A year ago today…

We were STILL on the plane. If you’ve never tried to sit in the same seat for 15 hours (or more) at a time, I really don’t recommend it unless it is an absolute must! I had broken my tailbone ice skating with my girls just a few weeks earlier, so needless to say I was doing lots of “shifting” in my seat.

I am usually a huge reader…I devour books and cherish quiet time to read. I had been looking forward to the long flight and being able to get lots of reading done, but despite being in the middle of an awesome book (the Sign and the Seal…about Ethiopia’s claim to have the Arc of the Covenant…really, really good) my brain just couldn’t focus. I think it was an evil combination of lack of sleep and too much nerves and excitement, but I just couldn’t get my head to concentrate on reading.

I watched a few movies, watched Smallville with Josh until the battery died on our portable DVD player, ate the mediocre (at best) plane food and some snacks we had packed, and checked my watch WAY too often. You know the saying that a “watched pot never boils?” It applies to clocks and the passing of time too!

About 9 hours in to our trip we landed in Rome so they could refuel, clean the plane (they missed the bathrooms) and change crew…it was torture to know that we were on the ground but couldn’t get up and walk around, but they opened the doors and we got some much needed fresh air. It was pretty cool though…we were there during the Olympics…not many people I know can say that they were in Italy during the 2006 Winter Olympics! Josh even got a collector Olympic Coke can (in Italian) on the flight that he managed to save and bring home in one piece.

We were back in the air within an hour, and the closer we got to Addis, the more excited I got. At some point I washed my face, changed my clothes and freshened up the best I could in a 2x2 bathroom. The flight was pretty uneventful for us and Josh was very well behaved. :)

When we were finally getting close to landing, it was so exciting. I remember looking down at the landscape out the plane window and thinking, “AFRICA!”

Continued...