Travel Day #1

After a tearful good bye to our children (my tears no one else’s), we are off on our adventure.  We made it to Indy by 10:00 Eastern Time on Monday.  We praise God for the good weather conditions in that we did not encounter the ice that the weather predicted.  We got a nice restful 3 hours sleep before we got up at 2:45 a.m. to start our day today (Tuesday).  We made it to the airport and through security by 5:00 a.m. to get to our flight that was supposed to leave Indy at 6: 00 a.m.  We left Indy around 7:30 because of icy conditions in DC and a late pilot.  We arrived in DC at 8:30 which gave us plenty of time to catch our 11:00 flight.  We have been in the air about seven hours at this point.  Justin and I are lucky enough to not have to share our three seat area with another person so we can stretch out a little bit.  We have slept some and watched some movies.  We were amazed to see the sun set at 3:00 p.m. (Eastern time) with the changing of time zones.  We are getting increasing excited to meet Crew.  We are down to about ten hours we think until we get to meet him.  How we have longed for this day and how it feels so surreal that it is actually almost here.  I told Parker before I left that I was sad that I was leaving him and that I was going to miss him trying to prepare him for the fact that I was going to cry before I left.  Parker said “I’m not sad at all.  I want to meet my brother.”  It gave me such great comfort to know that he truly understood the outcome of our trip and he could rejoice with us to meet Crew. 

Justin and I in the DC airport.  We had no idea what a 12 hour flight meant. 

A quick Note about Grandpa Michels:

Justin’s grandfather (Chester Michels) passed away on last Friday.  We are saddened that we are missing his funeral service today.  I thought we could post a few memories of Grandpa Michels in his honor since we cannot celebrate his life with our family.  I am newer to the Michels family (almost 10 years now) but Grandpa treated me as if I had always been in the family.  He even bought me Christmas presents before Justin and I were married.  I have one particularly fond memory of Grandpa and Parker playing together.  Parker was about 18 months old and loved Grandpa’s walker.  They had a game going in which Parker pushed the walker towards Grandpa and he would make noises and faces at Parker.  It was very cute.  I know Justin has memories of Grandpa loving ice cream and always offering them pints of ice cream when they came to visit him.    Most of all we remember that Grandpa was a God honoring man who raised Justin’s Dad (Steve) up to be a Godly man as well.  We appreciate the morals and values he installed in Steve as a child that he followed as an adult as well.  We know that you helped make Steve the man he is and in turn shaped the man Justin is as well.  I know that as his wife I truly appreciate and love that.  Thank you Grandpa. You will be missed.

Day #2-

We arrived in Addis Ababa this morning at 8:30 a.m. (local time) actually 11:30 p.m. our time.  The 12 hour flight was not as bad as I was anticipating but Justin and I probably only slept a few hours.  We thankfully flew through the lines to get our VISA, exchange money, and go through customs.  We were picked up by a local driver that our agency uses and taken to our hotel.  There was one other couple from our agency on our flight with us so we did it together.  We received our itinerary for the day and left for lunch at 11:30 a.m. (about six couples).  We ate at an Italian Restaurant for lunch.  Justin and I both had pizza which was different from home pizza (no sauce) but still delicious.  Then we drove over to the Transition Home to finally meet Crew.  They had us line up by last name (which we were last).  I started to cry for other people watching them be united with their children.  It was finally our turn.  It was amazing to see Crew and actually get to hold him in my arms (our arms but I of course hogged him).  He did not cry immediately but started to cry about 30 seconds to one minute after they gave him to me.  He cried for about ten minutes to begin with and then settled down to only cry intermittently throughout our time together.  I know Crew was just getting used to us today and we expected the crying.  I know in my heart that the crying really meant “Mom/Dad I really missed you and am so glad to see you guys today.”  He was interested in the toys we brought and smiled when we tickled him.  I also got to give him a bottle (which he could have raced Parker for fastest bottle drinker) and he took a little nap.  Actually Justin and I took that opportunity to take a quick cat nap as well.  We got to take Crew back to his room and meet some of his nannies.  They were all really nice and we could tell that both Crew loved them and they loved him.  It was a nice feeling.  Now we are back at our hotel and exhausted. We are looking forward to a full night sleep (not on an airplane or getting up early).  Hopefully the loud barking dogs and praying Muslims will cooperate with that plan.      

 Justin and I waiting in front of the Transition Home for the nannies to bring out Crew.  I was fighting back the tears.  I would love to post more pictures of today but the rest of of  Crew and we cannot do that until we pass court.