Day One in Ethiopia (Lori)

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Addis Ababa
June 6 2024
 
We have always wanted to bring Daniel and Tamenech back to Ethiopia.
 
It has been a long process of getting everything ready. We brought 300 pounds of donations. 
 
The trip was not withouto obstacles. Somehow Tom figured out last Saturday, they my flights disappeared from our itinerary. Tom spent 3 hours trying to get me back on the flight with them. Thank you God we got that figured out. 
 
We loaded up suv's with the 4 of us, 8 50 pound bags, and 8 carry ons. We flew from Memphis to NJ, and then on to Dulles. We were told our bags would go all the way to Addis. That many bags are hard to maneuver. At Dulles we find out that we have take all the bags with us to the hotel for the night and then bring them back to the airport in the morning. Tom called our hotel for our shuttle. News to us, the shuttle had stopped running for the night. We looked at Ubers, that wasn't going to work. Tom found a taxi van and a taxi suv that got us to the hotel. 
 
We made our way through security and waited on our flight. From Dulles to Addis is 13.5 hour flight. It really seemed long. There was a lot of turbulence, I was feeling pretty nervous. We made safely to Addis with all our bags. 
 
Yonas met us at the airport, we have known Yonas since 2010. Yonas is taking great care of us. We loaded up the van with all of bags and headed to the hotel to take a quick rest. Addis is 8 hours ahead of the US EST. After a quick refresh we saw our friend Fikre. 
 
This trip is different than our other trips to Ethiopia. This trip is all about Daniel and Tamenech. We want to show them their Birth country and allow them to meet some of their birth families. Daniel got to meet his birth mom and aunt. He will meet more family members next week. We went out to lunch for a traditional ethiopian meal. Tamenech was thrilled with the meal, Daniel was pretty happy too. After lunch we went to Friendship Park. It is absolutely beautiful. It was really nice to get out and walk around after a long flight. 
 
Today we are heading to Unity Park, a zoo, and aquarium. We will then head to Tom's favorite burger place and to celebrate Daniel's birthday with his birth mom. 
 
We are so excited to be back in Ethiopia.
 

 
 

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