We woke up on the last morning of our trip and took the kids to the pool for the first time in their lives. They were scared to death at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea and were kicking and splashing quite a bit. We had a wonderful time. It is such a joy to experience so many things through the eyes of kids who haven't had many great experiences... you appreciate things like never before.
Bella and Bode's passports AND visas were delivered by our agency's staff on Friday morning -- you can see the picture with Brant. Oh my goodness. GOD DID IT, and we are STILL so thankful. Goodness.
We hired a driver after we checked out of our hotel and shopped some more... we missed out on a couple of days of sightseeing/shopping due to Bella's visa problems, so we tried to make up for some lost time. Our driver was SO informative and helpful -- really learned a lot from him. Found a FABULOUS art gallery full of paintings by Ethiopian artists -- all trained at the Fine Arts College there. So inspiring. We are excited to share some of our treasures from there with you.
We headed back to the hotel to gather our bags and headed for the Addis Ababa airport around 6:30 PM -- our flight didn't take off until 11:30 PM -- crazy. It was a long night in the airport. Bella did great, but Bode certainly had ENOUGH of the whole thing... smile. He was zonked out before we ever got on the plane.
It was the longest flight of my life -- I had struggled with a hot fever the night before for about 12 hours, then got some respiratory thing on the last day there due to the horrendous pollution in Addis -- goodness, I don't know how those people survive the toxic fumes. My lungs hurt for 4 days before we left. Anyway, I was blowing my nose all the way to DC -- for 18 hours!!! Thankfully had some children's Sudafed that ended up saving my eardrums! Smile. I was guzzling the stuff! All that to say, the children did BEAUTIFULLY -- they were amazing and slept for hours and hours. It was fun watching them enjoy all the fun things my mother had packed for them in their new travel backpacks during their waking hours.
When we hit the ground in DC, the plane erupted in applause, and my mom and I got really choked up. We were FINALLY in the USA... and thrilled out of our minds!!!! Enjoy the pictures. Karen
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