Ethiopian Adventure Part 1

After flying to Ethiopia, it seems like it's on the other side of the world. That's because it is! We planned a long layover in Frankfurt so we could check into the hotel (which is at the airport) for a nap and shower. That was heavenly! We were lucky enough to have time to include a layover on the way back as well. Here are a few pics from Frankfurt.

We were directed to check in for the Ethiopian Air flight 3 hours early at the Frankfurt airport. We thought that was a bit excessive until we saw the line! If the line looks like it extends to the horizon, that's because it does. The legroom was a bit disappointing for me but Alicia had no problem. Fortunately, the flight was "only" 6 hours. We met Mebratu a couple of hours after landing in Ethiopia. We were quite exhausted when we finally got to our hotel room later that day. The room had its own bath and shared a small kitchenette and sitting room with another bedroom.

Mebratu has been at the America World Transition Home. The home has a medical doctor, a child psychologist, and a lot of loving nannies.....and also endless laundry! And oh by the way, they do all of it by hand! I've included just a couple of pictures from our driving around Addis Ababa. The city is like all big cities except there are no driving rules, no car exhaust controls, and plenty of goats and donkeys.

We Made It!!!!!!!!

We're finally here! The flights were on time and went well. We flew from San Diego to Chicago to Frankfurt for a layover (long enough to check into the Sheraton at the Frankfurt Airport) and then to Addis Ababa. For anyone traveling from west of the Mississippi, we definitely recommend incorporating a layover in your itinerary. It helps with the jet lag. Ethiopia is 10 hours ahead of the west coast and 7 hours ahead of the east coast.

The trip started at 4:08am. That's when we showed up at the San Diego airport. We made a mental note for next time that the ticket counter folks don't even show up to work until 4:30am! Here's Alicia enjoying the early morning. We packed 3 suitcases with about 1.5 of them being donations for the Transition Homes.

After a brief layover in Chicago, we headed to Frankfurt. We lucked out to have two seats on the side by ourselves, and we flew United and had Economy Plus with extra legroom. We arrived at Frankfurt at 5:45am. The airport was deserted which allowed us to get through customs and passport check in less than 30 minutes!

The hotel room at the Sheraton was great, but to be honest, the fact it had a bed was what we really cared about! We took the train to downtown and surrendered to fatigue after a couple of hours. Luckily, we set the alarm because we may have slept through the flight!

Internet connectivity is limited here so our next post will be about our Frankfurt adventure and the our first day in Ethiopia.

We Are Going to Ethiopia!!!!!

We got the call four days ago that our Court Date is July 26th. We leave in five days!!!! I was out at sea on my ship when Alicia got the call from AWAA, and she had arranged the flights and hotel stops before I had gotten home. We will fly from here to Frankfurt for a brief layover and then fly into Addis Ababa. We'll layover in Frankfurt on the way home as well. We like Frankfurt because there is a hotel in the airport so we don't have to go through security (we hope) - super convenient! Even though we haven't flown through Frankfurt before, we are trying this because we don't want to fly straight through (35 hours each way), especially when we bring back our son. Alicia has a tough time sleeping while sitting in a chair while I usually fall asleep before take-off.

Speaking of bringing our son home, we won't travel back to get him until the U.S. Embassy completes their investigation. That's the final verification of all the T's crossed and I's dotted. We've been told to expect to bring him home anytime from 4 to 12 weeks after the Court Date.

We expect to take a zillion pictures and videos during our 7 day trip. We've heard that e-mail connectivity over there is okay but no phones (unless you pay a fortune for an international cell phone) and limited internet connectivity. We hope to keep friends updated through Alicia's Facebook page. We've heard we'll have better luck with that than trying to post to this website.

I assume command of the USS CURTS (FFG 38) tomorrow morning (July 17th) so this is truly an exciting week!

All of the Paperwork is In!!!

The court finally got the birth certificate and we should have our Court Date soon! We have been told to expect a Court Date sometime during the last week of July or the first week of August. Based on families who have recently received their Court Dates, we expect to be notified only a week ahead of time. Everything in country is arranged by our adoption agency; we just need to get ourselves there! Because of the short notice and this is a peak travel time for Europe and Ethiopia, the plane tickets aren't exactly cheap.

We will land in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia's capital) and remain there for our entire stay - about 6-7 days. Our adoption agency has a contract with a small hotel (www.yebsabi.com) and we'll have a driver to take us anywhere we need - for both he Court Date and to see some tourist sites. We have followed numerous families who have traveled, some as recently as a couple of weeks ago, and our adoption agency has everything required in-country down to a science. We have no doubt we'll be well taken care of.

We have managed to send our son three care packages with families who have traveled in the past month either for their Court Date or to bring their child home. The pictures (to include two short videos!) we've gotten from them are priceless, and we are super-anxious to share some of them with everyone. Evidently, he's quite the ham!