July 15

The stopover at the Frankfurt airport was about three hours. We had a small bite to eat and just hung out – felt very exhausted. My ear was still hurting and I was worried about flying again.

As we were boarding the plane, there was another young woman boarding at the same time. She too had a Canadian passport and so we started to chat. As it turns out, she was also heading to Addis to pick up her twin girls. Her husband was also left behind at home and she was traveling with her mom. It felt really good to connect with someone in the same boat. She was just as stressed as I was and we ended up chatting for a while on the flight. She was also staying at the Weygoss but didn’t have a plan to get there yet. We said we would ask Solomon, our driver, if she too could hitch a ride in the same vehicle.

Flying over the Sahara Desert - very cool!

Flying into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:


We finally arrived in Addis Ababa at almost 7:00 pm local time on Wednesday. Got a visitor visa right at the airport and changed a bit of money to local money – Ethiopian birr. Went through customs – no problem – the man didn’t even ask us questions – except how to pronounce my name which seemed to just be out of interest, nothing else. My luggage was there right away. Went through gates and Solomon (who is bald – but not wrinkled or fat like he told me on the phone!) was right there waiting with his right hand man (can’t remember his name) They gave us each some flowers. Unbelievable people. Huge hearts. Will do anything for us.

The Addis Ababa Airport:


Definitely a huge relief to have this connection. As we were talking with these two men about the whole situation with our agency, they were tearing up. I could just tell how much this is affecting them. They love the kids and their jobs so much.

They had no problem taking our new friends to the Weygoss with us.

We got to the guest house and checked in. It’s beautiful and the people are very friendly. There were two other adoptive moms there with their boys. We got settled a bit in the room, Solomon made sure everything was okay and gave us more general information re: eating, water, etc. I made arrangements to meet him at 9:30 the following morning so he could take me to see Denver. Yay! I called home – talked to my mother-in-law briefly. I called Mike on his cell phone and chatted a bit. I missed everyone back home like crazy! We chatted for a while with the other adoptive moms – they gave us so much information about living in Addis – one of them had been there for seven weeks with her little guy already (long story that I won’t get into). I bought some water at the front desk and Solomon said he’d take us to do some shopping the following day too – after I see Denver. I will also talk to Solomon about trying to get us to the Canadian Embassy tomorrow.

I headed back up to the room, had a shower and went to bed. I fell asleep around 10:30 pm, slept like a rock for three hours and then laid around for two more hours (gotta love that jetlag). Finally got up to journal on my laptop.