Our journey to bring Jadon home began Saturday, January 1, 2011. What a way to begin the new year. After an overnight lay over in D.C. we officially left the states on January 2 for our ultimate destination Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. After a long Twelve hour flight we arrived in Addis, Ababa around 10AM (ET) (1AM TN), Monday, January 3. Yes, we were exhausted but overjoyed to be back in Ethiopia where Jadon was patiently waiting for his mommy and daddy to come back for him. Also, we had a huge surprise for him that we had brought his big sister, Lily with us! Lily did fantastic on the trip. She really was such a trooper for this being her first experience flying ever and on such a long trip. We made our way through all the check points and looked out into the "sea of faces" to see our drivers big smiling face waiting to greet us. This was such a blessing after the long journey! We headed to the House of Hope Guest House to unpack, eat lunch and rest for a couple of hours before we would go to pick up Jadon.
After lunch and a short nap it was the time we had been longing for, time to pick up our adorable little man Jadon. It had been 44 days since we held him in our arms, 44 of the longest days of our lives. The time waiting between travel dates seemed like an eternity, but Jan. 3rd was the day to have him with us forever! When we arrived to pick him up he was in his room and we went to the waiting room where we had spent so much time with him on the first trip. The driver went to get him and brought him to us. We were so excited when he rounded the corner and came right to us.
Finally our family of 4, all together!!!
