Arrived

We've arrived safely in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! The trip went amazingly
well, thank you to all who were praying for our kiddos on the long trip. Both
Elsa and Ezra slept the majority of the first flight, then we only had a 2
hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany, and then they both slept the first half
of the second flight. We had the bulkhead row on both flights, so we were
able to have a bassinet for Ezra to sleep in on both flights. I can't
remember the last time that I flew without a baby in my lap! It was so great to
have my arms free. Ezra thought sitting up in the bassinet was the greatest
thing, he loved it. And Elsa did so well on the long trip. We wondered
how she would handle being confined for such a long period of time, but she
did better than we could have hoped.
Caleb's parents were at the Addis airport to meet us. We've all dreamed
of this moment for a long time, words cannot adequately express how it
felt to step out of the airport and see their faces. They took us back to our
home for the next year, the SIM's Akaki Compound where we will live and
attend language school. We have a great little two bedroom apartment that is
perfect for our family. The compound is home to 8 or 9 families, with
tons of kids, a swingset, sand box, soccer field, and lots of dogs for Elsa
to throw rocks for. It'll be a really nice place to live while we are
doing our language studies.
We'll be here for the next few days and then we'll go down country to OMO.
We'll fly down on Friday and spend 12 days at our future home before we
need to come back up to the capital to start language school.
I know lots of people were praying us through this trip, so your
prayers were answered! Thank you for your thoughts for us. We'll be in touch.