April 17, 2009 Coming to America To begin with I will fill in you about the special evening that Nesibu and Birtukan had planned for us back on the 15th. They knew that we had had a hard day from visiting the orphanage and spending hours in the traffic so they decided that we needed a night out. Nesibu borrowed the vehicle from the orphanage that he directs and they took us out to an Ethiopian cultural night club. It was a large room with a stage on one side and several U-shaped tables that opened towards the stage. Each table had a couch at the back of it and a set of 2 chairs along the sides. Both the couches and chairs were upholstered in goat skin/hair. In the center was a small circular table. After we ordered our drinks they came around with basins and washed our hands at the table. They had a bar of soap on a basin that collected water and we washed our hands as they poured water over them. Next, Nesibu ordered dinner for us. They delivered a huge pan of ingera (about 2 feet in diameter). The server poured several different types of wat, meat and vegetables in small piles all over the ingera. There were no forks or utensils of any kind. We just used pieces of ingera to sponge or pinch up the piles. During dinner, we enjoyed traditional Ethiopian dances and songs being performed. We had an excellent time. Our flight left Ethiopia at 11 PM on the night of the 16th. The boys did well all day, but they were super excited knowing that they were soon going home. By 5 or 6 o'clock, as we waited at the guest house for our ride to the airport, they began to melt down. Once again Nesibu and Birtukan came to the rescue. They and all four of their children came over and we stood and sang church songs with the boys until the van came to pick us up. Words can not express how thankful Erin and I are for this wonderful family. We feel very fortunate to have gotten to know them. At the airport in Addis, things went very well. There was one small incident where Mintesnot ran from me laughing, wanting me to chase after him and would not immediately come back. It was pretty scary, especially since it was down the gang plank to the plane and they had not begun boarding the plane yet. Once we got on the plane though, the boys settled right in, and we had no problems. They did enjoy their remotes at their seats a little too much though, as their reading lights kept coming on and off. I was going to try to count how many times the window blind went up and down too, but lost count in the 20's after only being on the plane for a few minutes. And the flight attendants soon learned to ignore the service lights that kept popping on. Within an hour of lift off, they were both sleeping and slept all the way to Amsterdam, where we had a 2 hour layover. Here they had their first encounter with an escalator. Mintesnot was squealing with joy as he got on it and almost fell down a few times. Dagim was not so sure. He was nervous and tried to sit down. He was trying to hang onto the handrail with one hand and me with the other. It took him a little while before he cracked a smile. Once we reached the top, he regained his composure and off we went to McDonalds for breakfast. It was here that we discovered that neither boy likes western food very well. Next we had another 8 hour flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Things went well on this flight too. Luckily we each had individual TVs again and the boys kept very busy playing with their remotes and TVs. I don't think that they actually watched more than 10 minutes of any single program, except for a western that I put on for them, but got tons of enjoyment with their remotes. Again,the flight attendants learned quickly to ignore the service lights in our row. We sat in a row of 4 seats in the middle of the plane. It was kind of sad because the boys had not been able to see anything out the windows yet. The night we left Addis, they were both at window seats, but it was dark, and now as we went to Detroit, we had no window seats. Once we went to Detroit, I took them to the rest room and they both had to use a stall. In Ethiopia, as in a lot of other countries, the drain system is not very good, so you can not flush any toilet paper down the toilet. They keep waste baskets by the toilet for any and all toilet paper. I had not even considered this until Dagim came out of his stall with a confused look on his face holding his used toilet paper. I could not help but to chuckle despite the ghastly looks on the faces of some of the other men in the bathroom. After washing our hands, the boys discovered the sensor activated paper towel dispenser. Dagim had paper towel down to the floor before I knew it. By the time I got to him, Mintesnot was at the other side of the bathroom and he too had paper towel down to the floor. I ran over to him and Dagem was starting all over again. This went on for four or five minutes. We had one other episode where the boys were walking on one of the conveyer walkways. They would walk down one side to the end, then return on the other. They did this for a few minutes and all of a sudden they were off to the races; running back and forth, with traffic, and against traffic. By the time we had caught them, Erin and I got a stearn lecture from airport security on how dangerous the walkways can be. After that embarassment, we were more than happy to board onto another plane and get out of there! The last plane ride was aboard a little propeller plane from Detroit to Flint. The boys each got a window seat and were enthralled at the view. It was only a 20 minute flight, but neither one of them moved their faces away from the windows for the entire flight. My dad met us at the airport and the boys accepted him right away. In the vehicle, Dagem asked if Papa could sit back with them. After we dropped him off at this house, they both fell asleep for the three hour drive to our house. Actually we went to my mother's home where Trevor, Haley, Seth, and Lydia were anxiously waiting to meet the boys, as well as Grandma Pam, Aunt Randi, Uncle Heath, Uncle Elmer and cousin Ashlee. The boys were sleeping, but it was not long before they awoke and began playing with their new siblings. The boys were all playing soccer for a while, then grandma took them all in a ride in a wagon behind her lawn tractor. They had a great time. The boys continue to adjust better than we had ever hoped for as well as our other children. Lydia has her nose a little bent out of shape, but I am sure that this will be better with time. Trevor and Haley have been a lot of help with their new brothers already and they are Seth's little shadows. He is so excited to have kids his own age to play with. We all took a nice, long walk last evening. And as all six kids ran ahead laughing, racing, and playing, I couldn't help but to think of how lucky I am and how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family.   Nesibu, Birtukan and family     Nesibu, Birtukan, and family singing with Dagim and Mintesnot   Boys meet Ronald McDonald for the first time     Coming to America   Trevor playing soccer with his new brothers     Grandma pulling kids in wagon           This page hosted by