In the flurry of travel arrangements, there was a point where I stopped and thought "This is CRAZY! The lengths we are going to for one child half way across the world? Seriously?". God stopped that thought IN ITS TRACKS and quietly reminded me "Look what I did for YOU." Ouch. Ok. That thought got put on replay in my mind and I recognized my fears for what they were - lies of Satan, attempting to derail me.
It was around this time that I also realized I was "one of those people" that I didn't think I could ever be - but had discovered that people who adopt are not perfect, don't have it all figured out and certainly don't have it all together. We are not strong. We are not brave. Not in the least. We are NOT "saints," as people will try and say. We are not "rescuers." We are simply people who are surrendered to God's will. We are people who are terribly ill-equipped, in and of ourselves, and desperately dependent on God and HIS strength and enabling. We are willing hands and feet, but even then, they are only willing hands and feet because HE has enabled them to be. HE equips us, every moment of every day on this journey. IT'S ALL HIM. Seriously.
As our travel date approached, my fears grew. So much so that one of my chronic conditions flared up (stress is a trigger). I am not an international traveler. I have no desire to be. I happen to like my climate-controlled home, my own bed, my clean water, access to whatever food I might feel like, Target, WalMart, nice hotels, Starbucks, etc. etc. :) I was being yanked so far out of my comfort zone I could not fathom how I was going to get through this. The packing and lists and what-ifs were overwhelming. Do you know how much STUFF you have to bring when you go to a 3rd world country? You have to try and anticipate any and every thing that could happen and make sure you have the ecessary drugs/forms/equipment. It was mind-blowing. One thing that helped me maintain my sanity was that all four of us were going together. Thank you, God!
So the day came. June 15th came, and we piled into the car and headed to Denver. Stayed overnight there, as our flight left from there at 1:00 on the 16th. Spent the morning of the 16th weighing and re-weighing and repacking and re-weighing our suitcases. Finally decided a new suitcase was necessary to avoid risk of fines and went to Target to get one. While in Target, my sweet sister called to say goodbye and that flipped a switch in me. I was in tears when hanging up with her, and cried my way through Target. Jack and Noah were bewildered. :)
Our flight to Washington DC was uneventful, thankfully - this was the first flight I had taken with tubes in my ears and I was scared. But Jesus held my hand, gave me peace, and it went perfectly. We arrived late at night and headed to the beautiful hotel Ethiopian Airlines put us up in (even gave us 2 rooms because there were 4 of us!). The next morning - the 17th - we boarded our 13 hour flight to Ethiopia. We were pleasantly surprised with Ethiopian Airlines - nice plane, more legroom, and they fed us CONSTANTLY. None of us slept much - in fact, I don't think the boys slept at all. We landed in Ethiopia at 6:30 in the morning, and upon entering the "terminal," we were all overcome with culture shock. The terminal was basically 1 room, with not enough chairs for everyone, and a couple "shops" (I use the term very loosely) and a restaurant. It was smoky, hot and smelly. We used the facilities (Jack was mortified because there were women mopping in the men's room), did a couple laps around the room and finally secured some chairs. We then escaped into our electronics and tried to ignore our surroundings. And have I mentioned we stuck out like sore thumbs?? Oh my word. This would be just the start of feeling very noticeable and out of place - - an experience that will ultimately be valuable, I'm sure, as we raise our African daughter in western SD.
Our last flight into Uganda couldn't have left soon enough. And THIS was when the boys finally fell asleep. HARD. Their long 12 year old bodies curled up in the most awkward, painful looking positions in their seats . . but they were out COLD. And because Ethiopian is so big on service, the sweet flight attendant was trying to pull down their trays on their backs/rear ends so she could leave their food. I politely declined their lunches, and she looked shocked.
We arrived in Uganda and got off the plane in the parking lot. Right outside the front door. Hilarious. Filled out all our visa paperwork and proceeded to stand in line for ONE HOUR to get our visas. Finally made it through immigration, got our luggage and found two people holding a sign with our names - such a comforting thing to have someone "know" you in such a foreign place. Picking us up were Stella, a social worker with our attorneys' firm, and Hamza, the man who would be our driver during our stay. They helped us schlep our luggage out across the gravel parking lot to his very small Toyota. We could instantly see we had a problem, with 6 people, 5 very large suitcases, and carry-ons. And it was raining. Hamza ended up strapping a couple of our suitcases to the roof (which we later learned you shouldn't do, because they are often stolen in traffic!). We all squished in and before we were 5 minutes down the road, Jack and Noah were sound asleep.
The journey to our hotel was one I won't forget. My eyes were seeing what my brain could not comprehend. Shacks, lean-tos, shelters made of tin and tarps everywhere. What few actual buildings we saw were mostly in complete disrepair. Dirt, filth and people everywhere. The best way to describe the smell was something similar to marijuana mixed with burning rubber. Initially I thought we were merely driving through a bad part of town, but after an hour's drive of the seeing same thing the whole way, I could see this was really life Kampala.
From here, I'll post the day-to-day updates that I emailed to our family while we were there. We didn't have the capability to call anyone, but were very thankful for the easy access we had to internet access!
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