Continued from previous posts...

We landed and deboarded, and it felt SO good to be using my legs again. We followed the crowds to the immigration area and found the line for foreigners with visas already in hand. I also noticed the bank teller window, and sent Josh and Dan to get some Birr. On line we befriended a Dad that was traveling alone to get his daughter through the same program we were getting our son. There was also a couple and their five year old daughter traveling with us. We loved them right away and were super impressed with how well their daughter did on the trip over. It was fun to have friends!

We made it through uneventfully and went over to wait for our luggage. I was really, really worried that our luggage would not make it, but it all did, and didn’t even look too worse for the wear. We went through one more security check, and I was amazed at the huge wall of people that were just beyond that spot…there was a metal fence of sorts, and then just crowds and crowds of people. It was a little intimidating to look into the crowd, but sure enough, right up front was T., the representative from our agency, with a big sign and an even bigger smile.

The Dad we befriended had friends living in Addis that were picking him up, so we crowded into the van with all of our luggage and all of that of the other family and headed on our way to our hotels. The poverty was obvious from our first few steps out of the airport…young boys, adults and a mother with a baby, all begging for money, sympathy, help of any kind. It would have been overwhelming in the best of situations, but at the end of almost 40 hours of travel and all of the emotions of being in Africa for the first time and being just hours away from meeting our new son, it was really, really tough.

I was unspeakably glad that we had someone to guide us through everything, and that we didn’t have to get through the crowds, find a cab and handle the beggars on our own.

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