2nd Leg Is On The Way!

I elected to leave my laptop at home and use hubby's while away.  Unfortunately, that meant I also needed to remember all of my passwords/login information after many hours of flying and serious jet lag.  If you've been following this blog over the past week, you know that didn't happen.  :-) I could not remember my login info for the blog.  Not.  Tried every password I could remember (and there are several) but not one worked.  Not one.  So . . . I am just going to pretend it's one week earlier and post our updates like I wanted to from Ethiopia.  Please, play along . . .

This is the second team heading out for Dulles at 4 a.m.  Our dear friends graciously offered to drive us to the airport.  They got up at 3:30 a.m. in order to be at our house on time.  Oh.my.goodness.  I did not sleep more than an hour before having to get up and go.  I never sleep well before traveling and this was no exception.  Longer trip + farther away + leaving kids at home = no sleep.  Eliza and I were running on fumes, but VERY excited to go and meet our new kids and reunite with Daddy and Ava . . .



See how happy we look?  So far, all was going as planned.  HOWEVER, that was about to change.  When we got inside and ready to check our baggage, the ticket agent informed us that we were flying to D.C. and then the FOLLOWING day flying out to Addis Ababa. 

"Hmmmm . . . could you please repeat that?" 

"Your ticket has you flying out from Indianapolis to Washington D.C. today and flying on to Ethiopia tomorrow."

"Umm . . . that's not gonna work.  I have to be in Addis by the morning of the 7th.  Can you please call Ethiopian Airlines and see if you can change the flight?"

"Sorry.  I tried their 800 number and they said they couldn't change it because the tickets were purchased through a travel agent."  (Using my ticket to cover his mouth as he coughed.  Gross.)

"Okay, well, I HAVE to be on that flight.  Any suggestions???" 

"You can try to talk to the agent in D.C. and see if they have room on the flight.  I can't guarantee they'll have room though."

Time to think on your feet mama!  There was no way we would make it to Ethiopia if we didn't risk it and go on to D.C.  Praying all the way, I decided to head on and trust God would make the way to get us on that day's flight to Ethiopia.  Once in D.C., we had to go down to baggage claim, get ALL of our bags (thanking God we sent the biggest donation bags with Rob the day before), go back through security (for the third time this trip - note to self:  do not wear a belt while flying!) up to the top level and BEG the Ethiopian airlines guy to let us on the flight.  He was willing, if we were willing to pay an extra $200/ticket!  Can you say, "Not in the game plan!"???  Once he realized it was the travel agent's mistake, he took pity and let us on for no extra charge.  Not the way we planned for the day to go, but it taught us both a lot about staying calm and trusting that God would work it out for good.

After that, the flight to Ethiopia was great.  Nice, new plane (Boeing 777), smooth, and decent food and movies.  We were blessed to be on the same flight with three other families adopting through America World who were in our travel group.

More to come . ..