Ethiopia - #1 (Travel)

Our trip to Ethiopia was amazing...the trip of a lifetime. During our days there, my husband and I kept saying to one another, "Can you believe we are in Ethiopa?" It just seemed so unreal. The paperwork was over and we were actually there...to bring home our little boy!

The "getting there" was quite a process - and for me - one of the most challenging aspects of the trip. I'd been keeping a packing list for months. As the day neared, we set up two folding tables in the dining room and began piling stuff on them as needs came to mind. I felt that the packing stage had started months before, yet I still only finished at 2:30am the morning we were to leave. We packed our things, items for the baby, donations for the orphanage...we were loaded down.

Leaving my little kids at home was heart-breaking. To kiss them good-bye and get on an airplane to travel so very far away was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I prayed a lot. I spent a lot of time focusing simply on the next step, because the big picture was so hard and scary. It was a long flight from Atlanta to New York to Amsterdam to Khartoum (for a brief refuel) to Addis Ababa....over 25 hours. At this point, I'm still feeling that if I never fly again it will be too soon. (I know this will pass - it was just a very long journey.) Below are a few pictures...some of the donations we took, our travel day...