as he sat in the front window. I had no idea how deeply I loved him and how much I'd miss him until that moment. Carlos and I cried and prayed for him as well as our safe return.
The drive to Atlanta was stressful. It poured rain all the way. We arrived with only a few minutes to spare. Then, just before we were to board, we discovered that our flight was delayed. Great. We had a few hours to connect in Frankfurt so we thought we'd be ok. As it turned out, it was a 3+ hour delay and our hopes of making the connection were diminishing. I was devastated - what if we miss seeing our daughter and our court date?
I tearfully pleaded with the airline staff to help us rebook and shared with them about our adoption. They were all so supportive and yelling well wishes as we boarded the plane. We went to sleep immediately with the help of our "happy sleeping pills" then we woke 2 hours before we landed to discover that we would be arriving 2 hours late for our connection. No one on the flight could help us rebook (which is not what we were told in Atlanta)!
When we arrived, we ran to the Luthansa desk to discover hundreds of people in the same situation as us! What a nightmare. People were pushing and yelling. No one would organize a line. I started to cry. We've flown halfway around the world to meet our daughter, and it looked hopeless that we'd make it in time...not to mention that I wanted to see BE. We waited 3 hours in line to be rebooked. Thankfully, they allowed us to place 2 calls back to the U.S. - one to our agency to alert them of the delay and the second to BE back at home.
Regardless to say, we were exhausted. We did manage to find a great restaurant and enjoyed much needed food. Yummy.
We were re-routed via Ethiopia Airlines which required another 2 hours in line to get boarding passes - but at least we were on another night flight so we could enjoy our "happy pills." :) We woke up 2 hours before the end of the flight again to discover we would be arriving 2 hours later than expected. Now, we're expecting the next ball to drop.
After an 1 hour wait in customs, we finally grabbed our luggage to discover that our big bag didn't arrive. I tearfully announced to the security guard that Carlos would stay behind for the bag, and I would go ahead "We're adopting and I can't miss meeting our baby!." He graciously took us past the line to the office to submit a report. Thank you God!
We exited to a sea of Ethiopian faces - it was a bit intimidating at first. Finally, I located a Holt sign and met our sweet driver. I felt bad for him - he had waited for us 4 hours due to all of the delays. I quickly announced to him that I wanted to go to the care center to see our baby (since the time we were allotted to meet them was already underway). Funny, they listen but still do their own thing:) Instead, we went to the guesthouse dropped our luggage and started our first of many adventures across town...
No comments:
Post a Comment