Ethiopia: Day 7/8, The Journey Home

Today I stayed back at the guest house with the babies during the afternoon, and Eric headed out to find some local music CDs to bring home with us, with some guidance from Solomon. I tell you, that guy is a jack of all trades. He has a great sense of humor too. Eric has nicknamed him MJ, due to his love of all things Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan. His iPhone (of course he has one), even had a Michael Jackson song as the ringtone. Do You Remember the Time?

We had our last Ethiopian dinner at the guesthouse with all the other families, and though it was weird to be leaving this place, Eric and I were both ready to be home. One last crazy taxi ride, and there we were at the Addis Ababa airport.

Things are different here. For instance, while waiting in the terminal, several people just lit up cigarettes right next to us. OK, so there’s smoking inside the airport. Only in designated areas, which are in no way sectioned off from the other areas, but apparently, right where we found the only 2 seats together.

So, we moved across the room, and eventually found some new seats. As we waited for the airline to announce which rows would be boarding first, Melese started to get a little restless. He went from uneasy to hysterical in a matter of minutes. Right about then, they announced that the plane was boarding. Not like, “such and such rows are boarding now”, but more like, “Everybody board at once!”. Total chaos.

We frantically tried to gather our things, but could not pull ourselves together in any graceful manner. Meanwhile, Melese was getting more hysterical by the second. What is wrong with this boy? We thought he might be hot in his baby carrier, so Eric started to pull him out… and that’s when I saw it.

Possibly the worst diaper explosion ever.

That boy had poo from his crack to the top of his back. Sick. And what impeccable timing! At this point, Eric and I became frantic. Eric rushed to change Melese’s diaper as he screamed and flailed (his clothes were so bad, we threw them away), while I tried to organize our stuff for boarding and keep Mamenesh calm. Meanwhile, people are crowding right around us to board the plane. We felt like we were on display, with a sign that said: “HEY! Look at these ridiculous new parents. They have no idea what they’re doing!!”

Our stuff was strung out everywhere. Mamenesh was growing more restless by the second, and I could not fit everything back into the diaper bag, that had once all fit so nicely. The situation was making me so anxious, I had to laugh to keep from crying. Which then made Eric upset. He couldn’t understand how I could be laughing at something so frustrating. And of course, I could not explain myself at this point. It was like I was outside my body watching us.

Of course, Mamenesh then had a repeat performance of the messy diaper… TWIN POWER! Luckily it wasn’t the exploding type. So, two dirty diapers later, we finally got everything in enough of a pile to carry onto the plane. Frankly, after such a stressful start, I wasn’t sure if we could handle this flight home. I looked around the terminal, and everyone had boarded but us. The gate attendants were making the last calls for boarding.

We finally step onto the plane, and the flight attendant must have seen the distress in our faces, as Melese continued to arch his back and scream at tones only dogs can hear. She could not have been nicer or more accommodating to us. We had seats apart from each other, but she somehow managed to rearrange other passengers on this sold out flight, and sit us together in front of a bassinet. OH, praise the Lord!! This was nothing short of a miracle, on this flight that had at least 30 other babies. I said a little prayer right there.

Ten minutes later, and we were taxiing down the runway. Bottles in baby mouths, and Eric and I looking at each other, wondering what we were in for over the next 30 hours of travel. (Not to mention, the rest of our lives...) Would we ever make it back to the States? Or would we wind up in a mental institution somewhere in Amsterdam?

Fortunately, after that rough start things could not have gone smoother. The babies slept the whole flight from Addis to Amsterdam. The 7 hour layover in Amsterdam was a breeze, thanks to the beautiful baby lounge in the airport. And then from Amsterdam to Connecticut, we got 2 BASSINETS, and the babies slept nearly the whole way. Seriously, miracles do happen!

On our last flight from Connecticut to home, the babies were squealing again when we stepped onto the plane. Backs arching, tears, screams, the whole package. At this point, Eric and I were so delirious tired, we could only laugh as we tried to soothe them. You know—that scary, crazed laughter, where you’re not sure if you’ve crossed that line of insanity or not. We looked around this tiny little plane at the other passengers, cringing at the thought of these screaming babies, with their new parents who had clearly gone mad. I think we normally would have been more apologetic...but we had no sympathy for other passengers at this point. A 2 hour flight? Pshhh…that’s nothing! HA

Eric saying "Hsss... don't take a picture, he might start squealing again!"

Thank goodness, they fell asleep again on that last flight. (Melese, asleep in the back-arched position. At this point, whatever makes him happy is fine with us.) And just as our heads started bobbing forward, and our eyes began to roll around, we landed in our hometown. Safe and sound! Babies strapped on our fronts. Bags on our backs, over our shoulders, and under our eyes. Covered in spit-up and slobber. But we were here, and we were happy. Life could not be better!

Our families anxiously awaited us in the terminal, and it was an awesome greeting. These tiny little celebrities were surrounded by the family paparazzi, and boy did Melese ham it up. All the excitement caused him to puke a little on his granddad, but he was good after that. Our drivers took us home, and Eric and I crashed hard, while Grandmama took the first night shift and saved us from the sleep-deprived insanity that we feared was just around the corner. It was a beautiful thing.

We are so happy to be back home in sweet home USA!