Ethiopia November 2012 Day 1

I've never documented my trips to Ethiopia day by day, but this trip I want to do that so that one day Caleb will be able to look back on the trip he took with us to bring his baby brother home.

Tuesday November 6th

So, day one started with an early wake up call-3:30 am-so we could get to the airport for our red eye to New York. Caleb slept in his travel clothes so we woke him up at the last minute. Nick and I had spent an exhausting evening packing, re-packing, weighing luggage….I had 2 weeks notice to travel and still we were up the night before finalizing all the details. It is a massive undertaking for both of us to leave the country and leave most of our children at home. This trip was even more complicated by the fact that we were bringing Caleb, picking up a baby and joining a mission team. We've also made some good friends in Ethiopia, so we had some special items to deliver to them as well.

Well, some how we made it to the airport with everything we needed (and as it turns out, Nick was right and I did indeed WAY over pack for the baby : ). Caleb got to experience what it’s like to be an only child again—he ate a cinnamon twist donut for breakfast while we waited for our flight—he couldn't believe his good luck. An uneventful flight to New York followed and for the first time, as is true with all my trips, I was finally able to exhale—everything that could be done was done and now it would only be a matter of 23 hours before we would land again in a foreign place that has now become so familiar.

In New York waiting to fly to Dubai.

Caleb did amazingly well on the flights.  He enjoyed the hours of endless movies and video games, in flight snacks and backpack full of reading and even managed to sleep a solid 7 hour stretch on our flight to Dubai—impressive since we were seated behind the two noisiest kids (seriously cried, banged, screamed and squealed the ENTIRE 12 hours) I've ever encountered on a trans-Atlantic flight (fun times).

Tomorrow, we land in Dubai and make our way to Addis!