"So, what did you do there all week?"

I need to start writing before I start forgetting...that's for sure! Here's a super brief outline of what our week+ of travel looked like:

Thursday: We had to fly to D.C. a day early to ensure we made our connecting flight on Ethiopian Airlines on Friday. Since neither Jim nor I have been to D.C. before, we opted for an early flight so we could spend the afternoon walking around a bit and relaxing before the journey ahead. Walking around a bit quickly translated to miles and miles, and we really had a nice, distraction free time.

Friday: We boarded the flight for Ethiopia in the morning and spent the.whole.day. on the plane. As in they fed us three full meals and snacks while we were on the flight.

Saturday: We arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the morning, and were picked up, along with 5 other families on our flight, by our driver, Mulat, and taken to Horizon House. After arriving, we were shown to our rooms and Jim and I headed down the block (with a few other families and a guard) to the "big kid house" to meet Alexa Aster and Liana Burtu for the first time. We saw them a couple of times that day for a couple of hours each time.

Sunday: We, along with one other couple and our driver, Solomon, left Horizon House at 6 a.m. for the Sidama region to meet our children's birth families. We had a 4ish hour drive on pavement to the city of Awassa followed by a 2+ hour drive off-road to Arbegona to meet our children's relatives. We then had another 45 minutes into the highlands to so Irena and Matt, another couple in our group, could meet their son's family. We ended up back in Awassa around 5:45 p.m., and after a wonderful dinner, got some sleep!

Monday: We departed the Lewi (our hotel) at 6 a.m. to head back to Addis. We had lunch and loaded up all of the children on a bus to the embassy. During that visit, our children received their visas for travel back to the U.S. In the evening, the Wide Horizon's staff took our whole travel group to a wonderful restaurant for traditional food and dancing.

Tuesday: This day was play day nearly all day. We spent the bulk of the children's "awake" hours with them at the big kid house! During their nap, we went to the business center at the Sheraton hotel to send a half-time e-mail to our fam.

Wednesday: Jim wasn't feeling so good, so he rested in the morning; after a quick visit with the girls, I joined some other members of our group on an outing to the markets. After nap time, we had the girls brought to the guest house so we could play with them outside of the big kid house setting for a couple of hours and really enhance the transition.

Thursday: Jim rallied, and we both joined fellow travelers on another outing to the market. After the girls' nap, we had them join us at the guest house to play AND spend the night!

Friday: We played with our girls and the children joining the other families at the guest house and took part in a coffee ceremony. At that time, we also received all of our children's official paperwork and passports for travel. After dinner, we boarded the bus to Bole and boarded that plane once again.

Saturday: We landed at Dulles on time and had some Wendy's at 9 a.m.! Our flight to Chicago was delayed a couple of times and we finally landed at O'Hare around 3 in the afternoon!

Hopefully that'll give you some context so that my stories about days or events make a little more sense as I continue to write...well, as much as can be expected, anyway! We're so glad our girls have joined our family and look forward to sharing lots more!