Flight home

On Friday night at 10:15 p.m. we left Ethiopia on a 17 hour adventure to Washington DC airport.  Crew did well with not crying uncontrollably until the last 1/2 hour of the flight.  Although he slept much less than I expected.  He fell asleep as soon as the plane took off and slept for about 6 hours waking up once for a feeding.  After this six hours he barely slept so it was me constantly entertaining him, keeping him from grabbing my food or drink, and sleeping short 1/2 hour naps when he did.  Crew still does not prefer Justin so handing him over to him would just make him cry more.  He did enjoy some short time playing with toys on the seat in between us (we bought Crew a seat to help my sanity).  Crew did sleep on his seat for those six hours he slept but he is so mobile that he kept trying to roll off.  So the only way I slept for three hours was laying on the seat next to him trying not to fall off the seat.  Again we found that Ethiopians do not like children crying so a women next to me was giving me parenting advice on how to calming Crew down and held him for a short while when he screamed.  To me he was just tired and probably did not like looking at the same scenery for that long.  There were several other families bringing home their children around us so we all bonded together and tried to enjoy the ride as much as possible.  I could not have been more excited when we finally landed in DC and made it past the immigration officer without any problem.  Crew was officially a US citizen once we landed on US sole.  It was such a great feeling.  We landed in DC at 8:30 a.m.  (local time our time it was about 3:00 p.m.).  We then flew into Ohare Airport at 1:30 p.m. and drove home to arrive in Bloomington at 4:30 p.m.  On the way home Crew finally slept which we were grateful since it was his first time in a car seat and we weren't sure how he would react.  I looked at him and just could not believe it had finally happened.  I had been praying and thinking about Crew for about ten years now and I could not believe he was finally here.  I was thinking about all the great things he will get to experience here in the US but the most important that he will be brought up in a Christian home where he will hopefully know Jesus as his personal savior at a young age.  I can't wait to see what God has his store for our little man.  I was also reminded what a guide told us about our Ethiopian heritage.  He said that we (meaning Justin and my self) are also Ethiopian in culture because of having Crew in our lives.  This made me really think about how this is true.  Crew will not only be Ethiopian or American.  He is Ethiopian American so we will have to do our part for him to know what that means and that it is important to us as well.  We look forward to the adventure that lies ahead of us as we parenting three children and adjust to having a 9 month old in our house that is not familiar with, his surroundings, or the English language.