Airport Fun

The Bole International Airport was almost empty when we arrived. We said our good-bye to our driver and made our way into the building. We were told to be at the airport by 6:30 pm for a flight leaving at 10:15 pm, yep 3 hours and 45 minutes early.

When we made it through all the check in points and found a seat to wait. We re-united with the others that were adopting from our agency and Jadon had his friends to play with while we waited.
Now in the Ethiopian airport you will go through an additional check as you enter the gate for your flight. Previous experience helped in this area, once you enter your gate you cannot leave and there are no restrooms inside the gate. Travelling with a pre-teen and a 4 year old it would not be good to be early in the gate. So we held off as long as possible and it was a good thing we did. Our flight was delayed 2 hours, so yes we were inside the gate for about 3 hours total. Fortunately no one had to go, if you know what I mean.


It was an absolute joy to watch Jadon and his friends as they had an absolute great time talking about the plane. One of his friends had flown from his orphanage to Addis Ababa and he was telling the other 2 all about it. It was hard to understand the exact words they were talking about but one thing I do know is they were discussing how the plane has toilets. It was so cute to see them get so excited about the plane and the bathrooms. As the time came to get on the plane the excitement grew and these children were ready to go to America.


Jadon's excitement was priceless to see his little face light up as we boarded the plane. His excitement was huge in helping him stay awake for an additional 2-3 hours after we took off. Basically he stayed awake until about 3-4AM ET time which was so good because he then slept for the next ten hours making the plane ride home so much easier than we had expected. It also helped him switch to our time zone easier too (9hours difference). Our total first flight home was about 16hours. We then had a few hours in Dc before we flew to Cincinnati and then HOME to Nashville. Jadon was amazed by the airplanes. He loved getting to sit next to the window both times on the short flights. He would constantly point at the window and say "America??" with the biggest smile.



Arriving in Nashville was the most exciting thing for us! We couldn't wait to see our friends and family waiting for our special homecoming moment. This was the moment we all had dreamed about for months. Even though we had had custody of Jadon for over a week, it was this moment that seemed to make it official. We had a huge crowd of people waiting for us to welcome Jadon to his new home with his forever family. We were also blessed by a sweet lady that worked at one of the restaurants who was from Ethiopia and could speak Amharic. She came out to meet Jadon and was able to talk with him in his native language. This was a huge comfort for Jadon after traveling for so long.

Jadon was a total rock star coming out of the airport! It was such a sweet ride home in our car headed to our home as a new family of four! Jadon was so excited about his new room and bed that first night at home!


As you can imagine, many joyful tears were flowing that night after tucking him in the his new bed and just standing there in amazement of the work God had done in our lives to bring us this precious boy we now call Son!

Christmas in Ethiopia!

We had prayed that we would have our son home by Christmas and we did, sorta. Cindy said for months, "I believe we will be together as a family by Christmas". I believed as well but Cindy's faith was much stronger than mine on this issue.

We thought for sure that we would be in Ethiopia the week of Christmas and we were, sorta. We were praying for an embassy date of December 23rd which meant we would be together as a family by Christmas in our eyes. After our first trip to Ethiopia we thought for sure we would be back in 4 short weeks. As the days turned to weeks with no word about a confirmed embassy date we were losing hope of being together by Christmas.

December 25th, we celebrated the birth of our Savior and praised the Lord for His love for us but our hearts were hurting as our family was not complete without our little guy being with us. We knew God was in control but we still missed our son. Our prayer to be together for Christmas wasn't answered........or so we thought!

We received our confirmed embassy date the week after Christmas, January 6th was the date. We were so excited to have a date, a date that meant we were going to get our son. God had something more in store for us as well. The flight dates put us leaving on January 1st and returning January 8th. That meant we would be united with our son on Jan. 3rd, it also meant we would be in Ethiopia at Christmas! Ethiopia celebrates Christmas on January 7th. Our prayer had been answered as we were together as a family by Christmas, just not the date we wanted. God's timing is perfect, His will is perfect, He knows what is best for us better than we do.

We had a wonderful time at a Christmas party at our agency's transition home. We ate together, the children sang Christmas carols in Amharic, we got to hear a Pastor preach in Amharic, had birthday cake for Jesus, had a coffee ceremony and had a great time of fellowship with the staff and other adoptive families there. Wow, what an Awesome God we serve!

We went to the airport on Christmas day there, the streets were so quiet, the airport parking lot was almost completely empty, a far cry from the hustle and bustle we experienced on the first trip.