Saturday, June 19, 2010

Day 3- Lucy Day!

We headed to the airport in Gondar to catch our flight to Addis at 9am, supposedly an hour before our flight. The funny thing was, there was no one there to check us in. So, we waited. We had expected that our flight could be delayed. Our flight was supposed to take off at 10am. About 10:30, an Ethiopian guy made his way to the desk. We got in line, and observed him hand writing tags for checked luggage. We chuckled to ourselves and say, "hey! it's Gondar! Of course they are handwriting the luggage tags!" Then we got to the front of the line...he said "no body contact you??" Apparently, the 10 am flight was cancelled and they had wanted us to arrive at 8am, which we would have been very happy to do since we wanted to get to Addis and back to our guest house before Travis brought our girl. BUT...of course, no one had contacted us. So...we sat there and waited for our flight that would depart "about" 12:30. And since every single clock (no lie) in the Gondar airport looks like this, it makes perfect sense.

I love that disclaimer....basically, when the plane gets here, you'll leave. So, he handed us our boarding passes, that looked like this: a blank peice of paper. We just smiled...and waited for the sound of a landing plane, and then we headed for the line. Go with the flow is the key to Gondar :)
We arrived in Addis (it's a short 1 hour flight) and met our driver. He took us straight to the Bjoe, where we got the word that Travis was about 10 minutes away with the babies! I instantly started to shake. I was SO nervous and excited. Travis pulled in, and told us that Melat (Lucy) was sleeping, and he'd bring up Travis and Lisa's baby first since she was awake. Then, he went back and got the carseat with our sweet little sleeping princess.
Apparently, she was not a big fan of the carseat/car, she had cried herself to sleep. Travis told me to go ahead and take her out. I knew that it was a recipe for disaster, her waking up to a stranger taking her out, but it was what it was. So, I went for it. As soon as I first touched her, my shaking stopped, and my nervousness disappeared. She was so warm and soft...and I picked her up and held her close. She was not at all sure what to think, but she was very cautious. She clung to me and was afraid at the same time (if you can't tell by the wrinkled brow). I held her and kissed her and smelled her for a minute. Then I handed her to Matt, and she FREAKED out.
That set her off and she cried for about a half hour, until she fell into a trauma induced looooong nap.
We were afraid that she'd wake up terrified, but eventually she woke up, and was all smiles and coos. Like we were exactly what she'd planned to wake up to. We fed her, and gave her a bath and she was ready for bed again. She slept well, waking up just once. A bottle soothed her quickly and she went right back to sleep. Sweet sweet girl, and we felt right at home with her right away. It was a great first day together! (she happened to be wearing a shirt that we sent her, but paired with some pants that looked like they'd fit a newborn in length! But...she is really little around, so the pants we sent would probably fall right off that cute little hiney) So, there it is. Day 1 with Lucy.

6 comments:

"Are These Kids All Yours?" said...

So BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Gayla said...

Those first pix are priceless!!!

I had a similar airport experience in Indonesia once. Arrived at the airport to find out that my flight had just randomly decided to leave an hour early! No reason! Glad you made it home JUST in time to meet your precious girl!!!

Leslie said...

Two great stories!!

Leslie said...

Two great stories!!

Kaeden said...

Eryn, this is Jeannette, Janet's friend. I loved reading this. Your Lucy is adorable. What a blessing it is for you and your husband to be able to raise her. I love it...praying for all the families...and can't believe Janet has her Ely! Her surprise should arrive soon-sent with the Francis Family. Thanks again for your help with that!

Lisa said...

Love the bit about the Gondar airport!

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