Getting to Ethiopia...Trip #2...Day 1

It's been almost two weeks since we picked up our son, Biruk.  Even as I write those words, it feels surreal. I have waited to blog about our trip, partially because we have had major jet lag since being home, but mainly because I feel like there is so much that I want to express, paint a picture of, capture, and put into the perfect words, that it is overwhelming.  God's goodness is overwhelming.  God's faithfulness is overwhelming.  God's grace is overwhelming.  And often words don't do that justice.  So I will start from the beginning and hope that in the end of writing about our 10 day journey, the world will not only fall in love with a little boy named Biruk, who is now our son, but will fall in love with the God we serve, who has remained forever faithful and who continues to write an unbelievable story for our life.

I believe my last blog post was us leaving our vacation with our family in New Jersey and heading home for the night to pick up some last minute things we would need for our trip and catch a few hours of sleep.  After a four hour drive, we pulled up to our house at about 2am and were greeted by our Ethiopian neighbors who had some things that they wanted us to bring to their family in Ethiopia, as well as a gift for Biruk.  The gift was several of the cutest Ethiopian traditional outfits!  They gave us hugs, wished us well, and we headed into our house to "re-pack" the final things we would need for our trip.  After about 3 hours of sleep, we were in the car, heading to Dulles Airport for a 13+ hour flight to Ethiopia.

Nate and I were a mixed bag of emotions.  We were excited, we were nervous, we were anxious (in a good way), we were still in shock that after a 3 year wait we were actually going to pick up a child that we would call our own forever, we were exhausted, we were elated, and we were expectant of all of the things that God was going to teach us and show us on this next leg of our journey.  Of course our journey to the airport wouldn't be complete without one of us having to use the restroom in a panic sort of way (God did not gift us with big bladders!).  No sooner did we arrive at Dulles, we had to park, race to a restroom (which was seriously like 3 miles away from the parking garage, use the restroom, walk the 3 miles back (ok...so it wasn't 3 miles, but it was crazy far away), load up our 4 "very filled" suitcases and our two over-sized backpacks onto a cart, and pushed both that and an empty stroller to the ticket counter.

Can I just say that when you push an empty stroller, EVERYONE, wants to know why there isn't a baby in there!  We kept telling people we were on our way to get him and after the 5th person asked, realized we still had the instructions for the stroller in the bottom of the stroller.  We probably had "new parents" written all over us.  We eventually got to our gate, got on the plane, and arrived in Ethiopia 13+ hours later.

To be honest, it was really nice having been there once already.  We knew the ropes.  We knew what driver and what guide we were looking for this time (and honestly, when we got reunited with them, it was like being with old friends again), and we knew where the guest house was, so there were no unknowns on the front end.  All of the unknowns would come the day we would drive to pick up our son.  It was early in the morning when we arrived at the guesthouse and we were immediately reunited with friends we had met on the first trip.  That was awesome!  We had a chance to spend some time with them, see their newly adopted son, and immediately felt like we were right at home.  It also gave us a glimpse of what was to come when we would soon be reunited with our son.  I could tell already in those moments...the next 10 days of our life would be some of the greatest yet.