Bringing Zeland home!

Friday November 11th

Hi All,

Well we have finally made it! After a rough start that featured a delay in Boston which had us sitting on a plan that had an equipment failure for two hours before de-boarding, almost getting escorted out of a terminal by security after I became irate when Air Canada refused to help us find a new flight, after we missed our connecting flight to Frankfurt in Montreal due to their equipment failure. Running through Logan airport amazing race style to try to catch a flight to London after finally getting help from our travel agent. Flying through London instead of Montreal in order to make it to Frankfurt. Getting a personal escort on the tarmac from one plan to another in Frankfurt because of an extremely short turn around for an international flight (15 minutes) due to a delay leaving London because of fog.  After all of that we arrived in Addis Ababa at 11:00pm their time then had to get a visa, clear customs and wait for our luggage, which by the way has still not caught up to us. As we walked out of the terminal we were greeted by a representative from the guest home we are staying at he had a big sign that said Miss Tanya O'Brien, I guess I am just along for the ride. He brought us out to meet up with our driver and of we went. We arrived at the guest home at midnight got a quick rundown of the facility and met the staff. They even offered to make us dinner. The facility is beautiful and everyone was so pleasant. It was a nice way to end our 30 hour ordeal. Needless to say we passed out in seconds, only to wake up a few hours later to the sound of a pack of wild dogs and then again a few hours after that to the sound of chanting.

Saturday November 12th

This is the day we have been waiting for. We finally get to have our boy. After a great breakfast and some very high test coffee we were off to the House of Hope transition home to meet up with Zeland. By the way at this point we still have no luggage, which means no formula, bottle, dippers or clothes for Z and no deodorant for us all and all a bad scene! After arriving at the transition home we were escorted to a waiting room where we stood impatiently waiting for them to bring us our boy. We didn't have to wait long as they brought him right away. our boy has put on some weight since we last saw him. He is too freaking cute. We did not have a translator so we had to try to let the transition home staff know that we need some essentials, like formula, diapers and a bottle. After about an hour of miscommunication we were in business. One of the nannies ran to the store for us and picked most of what we needed to get us through at least the next day or two.  We stayed at the transition home for just about two hours than headed back to the guest home for lunch.We are the only guests at this point and their is a staff of about 12. Tanya feels like we could be in the movie The Help. It is a little uncomfortable having this many people helping you although none of them seem to be able to help us with our luggage. After lunch we all took a long and well deserved nap with the sliding glass doors open and the breeze blowing. It is perfect weather here in Addis about 70 with a constant breeze and blue skies, well buleish. After our nap we went downstairs to the central living room for an afternoon cup of coffee and to check up on our luggage. We sat around drinking our coffee and chatting with the staff while Zeland played with the toys although he prefers electrical cords and Tanya's camera. We decided to stay at the guest home for dinner so we could continue to monitor the situation with our luggage.  After some fried chicken and sautéed veggies we had some more high test coffee, big mistake! We were up until almost 2:00am listening to the packs of wild dogs and goings on in the guest home. Then we were woken again at 4:00am due to the sound of chanting although this time it was Zeland. It turns out this little guy talks more in his sleep than he does when he is awake! Still no luggage!