"Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." Isaiah 43:5



Tuesday, August 19, 2008

THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME

Hello, Hello!!

We safely arrived in Toronto. We had an AMAZING flight!! Let me tell you - that was the way to fly!!!

First we had to walk to the back of the plane. When we were walking I told Ray that though we were not flying Airmiles, still we ended up in the toilet seats! LOL! We were two rows from them! Thankfully they weren't smelly *grin*. But seriously, that was not the reason the plane was great! :o))

We had wonderful stewardesses! When they found out where we were going, they wanted to know what we were doing, so we told them about the girls and about FAYA. They both wanted our blog address - I didn't even tell them we had one, the one just asked if we had a web page. One of the stewardesses gave me a high five when she found out that we had six boys.

Later as we were leaving she told us how polite our boys were. *smile* That is so nice to hear when you are a walking testimony to large families. Not that I am surprised. They are good boys, if I do say so myself. *grin*

The other stewardess wants to go to Ethiopia on her holidays, so she asked if she could volunteer at FAYA. I told her to get hold of me, and I would get hold of Sandi, and Sandi would get hold of Meg! LOL!! She is very excited. She will be able to volunteer and do anything for one week, and then she will be traveling around for the other 2-3 weeks.

Okay, so for the plane. Well, first they had outlets so we could hook up our laptops!! How cool is that!! They also had movie screens on each chair, with a huge selection of movies, TV shows, audio shows etc!! The boys had the two seats, window and aisle behind us, and they chose their own shows, and then we chose ours.



They had an incredible first class section!! The seats were like something off Star Wars or something!



We bought ourselves nice sandwiches and chips for lunch. Cost us $32 for it all, plus of course, free drinks.

The five hours flew by! I was trying desperately to finish a movie because the stewardesses had talked to us so much, that I lost a ton of time. *smile* But hey, all in the name of "Adoption" and "FAYA"!!

The boys laughed at me cause I forked out money for this wonderful neck cushion. They got on the plane and found that the seat backs molded to their heads. Well, that is fine and dandy for them!! LOL! MINE is soft and like lying on a pillow at home. Just wait til later when they are curled up against the window and I am reclining with my nice soft pillow! HA!



It was so funny cause I am determined to beat the 'germ', so I brought Oil of Oregano with us. I also want to beat Jet Lag, so we brought No Jet Lag. Well, you should have seen me hunting through the bags trying to find these things after the plane took off!! I was supposed to 'administer' it all prior to take off.

Well you should have seen the fuss these great big boys put up!! No, no, we don't want any. The whole plane will smell. Wah, wah. Yada, yada!! LOL!!

But being the good obedient boys that they are, they indulged me and opened their mouths for the hateful stuff! It burns and of course, since we were just leaving we did not have any water to wash it down!! Then they had to take their little white pills to ward off jet lag. Boy, we felt like a bunch of hippies with our smelly oils, and little herbal remedies! *grin*



When we first got on the plane I called home to talk to my little guys. I hadn't thought of doing this before, but then I realized I could call them from each country we get to. So I called and Erin told me that she put Briton and Cooper to bed in her bed last night, cause her hubby was working nightshift, and they had company. She said that Briton cried a little bit, so she lay down with the boys until they fell asleep. Later on, when she came to bed, she found them all snuggled up together. A little brotherly comfort, I guess. Considering they don't ever sleep in the same bed, it is nice to see how they turned to each other.

I know from talking to Cooper that he is having a great time. He says he is telling Briton all the time that Mummy and Daddy will be home soon. Briton is doing a great job talking on the phone. Only a word or two at a time, but he has great expression and 'talks' well into the phone.

I had to FLY to get this done!! Seriously, we ripped through the Toronto airport, and the first thing I did was dump the rest of them (can't think with them talking! LOL!) and find the only plug I could in the whole waiting area! Well, I am having a problem publishing this, so I will send it to Denise and see if she can upload it for me!



See you in Frankfurt!!! Loving the comments - please continue sharing our adventure with YOUR thoughts on things! Love it!
                    

15 comments:

dmvoccola said...

Wow! Your journey so far sounds great! You find a story in every little detail--that's what I love about you. Your hair looks terrific btw and so do the guys you're traveling with--especially Ray in his thong! *grin*

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Your next step will be to fly out of Canada and you will be that much closer to the girls! Which airline did you fly? I think the tv thing would be something I would like but more important than any of that is of course, the people working on the plane so I'm glad to hear that you had such a good experience and it's great that you got to give FAYA a plug and raise more awareness. We should call you the International Embassador for Ethiopian Adoption and FAYA Orphanage! When you're in Frankfurt, make sure you let all of Germany know!!! Keep the posts coming - great to follow along with you.

Anonymous said...

Hi there Justine, You are the Wonder Woman of blogs!!! I have been thinking of you all and praying for you! While I cannot be there - my heart certainly is! I'll be glued to your blog while you're away. God bless you all. I can't wait to see the pics of when you meet the girls! Thank you so much for allowing me to part of your adoption journey. What a blessing and a privelege!!! Angie Appenheimer

Anonymous said...

Hi Justine;

Thanks for doing such a great job of keeping us posted ... it looks like a few of us are up late checking in on you! I'm so glad the journey is going well so far - big lump in my throat seeing your little guys at the airport fence! It was great to see Dane in the Beech cockpit with a big grin, wonderful! You've even got K. hooked - he called out to me "I know exactly where they are in the terminal!" ...that was my first clue. He remarked with delight on your plane shots. Can't imagine how excited you must be as you get that much closer. I hope you get some rest.

Anonymous said...

I'm loving reading about your journey! You're such a dedicated blogger. I love it!

It's nice to know that every evening when I check through the blogs I follow, I'll get to read about you. I love your writing style! I feel as if you're sitting right in front of me, recounting each interesting detail.

Keep it up! I CANNOT wait to see the pictures of Faya as well as all of you meeting your beautiful girls!

Venessa
Edmonton, Alberta

sandi said...

I love that you posted again today!!! Did you think I was kidding? I'm going to be checking on here allll the time! I love that you are spreading the word about adoption and faya! I hope that the flight attendant DOES come to visit faya!!!
We have been so blessed!

Can't wait to read your next post...
sandi

Anonymous said...

Your hair does look great!!! I just have such a lump in my throat thinking that you are really on your way. Thinking of you.
Natasha

Anonymous said...

Great reading about your trip step by step!!!
Safe travels,
Michelle Q

ChristyCanuck said...

Hey Justine -- Hana and I were waving to you guys as you came through T.O. Hope you saw us! :-)

Chris

K_I_T_ said...

Hi there. I just found your blog thru the faya blog. What an awesome journey you guys are on. We too are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, waiting for a referal. It's great to see your day by day progress, especially Im liking the travel updates, as that will probably be us soon(hopefully). Anyhow I am considering doing a blog to cronicle our adoption journey and I think after looking at yours, Im gonna do it! Anyhow good luck with the travel, look forward to "chatting thru the blog" with you, especially once you get your girls home. God is an awesome God and I know he will bless you. I will pray(even though I don't know you personally) that your heart will be calm with your boys who are at home and not with you. Im sure as a mother that is hard, we will be leaving our 4year old when we go too. Also prayer for an instant bond with your new daughters. Its neat I can pray for you, and God will hear my prayers for my brother and sister in Christ. Good luck, I will be checking in often!

Erin said...

hey friend! so glad you had a good trip so far. Haven't heard from you yet from Frankfurt or Addis-hope you made it safely!!!The boys are doing great-we haven't had any tears today(well other than they had a four person crash coming around the corner in the kitchen-that did cause a few tears but nothing major lol!) everythime the phone rings they both run to it thinking its for them *smile* Half the time it is! lol. Cassisdy has called them every day and talks for a few minutes with each of them!
This afternoon I got a cute picture of all four of them hugging each other-it is so sweet to see them have compassion for one another!
well better go do some bed time routines and get these noisy but cute kids all off to bed! Hope you are doing great and not to jet lagged! Looking forward to hearing all the adventures!! Sending hugs and kisses to Mesai and Gadisae!
Love Les, Erin, Julianna, HAiley, Cooper and Briton!!!
Blessings

darci said...

you'll have to share more of your 'hippie remedies' and tell us how they worked for future reference. so glad your two little ones are taking care of each other.

Anonymous said...

Mum have you seen the girls yet. If you have put more pictures on the blog. Were are you. Leave a comment on my blog.

Anonymous said...

Mum have you seen the girls yet. If you have put more pictures on the blog. Were are you. Leave a comment on my blog.

The Dunham Family of 5 said...

I'm with your boys! Oil of oregano was one of the worst parts of the trip!!!

Tracy:)