Home sweet Home!!!

Arriving in Seattle after being awake for 40 some hours we stumbled into the arms of Papa, Jake, Pete, Hannah, Ruth and Isaiah at Seatac. They were all clad in baby blue tee shirts with Team Carlson written on the back. After gathering our luggage I glanced over at our enlarged family and realized the huge necessity for the good old ‘buddy system’. So we all grabbed a partner and a bag and ventured out into the crazy snow storm which was bearing down on the Puget Sound. Of course fitting 10 people into a 9 seater suburban had its challenges, but after snuggling in for a few hours we arrived at Elder Road. Now up in Ferndale the Nor’ Easter, as they call it, rips through Ferndale with 50 mph. winds this time of year. This causes huge snow drifts that block the road with 30 yards of snow which are 2 to 4 feet deep that if you are lucky you can plow through. Once we were in our driveway, Jake, Pete and Boone shuttled the kids into the house through the snow and wind. Every one was tucked into our warm and cozy Christmas decorated house by 4:00 in the morning.

Now let me back up a bit and tell you about our time in Ethiopia and our 3 Ethiopian princesses. Our final day was quite wonderful. Our awesome driver, an Ethiopian man, named Musfin ( who allowed me to call him Muffin because this dumb American kept mis-pronouncing his name) took me to the Orphanage to pick up our girls. After many, many tears and hugs Halima, Aminat and Fatuma said goodbye to Kidani Merrit, the place they had called home for the last 5 years.

The orphanage run by the nuns is an amazing place. Our girls were so very loved by the sister, the cooks and the teachers it was very reassuring that they were in fact very bonded to them and would in turn be able to bond with us. Amongst the tears I asked them “are you o.k.” and they said, “Yes, yes, we are ready to go to America”. Muffin brought us to our hotel so we could bathe the girls, because KM, the orphanage, does not have water 80% of the time. After Halima bathed she was stepping out onto the balcony of the hotel room and did not happen to see the plate glass sliding door and shattered it with her forehead and knee. Halima was stunned and embarrassed, but I checked her head, which had a small cut and a growing bump, but she was O.K. She was very concerned that she had just broke the window, but I reassured her it was no big deal and that I was so glad she was not hurt badly.

Our flight would not leave Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia, until 10 that night so we ventured out into the markets to pickup some last minute gifts. Muffin new all the shops to go to and was absolutely a key component in shopping at the market. I would go into a shop pick out items and then he would come in and wrestle with the price. This is just how it is done- Americans if they don’t have a driver get taken to the cleaners. Later that night we went out to eat and hooked up with two of the girls very special mentors from KM, Mesereth and Jeppi. These two beautiful women loved our girls well and we all celebrated that night. As the day was coming to a close we made our way to the airport.
While waiting in my first line I began to feel a bit sick. I raced to the bathroom. Halima followed me with great concern. While pale faced and bowed over the toilet, I told her I would be fine, but she began to cry. (From my reading the last few months I new instantly why she was full of fear- she was having a flashback to when her birth mom was terribly sick with AIDS and died right in front of her. ) I reassured her that Mama and her hope for a new future would not die in the restroom of the Addis Ababa lavatory, and that I just had eaten something that did not agree with me.

This was the beginning of 35 hours of nausea, throwing up etc…….you get the picture! It was perfect timing because I was about to embark on the first leg of our trip – 17 hours, shoulder to shoulder with 200 people in an old Boeing 747. One of my memories of that ‘not so fun time’ was looking up from my paper barf bag at Fatuma (our youngest princesses -who is 4 years old weighs 30 pounds tops, and has huge beautiful brown eyes that take up half her face- we call her little bird- she is tiny) Well, I looked up and there was little bird sitting next to me devouring the food on her airline tray. Every tub of butter, container of jam, salt, pepper, sugar, roll, yogurt, fruit, juice, milk, rice and curried chicken was devoured with great intensity. Wrappers and lids were strewn all over the aisle of the plane, yogurt, tea, and coke were spilled all over and I was in such a daze I just looked and returned to my barf bag.

Eventually, the flight attendant escorted me back to the galley of the plane and motioned me to the floor where she had laid a thin blanket and a pillow for me. This was a life saver and I was very thankful. After many more delightful trips to the 2 foot by 2 foot –not so clean bathroom we finally exited that plane, but the trip was far from over hours in immigration, customs, visa lines, a flight into Washington D.C. a wait and then onto O’hara and finally to Seattle. We counted our blessings because of the storm we were the last flight allowed into Seatac that night- Thank you Jesus at that point!

I will write more later about our beautiful African
princesses
Annie