Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Sunday, May 03, 2009

We Are Here

I arrived Friday morning. My flight from London was a night flight, and overall went very well. The kids both watched a movie and then slept the rest of the way until about 1 hour before the flight landed! I didn’t sleep but maybe about 30 minutes, there’s something about being the only parent on a flight, I just couldn't’t let myself nod off.

We arrived at about 7:30am. The Ugandan staff was wonderful. They helped me off the plane, took me to the front of the line going through passport control, and then had me sit while they searched for all my bags. Of course that meant I was the last one to leave the baggage area, but there was no way I could’ve done it by myself. Once we finally got out of customs, I saw Jesse! Wow it was great to see him! I wanted to give him a great big smooch right there, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking “you can’t do that, that would be very offensive to the Ugandan culture." I probably would’ve done it anyway, but there were 3 people from Jesse’s work who were also there, so I decided instead to just live with a long hug.

It was pouring outside-first rain they’ve had in weeks I guess. We waited till they tried to pull up the vehicles so we could load them up. And yes we needed all 3 vehicles! I had 7 suitcases/Tupperware bins, 3 car seats, 1 pack ‘n play, 1 stroller, diaper bag, laptop bag, backpack, rachel’s carry on, and of course the 3 kiddos : ) We fit everything in, and then divided up and took off for where we were staying. The kids of course wanted to ride with their dad, so I rode with Ida (the office administrator).

I was so tired so i don’t remember much of the trip, but Ida was very nice pointing everything out, and giving me tips on where I should buy fruits/clothing/furniture. It took us about 1 hour or so to get to where we were staying.

My first impressions of Kampala were very different then i thought they would be. Yes, everything is very green, and it is very hilly. But things seem much more spread out then I was thinking. The city is in one area, and then the rest is much more residential. Very different from Sri Lanka. Although this is nice, it’s also hard for me now, b/c I feel much more trapped where we are staying. I’ll write more later about where we are staying, but wanted to let you know that we are here, and so far so good!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

And We're Off

Our flight leaves tonight! Can you believe it? I know I can't! Where did the time go?

We've been out of our town home since Monday, staying with my sister & brother-in-law. We are almost completely packed.

We've started saying our goodbyes, which is always really surreal for me. But as we get closer to when we are actually leaving the harder it gets! Our flight leaves at 10 tonight...hopefully the kids will sleep the whole flight (i know wishful thinking). We will arrive in London Monday morning, then Jesse has about a 6 hour lay-over, and then he is on to Uganda. The kids and I are getting to stay with my parents up in Carlisle, England for 10 days before we head on down to Uganda.

I'll update more once we are in England, but just wanted to write once more before leaving. Thank you for all your prayers, we really appreciate them!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Day 6 - November 29th (Thursday)

Okay, I know, I know, we've been home now for 6 weeks, and I'm still writing about our trip. I just need to finish for myself, and then I'll move on...I promise. :) (& I promise Tracie, I'll have more of an update of how it's been since we've been home)

Today was our last day in Ethiopia. I couldn't believe it. The first few days, were really hard emotionally, but now I felt better, and i wanted to see more. Half of us wanted to get out a bit and see more of Addis. Almaz arranged a driver for us, and he took us to "lookout mountain". The drive out there was great. I felt like we really got to see more of Addis. Jesse got some great pictures! On our way up there we saw these women carrying these HUGE loads of branches...here's a picture.


It reminded Jesse & I of the tea pickers in Sri Lanka. These tiny women carrying all this weight! I probably couldn't even lift it, let alone carry it down a huge mountain!
The view of course was spectacular!


& of course we had to get a group shot in. (although we were short 2 families) :(


After we caught our breath from being up 10,000 feet, we went to the National Museum.




The main reason we all wanted to come here was so we could all see Lucy. Lucy is said to be about 3 million years old. The museum itself, was interesting, Jesse made the comment that it was like walking around in someone's basement. But very cool that we got to see it.


& of course, since we were all getting ready to leave, we had to start taking more group shots...but unfortunately we never did get one with all of us!





Our flight was that evening along with Steve, Heather, & Ben's. Terribly though Heather got really sick at the airport, so they decided to wait a day to travel. So we were all alone. The flight went really well. Since it was a night flight Abinet slept almost the whole first leg of the flight. We also lucked out, because we asked for the 2 aisle seats in the middle section, and just hoped that no one would book the middle seat...and no one did, so we had a row to ourselves, which really helped so Abinet could lay down.

Our flight was late getting in, and after waiting forever on Homeland security, we finally got through! My family was there as well as our good friend Neil. Rachel came running up. She looked huge! (this is when I started crying too) :) It was just such a great feeling to all be together again.

Well there you have it...our trip. We can't wait to go back!

Monday, December 31, 2007

Day 5 - November 28th (Wednesday)


Today we got to get out just a little bit. Almaz took us so we could pick up some great Ethiopian Coffee. Now I'm not a coffee drinker, but of what I've been told Ethiopia has the best coffee in the world. When others would order it at breakfast, it would pour out like black tar....it was that thick. It didn't look very appetizing to me, but everyone else said that it was amazing. So of course we had to pick some up for some of our family & friends.


We all ordered A LOT!


While we were there a huge group of kids that were just getting out of school came walking by. Of course they were all interested in getting their pictures taken. Their smiles are priceless!



This evening we got to go to a traditional Ethiopian dinner. There was also dancing. Abinet fell asleep during the dinner, but he loved the dancers! He just bobbed his head along. Jesse & I really enjoyed the food. The injera alone can be a lot, but if you smother it enough with other stuff it's not too bad.





& what's dinner without trying some of the local drink? Jesse & Brandon ordered some, they said it was fermented honey....yummm?!


Each day Abinet is coming more and more out of his shell. He's getting more active, and responding to us a little more. I'm still exhausted, but our trip is going great!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Day 3 - November 26, Monday

Today was another emotional day. On the schedule for the day was to go visit the government run orphanage, Enat Alem, and then go to the U.S. embassy for our interview. I had to go to Hannah's Hope in the morning so I could fill out all our paperwork before we went to the embassy. Jesse stayed at the hotel with Abinet so he could nap. After we were all done filling out the paper work I went back to the hotel, so we could quickly eat before we had to leave. While we are sitting at lunch Kim (one of the women we were travelling with) comes in & tells us that we are going to be meeting with Abinet's birthmom at Enat Alem --where we were going in about 30 minutes! Originally we were going to meet with her on Tuesday, and so it definitely threw me for a loop when I realized we would be meeting her in less than an hour. So Jesse & I tried to write down all the questions we had, so we wouldn't forget when we were with her.

Once we got to Enat Alem we all piled out of the van, and there were kids everywhere. They all wanted their picture taken, and then to look at them. (thank God for digital cameras!) As you can see they are beautiful, and we loved seeing their smiles! But they need families! ***this is where you all get the feeling that you need to adopt from Ethiopia!*** :)








I think that most if not all of the children that come to Hannah's Hope come from this orphanage. Abinet was here, we think for about 3 weeks. Going into the babies rooms was hard. There were about 3 to 4 babies to a crib, and they were so lifeless. Some were so little...all looked underfed.


Now I must say this isn't the worst orphanage I have ever seen. It was actually pretty clean, and there were workers in each of the rooms. But it's still hard to see that there are so many children that need families.

We had only been there about 15 minutes when Almaz quickly escorted us to an office. We walked in & there was a young woman standing there. Abinet looked right at her & even reached a little for her. It was very sweet. We could see that he had her eyes. She had such a kind face, and we could tell how much love she had for her son. I'm not going to give any more details, because I believe those are for Abinet. But I will say that the meeting was way too short! We were a little rushed, b/c we had to make sure we made it to our appointments at the embassy. & even though I wrote questions down, I didn't ask half of them. We did tape it, we haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I hope it turned out. And thanks to our friend Suzy, who let us borrow her Polaroid camera, and so we were able to take pictures of her & Abinet and give them to her right away. Needless to say this was a very emotional meeting, but I am so grateful and honored that we were able to meet her.

We were then rushed off to the U.S. embassy. After going through lots of security. We waited. Then one by one were called up to this window, and asked about 4 questions....and that's it. Very easy. Well at least for most of us. Unfortunately one guy in our group got very sick the night before, and so was not having a very good day, but he was a trooper, but not fun being sick & having to wait around all day.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just resting a bit. That evening, we went with Brandon, Traci, Almaz & Danny to this great Italian restaurant, Makush. It had art work up all over, very beautiful paintings. It was definitely a place for expats. Almost everyone in there was white. So even though it wasn't much of a cultural experience it was fun to get out of the hotel for a while. & just in case you get to got there, I had the tortellini with cream sauce & ham...it was very good! :)

Monday, December 10, 2007

Day 2 - November 25 (Sunday)

Today we got up early..thanks to the chanting coming from the Christian Orthodox church (it started at 4am and went till 9am!). Don't worry if your travelling though it's only this bad on Sundays...the rest of the week you only have to deal with the rooster who's crows every 15 minutes starting at 5am! :)

So we headed over to Hannah's Hope to spend some time with Abinet. Almaz had told some of the caregivers we were worried, & so they all came over that morning and surrounded him, trying to get him to laugh or smile. Well as you can imagine, he just looked at them wondering what the he** they were doing. :) So that didn't help. Almaz took me into her office & just talked with me. I can not tell you enough how amazing Almaz is! I'll do a separate post on her later...b/c she has to have one of her own! but just know she is incredible! I felt 100% better after talking with her. She was so understanding, and explained a little more about how there is a real spiritual warfare going on during this time. She sees it all the time. Satan is not happy about adoption, and is looking for any way he can to take the joy of it away. I hadn't thought of this before, but of course like everything else she says it completely made sense.

So after talking with her, we all felt like we needed some time worshipping God, and so we piled into the van to go to church. Oh yeah, and two other couples came this morning. Stan & Stacey, were adopting a beautiful 5 year old little girl, & Colin & Kim were adopting a 2 1/2 yr old & a 9 month old. It was so fun to witness the reunions of these families. We all left our kids at Hannah's Hope for church, except Stan & Stacey they brought their daughter with us. Church was wonderful. I think we were all emotionally worked up that it was nice to just come back and rest in Our Father's arms. & it was so sweet to see Stan & Stacey and their new little daughter just loving on one another. It brought tears to my eyes.

After church we went to a Starbucks knock off. The signs were even the same. After waiting about 2 hours for our food, we got to try their juices. Jesse got the mixed fruit. It was guava, papaya, & guacamole....yes guacamole. It was thick & warm. sounds yummy, huh! ;) TRAVEL TIP: the orange juice is really good!


After our 3 hour lunch we went back to Hannah's Hope. Abinet was in the babies room in a bouncer chair. I went over to him and as soon as he saw me he smiled and started kicking his legs in excitement. When I reached down for him, he reached for me. Needless to say my heart melted. This was the turning point. We played with him the rest of the afternoon & I got to give him a bath. The water was so hot! but he didn't' seem to mind. We had the option to either take him back with us to the hotel or wait until the next day, but we went ahead and decided to bring him with us tonight. He did great only waking up twice to eat & then right back to sleep. He continued to open up to us...still shyly, but completely different from the day before.


It's amazing how different you can feel in 24 hours. the night before my stomach was in such knots, and then tonight, I was watching him sleep peacefully next to me. Again I am so thankful for the wisdom of Alamz & my travel buddies.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Day 1 - November 24th (Saturday)

We left Friday morning for the airport at 7:15am....luckily we live just 5 minutes from the airport, so we didn't have to wake up too early. When we got there we met a couple we were traveling with, Brandon & Traci. We hit it off right away. This is the family that I had been following their story through their blog, & was disappointed b/c they hadn't made it through court at first...but then at the last minute they got through so we were able to travel together! I was very excited about meeting everyone...& it was so great to start our trip knowing that we were going to make some great friends through this experience. Our flight ended up leaving about 1/2 hour late...not too bad. It was a direct flight, just a refueling stop in Rome. We arrived in Addis at 8:30am on Saturday.

Starting the journey!

While we were in the airport we met one other couple, Heather & Steve. They are so fun! We gathered our bags, and saw AGCI's drivers waiting to pick us up! Walking out of the airport was surreal. It was beautiful. Blue sky, bright sun, perfect temperature. They strapped all our bags on the top of the van, and off we went.


Driving through Addis, reminded us a lot of other countries we had been too, especially Kenya...but it still had it's own personality. The driving for us wasn't too bad...nothing like India! I was very grateful that I didn't have to deal with the whole culture shock thing...the week completely spent me, and I can't imagine how I would've been if I had never been out of the country before.

We were dropped off at the Union Hotel, took showers, & ate some lunch. Travel Tip: For those of you travelling with AGCI...stay at the Union! It's clean...yes, the beds are hard as a rock, but it's so worth being close to Hannah's Hope. It was so convenient for Almaz & for us to just be able to walk up there whenever. There was one family who opted to stay at the Hilton..and I feel like we didn't get to know them at all, which is too bad.



Almaz (the in-country director), met us after lunch and walked with us to Hannah's Hope. Walking through the "All God's Children" gates, was unreal. I couldn't believe that in a few short moments I was going to be able to hold my son...my son, in my arms! UNREAL!



At this time there are just the 3 of us families. Almaz brings us into her office, and then leaves to go get Abinet. A couple minutes later she brings him in to us. I thought I would ball uncontrollably. For those of you who know me, you know i cry at everything! but for whatever reason, I didn't cry.



Again, I think it didn't sink in quite yet for me. We spent the afternoon just holding Abinet. He was really quiet. He just sat and looked at us. We went into the baby room, to play a little, and when we were in there I started getting nervous. All the other babies were smiling at me or giving me something...and yet Abinet was giving us nothing, just blank stares. It was about this time that they took him so he could get a nap, and Almaz told us all to go back to the hotel, rest, and come back the next day. She thought it would be best to give the kids another day to get to know us before we took them back to the hotel, & give us a good nights sleep. Very wise advice!

So we all went back to the hotel. Jesse & I started talking...& we started getting worried. It just seemed to us that something wasn't right. Jesse went back to talk with Almaz. She talked with him, & me the next morning, and just explained that Abinet is at a weird age. He's not old enough to scream or cry that we are strangers, and he's also not young enough to not know that we're strangers. So this was his way of dealing with it. Needless to say that night was rough. I tell you all this, b/c I think I had these expectations in my mind of what it was going to be like, and it didn't really happen. I also have read a ton on bonding/attachment, adoption, etc. & most of the things I have read are for older infants or children, so I was never expecting that a baby would react this way. Of course once Almaz told us this, it completely made sense...of course he wouldn't be "acting" normal. I'm not saying that all babies around this age will do this, but just so if it does, know that it is fine, and it will get better. I feel foolish that I even worried, but it's where we were at the time. I also have to give a big thanks for our travel buddies! They were so great when I burst into tears at breakfast--they now know i'm crazy, but they loved on me anyway! I don't know how I would've gotten through the week without them! So there's day one for you...day two coming soon! :)