Home sweet home

Let me tell you about our trip home. We headed out for the Addis airport at 8:30 pm local time Saturday night. We had kind of a frantic last couple of hours getting everything packed up and ready to go. It's funny because we took 6 heavy suitcases to Addis and at least 2 of those were full of donations. I was looking forward to lighter baggage on the way home, however, we ended up with 6 heavy suitcases. Julie had a few shopping trips during our last few days. A lot of that weight was coffee by the way. Our friends, the Flowers from Colorado, went to the airport with us and we had that minibus packed to the ceiling with our luggage. We got it all unloaded and onto the rolling cart and into our first line. I say first line because there are so many lines when you travel internationally. About 45 minutes later we get through that line, Thomas is sleeping and David is just looking around at everything in the airport. We get in another line to check our bags and that one is pretty long too. Finally, we get to the ticket agent and check our bags. We stand there with her hoping to get a bulkhead seat on the plane so we could get a bassinet seat. She says she was able to get us those seats and I'm so excited since we won't have to hold the boys the whole plane trip. We walk toward the gate area and are told we have to fill out an exit form from the country. Have you ever tried to fill out a paper while having a baby strapped in front of you? It was a challenge but Julie did it. We had to even fill out the same papers for the boys. Then, another long line, however, in Ethiopia when you travel with little babies, they let you cut! It was so exciting. We had to have jumped in front of 100 people. I had good feelings about the trip so far; bassinet seats, cutting people, sleeping babies, we were ready....

My first indication that this was to be a long trip was when we get to the assigned gate but there is no plane. We talk to some businessmen from Tennessee for a few minutes and they said there was a plane there but it left. Soon we were whisked away by bus out to the parking lot so to say and have to walk up the stairs to the plane. Thank God there was a plane anyway. Have I mentioned how heavy the carry-on bags were? Julie had a backpack. I had a backpack and the rolling suitcase which was so heavy you don't even know. We get on the plane and yep, you guessed it, we didn't get the bassinet seats. We're in row 12 and should've been in row 10. I'm steaming inside because I really thought we had the right seats. Then, the flight attendant says we can't sit next to each other because there aren't enough oxygen masks in the row. After some seat switching and some very courteous other passengers we get to sit across the aisle from each other. We get settled pretty much and I'm ready for the flight. But, the flight is not ready because we sit there for nearly 2 hours waiting to take off. There were some diplomates flying into Addis that night and we couldn't leave the gate until they were safely in and away from the airport. As luck would have it, little David decided to wait until the last minute to blow out his diaper! And guess who was holding him? I was. We hand off sleeping Thomas to some friends on the flight and go racing to the bathroom. The flight attendant says we have to take our seats and we plead with her that we'll hurry but we have to get the diaper and poopy clothes off. I've never seen a diaper changed so fast as Julie did that time. We're soon back to our seats and ready for takeoff. Whew, tragedy averted, no crying babies and we're on our way home...2 hours late.

The fact that we were 2 hours late was looming large in my mind as we didn't have that much time in between flights in Amsterdam. In fact, we only had an hour and 15 minutes. That's a short amount of time for a domestic flight but really cutting it close when you run international. The flight crew said we'd probably make up some time on the way and that eased my mind a bit. The rest of the flight was alright with the boys. They slept a little, fussed a little, and Thomas blew out his diaper too. If you're keeping score, that's David 1, and Thomas 1. I sat next to a very nice and helpful man from Toronto who held one of the boys while I got to eat breakfast. His name was Tim and he grew up in Addis but moved to Canada as a teenager. David loved him and was happy to be held by him for a while. He was so kind and helpful. He told me he had 2 kids of his own and it didn't bother him a bit when the boys started screaming a few times. Our projected landing time is now 8:10 am in Amsterdam. Our next flight is supposed to leave at 8:35. Depending on how far we have to walk, we just might make it, or so I think. Julie and rush with the boys and our heavy bags to the assigned gate only to see the plane pushing back from the jetway. "We missed it by that much." Bummer, now what?

To be continued as I must go be a dad now and tend to a crying baby...