Homeward Bound (July 24/25)

So here I am finally finishing the journal of my trip to Ethiopia. This is the last day - from leaving the guest house to arriving in Toronto.



We ordered in for dinner at the guest house and then finished up our packing. It was a power out day and it seemed to get dark really fast. The last of the packing was done in the dark. I said my goodbyes to the great friends I had met and then just kind of hung out for a while. Denver fell asleep on the bed and I transferred him into the carrier when it was time to go.


Solomon picked us up at 10:00 pm to bring us to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye to Solomon – he is such a great guy and did a lot for me. I told him that I would continue to pray for him and his family and the whole situation with the agency and his job. I really hope things work out for him – he is really good at what he does. (Since writing this in my journal, I've found out that he is no longer employed by our agency. I'm not going to say a lot about it except that I think it's a big mistake and I'm so sad for him). I've sent him some pictures via another family that traveled after us and I'm in contact with him via email. All I can do is pray for him.


Our flight from Addis to Frankfurt was delayed by almost three hours. Denver was restless and fussy and I was tired. It wasn’t fun hanging out in the airport just waiting around. The thought of the 15 hours of being on a plane I still had ahead of me did nothing for my mind. By the time we boarded the plane, I was so tired and anxious. Denver was fussy but I gave him a bottle as we took off and he didn’t seem to be bothered by it. He slept on and off for the 6.5 hours and cried for some of it. Overall he did well – I felt the pressure because the plane was all dark and most people were trying to sleep because it was the middle of the night. No one wants to listen to someone else’s crying baby when they’re trying to sleep – even if he is the cutest baby in the whole world!

When we arrived in Frankfurt, there was barely enough time to have a snack and get a few bottles ready before it was time to board the next plane. I was thankful for that because I didn’t feel like sitting around and waiting in another airport. I was tired and just wanted to be homeward bound. The next flight from Frankfurt to Toronto (8+hours) was a lot easier. Denver was fairly content and slept on and off. I just kind of fed him whenever he was fussy, figuring I’d work on some sort of a schedule when we got home. That worked out well and the flight went by fairly quickly. The last hour or so from Ottawa to Toronto was very turbulent but it went by fast and the landing was fairly smooth.

I’ve never felt so happy to be on Canadian soil. I called Mike as soon as I was off the plane.

When I got up to the customs officer, she made me pull out every single piece of paper I had along, questioned me all about the adoption and then asked where my husband was. So I explained to her in as little detail as possible about the bankruptcy and how I ended up having to travel on my own and thankfully I had a signed and witnessed letter from Mike. This part seemed to take forever and I just wanted to be on the other side of the wall where my family was waiting. Thankfully our luggage was the first one through so we didn’t have any more waiting.

As I walked through the doors where everyone was waiting, I looked frantically around, trying to spot them as soon as I could. I wanted to run but didn’t know which direction to run in. And then finally I saw Mike, Victoria, Austin and Samara all running toward me up the ramp. Austin reached me first and I fell to my knees with Denver. We were all so relieved to see each other after such a stressful time of being apart. (This is where I would insert the “ugly cry picture” but I’ve already done that. Remember the one? If not, look back to a July post to see it – it’s lovely! Ha ha!) All six of us were oblivious to everything else going on around us. We finally realized that everyone was walking around us and thought we should get out of the way. By this point, Denver was out of my carrier and in Daddy’s arms. Beautiful.

I was able to greet so many family and friends that had come to welcome us home. Thank you everyone . . . I’ll always remember that day.

Since I’ve already posted quite a few pictures from that day in a previous post, here are some of the kids holding Denver for the first time.