Day Three in Ethiopia (Monday)

Day 3 – The night went better than expected. Tibebu slept well but woke up every 2-3 hours to eat. They feed the babies on demand at the orphanage so they eat all the time He woke up at 5 ready to play. He doesn’t seem scared of us anymore and takes comfort in seeing us when he wakes up. We got ready, skyped with Emma and Yaya and Pappy and Meemaw and Papa, ate breakfast, and then were off to the embassy.

The ride to the embassy took about 45 minutes. We drove through the city of Addis Ababa to get there. You can tell the people take pride in their city as the streets are well paved and clean. The smog is very thick. I didn’t realize how lucky we were to live with clean air until driving through this city.

We got to the US Embassy and they started calling the names in our travel group. There are 8 other families traveling with us. Three others picking up babies, two families picking up toddlers, and three families picking up older children.

They called our name and we went upstairs to a window. She asked us a couple of questions regarding the adoption such as did you know the mother beforehand? Is this the child that was referred to you? She then ended our meeting by telling us that this adoption was final and there were no “give-backs”. Really? You mean this isn’t just a trial run? She informed us that we could pick up his Visa in the next couple of days and we went back downstairs to be with our group. That was it. That was the last official thing we had to do while in Ethiopia.

Tibebu did well on the trip to the embassy. He doesn’t seem overwhelmed by new sights and sounds which is good because he is going to be bombarded with them in a few days. Our travel group finished and we headed back to the hotel. They dropped us off, we had lunch and went back up to our hotel room hoping Tibebu would take a nap.

The food: John and I are normally pretty easy going when it comes to food. We like being adventurous and trying new things. The food at our hotel has been very difficult for us to eat. There is a spice that goes in Ethiopian food that they put in all of their entrees. Spagetti becomes Ethipian Spagetti, tomato soup, the same. The only thing we have found that we like is the French fries, go figure. I think the lack of food is starting to wear on us. We wish we had brought more snacks to hold us over until we returned to the states.

Monday night was a rough night. I (Sarah) started feeling sick around 6pm and got in bed early. I had a headache, stomach ache and fever. The smog on the ride to the Embassy triggered my asthma making it harder to me to breathe. We think that triggered some altitude sickness. I drank two liters of water, took some asprin and felt better in the morning. John took on the baby duties that night and Tibebu woke up every 2 hours again. We are already ready to get home.

How Are We Doing??

I thought I would write a quick post on how we are doing now that we are back in the states. I will be posting more about our trip soon but for now a quick update will have to do.

Johnny is doing wonderfully. The first night home he woke up every two hours to eat, then three, then four and last night he went a solid six hours between feeding. He is still having a hard time sleeping from around 4am to 7am but progress has been made.

Emma loves her baby brother and he definitely loves her back. He gets a huge grin on his face whenever she comes in the room. He seems to have gotten used to being in our house and is even doing well sleeping in his crib. Emma and Johnny are sharing a room and as of now seem to be taking well to each other as roommates. Emma doesn't wake up when Johnny cries to be fed in the middle of the night and Johnny doesn't seem to be bothered by Emma's many excuses to stay up during her bedtime routine. We were planning to have him sleep in our room until he settled in but the crib seems to work better for him. He lets us rock him to sleep and just loves to cuddle prior to sleeping.

Johnny is a vibrant six month old that is actively teething. We know this by the enormous amount of drool that comes out of his mouth all day. For those of you that know Emma well, you will know that this drooling problem is Emma's worst nightmare. When she walks in the room she immediately asks for a kleenex to wipe his face or insists that we do it for her. She has been slimed a couple of times while hugging and kissing him and has needed several shirt changes due to her baby brothers drool. As long as his face is clean, she is all over him. With drool, she is a bit more careful with her hugs and kisses.

My parents left today to go back home to Washington. They were a huge help with Emma while we were gone and also with our transition once we got home. We have been sticking to John and I being the only ones to feed and put Johnny to sleep so they weren't able to help us with this but Johnny loved playing with his Yaya and Pappy and they were able to give Emma the attention we couldn't give when we first got home. We are just now feeling caught up with sleep (at least as caught up as you can be with an infant) and ready to have two children. We can't thank them enough for all of their help these past two weeks.

I will try and post some more pictures soon along with my journal entries from our trip to Ethiopia soon.

Homecoming!

We are Home!

We made it home tonight! Thanks to the staff at Hannah's Hope, the information we needed to board the plane was at the gate when we checked in and we were smooth sailing the whole way. We are so thankful to be home! Thank you for all of your prayers. Pictures and more info on our trip to come.

Update

Sarah just called her parents to let them know that they were in the waiting area to board the plane. Meaning, they have boarding passes for all three of them all the way to Greensboro. Their next stop is in Germany, which there should not be any complications there to hold them up from arriving at 6:15pm tomorrow! Here is thier flight infomation for tommorow:

United Flight #7986 6:14pm

Delay

There has been a complication. Johnny needed an extra Visa the travel agency did not inform them about, or the people at the airport gave them incorrect information, so they did not get on their flight and are stuck in Ethiopia, desperately trying to get home. Right now they are rescheduled on a flight arriving on tomorrow, Saturday, at 6:15pm into Greensboro. We will let you all know if anything changes again. Sorry for the miss post this morning. Please keep the Pells in your prayers. They need them so much.

Here is an email from Sarah below on what has been going on:

We went to the airport last night and were turned away. They told us we needed an Italian Visa for Johnny in order to enter Italy when we changed planes. We had no idea what to do and the supervisor said he would contact the Italian embassy to gain approval. He tried to no avail.

We took a taxi back to our hotel (me sobbing the entire way) and got on the internet to try and contact our travel agent. I was furious we were not warned of this. She said they should have let us through no problem and it was their fault. She got us on a flight arriving in Greensboro on the 16th at 6:15 going through Germany this time. We finally got to bed around 3:00 am and then met some others that hadn't left yet for breakfast. They told us Germany was a problem as well, which of course our travel agent did not. I am furious with our travel agent. The flights are not refundable and it would cost us 5,400 to get home without going through Europe. Ahhhhh!

We finally called Almaz, the orphanage director, who asked why we didn't call sooner (ummm because we were bleary eyed and had no idea what to do?). She arranged for us to go to the airport with Wes, a driver and translator to ensure we would make it on our flight. She said that it shouldn't be a problem but they are confused and may or may not let us on.

This is the flight that we are now on. Went down to the airport and no one from Lufthansa was there. Our driver Wes to whom we are eternally grateful found the number to the Lufthansa office and spoke with a women who said we wouldn't be able to go without a german visa for Johnny and we wouldn't be able to get one until Monday. Almaz the orphanage director called back and was able to talk her into it but said it was up to the person at the gate. We decided to buy new tickets on Ethiopian airlines so we were sure to get home and just as we were going to pay Wes ran up to tell us they called back and the director of the Lufthansa airlines in ethiopia approved us getting on and would leave a note with the front desk.

So, please pray hard that this works. We leave for the airport at 11pm our time. Legally we should be able to get on the plane. Pray that we receive someone at the ticket counter that will see the directors note and have mercy on us. We are armed with phone numbers to call if we have a problem this time. The problem is our layover in Germany. They say we have to have a visa for Johnny to enter Germany even though we do not leave the airport. They are wrong but it is hard to argue with someone with english as a second language. We are getting there 3 hours early to ensure we get on. As long as we can get our boarding pass in Addis, we should be fine.

We are worn down and discouraged. We are still not feeling well and running on very little sleep. Please play for supernatural strength as we complete this last part of our journey.

On a brighter note, Johnny is doing wonderfully. He seems to have attached to us well and is only crying when hungry or tired. His cough has gotten better after some antibiotics and he is all smiles. He much less of a baby through all of this than I have been :)

We love you all and can't wait to hit sweet American soil.

Not Doing Well

The Pell family is struggling. I (Sarah) woke up last night with a pretty high fever and cold. I have been in bed all day and do not seem to be improving. John has taken over all baby duties even though he has had an off and on fever as well. This process of getting to know a baby in a foreign country is hard enough with healthy parents. We are now on survival mode. Please pray for us. Pray that we will wake up tomorrow refreshed and well, ready to make our 24 hour trip home. Pray that Johnny continues to do well. He is very laid back and pretty undemanding for his age which has been a huge blessing.

Thank you all for your comments. I was hoping to blog more but was sick with something Monday night as well so just haven't been up to it. I will fill you all in when I get back.

Love,

The Pell Family