HOME and many miracles

We are home. I know it has been a couple of weeks since I last updated.

I do want to tell a little about our flights. Our travel was hard, and we saw so many miracles.

I will try to be short. But you know me, short is not in my vocabulary.



Flights back to Grand Rapids, MI USA.

Abel picked us up at 7:30pm to go the the airport. We arrived at Addis Ababa airport and we were like the 30th vehicle to get in the parking lot. So many people and cars. Unbelievable. Abel said he has never seen the airport so busy in all his life. We of course took a deep breath and thought I hope we make our flight. The next 4 hours were stressful to say the least.
There was a line to get in the airport that ended in the parking lot. In order to get in, all your luggage has to be scanned and you go through a security check point. (shoes off the whole business). We waited in a not organized line (a group of people pushing to get through). We were a little nervous as they were checking passports and flight itineraries in order to even get in the line to get in the airport. All the info. we had on our new flights we wrote down. Praise God- a miracle me didn't look at our info. just looked at our passports and waved us through. As we climbed the hill to the airport police and security were coming b/c it was starting to get very pushy. We made it just in time. We waited to 8:30pm to even get in the door of the airport.
We went to the Lufthansa ticket counter and I was praying the whole time. Please let us get on. Lord help us get home. They got us checked in and then they said, Do you have a ticket for the baby? This was one problem we had. B/c we switched Airlines we had to get the info. from Kenya air, but they were not even open. So we had to get our of line and go to a window and buy a infant seat. It was suppose to be $200, but it ended up costing us over $500 American dollars. It also took about 45mins. + to get it. They did not take American money so we had to put in on our charge card, and the computers were not working. It was frustrating, as we still had to go through customs yet.
Once we got our ticket we had to go back to Lufthansa line and get our tickets issued. We finally got it. We then went to customs and had to fill out exit forms for every person. (Including Tariku)
He woke up from sleeping and was crying as we were trying to fill out all the paperwork and then had to wait in a lONG line to get through. I felt bad, b/c everyone was looking at us as we are white adopting a baby. Who knows what everyone was thinking. Of course by now we are sweating and just praying that we will make the flight. We finally get through customs and find our gate. And go through security again. UGH.
We make the flight, with not much time to spare.
Tariku slept and woke up fed him, changed him and he went back to sleep again. So this 8 hour flight to Germany was not bad.
Germany Airport was again not a great experience for us.
Landed at 5:30Am. Our flight left Germany at 10:30AM. We thought great, go to the gate take a nap and leave. Ohh no, not how it went.
Well b/c we were on Lufthansa airline we had check in with the Delta Desk for the rest of the flights. The fact that we were switched to Lufthansa was a HUGE MIRACLE. We found out from our travel agent when we got home, that airlines just don't switch you to a different airline. We flew Delta and they have sister companies that we will fly. (such as Kenya air, KLM Etc) Lufthansa is NOT associated with Delta and the whole agency staff said what a miracle. They have never seen Delta do this before. WOW- What a awesome God we serve. Even to have the travel agency say what a miracle (I do not know if they are a christian company).
In Germany airport we went to the delta ticket counter. Which you had to go through immigration. They would not allow Tariku to go through b/c his Visa was only good for USA. So we were again frustrated. So Aaron went through and Tariku and I found some seats and waited. He was fussy and we were low on diapers. He was having blow out diarrhea and we were down to 3 diapers. I finally rocked him to sleep and we waited for 2 hours. Aaron finally returned to say he could not get my ticket b/c he did not have my passport. Uhh- so confusing.
We decided to try to get through security to go to our gate even though I didn't have my ticket. They let me through and then I asked a Delta person if I could get my ticket from her, and she said YES. Praise God. We were stressed at the point.
I thought I better go see if the gift shop has more diapers. They did have a pack of diapers and they were 2 sizes to big but I was desperate. So I went to buy them. The price was in Euro, so I asked how much. They said $96. WHAT? Thankfully he screwed up the exchange rate but for 20 diapers is was still going to be $36 after he figured right. I decided to wait and see if I could come up with something else.
I left the store and turned the corner and a women with twins was walking with a stroller. Her Girls appeared to be about Tariku's age. I stopped her and asked her if she had some extra diapers and if I could I could buy them from her. I told her our situation and she gave me 4 diapers. I thanked her and went to get on our plane.
Well while I was getting diapers, they motioned for everyone to get our of the gate and we had to go through passport checks etc. before boarding.
So we waited in a line for 30mins. and when we finally got our turn they said we did not have enough paperwork for Tariku and put us aside to wait. So we waited and waited. We had a control freak flight attendant. I slowly moved away from her and asked someone else to help us and she did. The freak flight attendant said she was going to have to see our pack of Info. from the US embassy and was going to open it. We were told- Strict instructions that ONLY the US Immigration Officer can open. No one else. So that is why I went to the next person.
She was much nicer and told me that she would not open it, but that they are checking for child trafficking. Oh that made me feel better. So I showed her every piece of paperwork that I had and she went through every paper. This took another 30 mins.
She finally let me go through and we were good to go. They started boarding the plan within mins.
This flight was rough. It was 8.5 hours and Tariku did not want to be held. He struggled and we were so tired and were mentally exhausted.
We landed in Detroit, and we had only 2.5 hour layover. We had to go through Immigration and Customs. The lines were long, and we finally made it to a officer. It took a long time, and then they told us we had to go to the foreign visitor line and go to line 35 the blue line for adoptions. We had less then a hour til our flight left. We were in trouble. We started to stress out again. Tariku was starting to get fussy again too.
We had to wait for 2 families and we waited for a LONG time. God sent a angel to us and we would have missed our flight if it was not for her. I started to pray that God would delay the plane so we would make our flight. We told a Delta flight attendant about our situation. She went and found our luggage and got it on a cart. She said she would wait in line in the customs line for us with our stuff. It was 3:00pm. Once we got through the blue line. We ran to her, and she was right in the front of the line, the customs officer asked us no questions and he said the only thing I have to say, is "Thank you". So nice. We then had to go through security again. It was a long line again, she went in from of the line pushed the people back and said, "get your stuff up here, take off your shoes, hurry." We were so flustered and she pushed us right through. She said I will take care of your luggage, just run. So we ran through the whole Detroit Airport. Praying that we would make our flight. Well we got to the gate, and it was 3:15pm and the flight attendant and the pilot were late and they did not even start boarding the flight!
Praise GOD!!! So we changed Tariku's diaper with the last diaper and wipe and made him a bottle with the last of the formula. We got on the plane after time for us to fee him and for us to go the bathroom. We got in our seat and he pooped again. I was out of diapers. So I asked the flight attendant, "do you by chance have a diaper on board?" I had asked very plane we were on any NO one had any. We were on a little puddle jumper and she said,"Yes I do." I went in the bathroom to change him and the diaper also had a wipe in it. Another Miracle.
We were late to arrive in GR but it made no difference we were so thankful to be on it.
When we landed in GR we had many family and friends waiting for us. It was very exciting and we were so glad to be home.
He is our precious boy, and we are so grateful to have him in our family. We love him so much.
Gavin and Whitney were all over him, and it was a fun time. How I missed them.
Ethiopia was a life changing experience and it was so amazing!!