In Flight Adventures

 Flying with Emme was so different then I had expected. I had honestly worked up a great deal of anxiety about this part of coming home. Here is a quick run down of our flight itinerary.

 Flying out of Addis Ababa Ethiopia to London-9.5hrs with a 1hr connection (staying on the plane) in Beirut. 3 hour layover at London Heathrow airport. London Hearthrow to Houston Texas 10.5 hours. 1hr 40min layover in Houston. Houston to Midland 1hr 10 min... finally HOME! 


Just seeing this all over again I get nervous. However, it was actually really great! She slept most of the way from Addis to London. I think she was awake for 2 hours of that flight. But... it was in the middle of the night and her body naturally wanted to sleep that long. I however slept none of that flight. Phillip slept most of it as well. Was I jealous?! YES!

Looking out the window while over some European country. 

We arrived in London around 8:30am (London time) and we were all starving. We ate good in that airport! Ha! Emme was so funny in the airport. She was fascinated by all the bright signs and things to see. She was not however fascinated in the automatic flushing potty or the automatic hand drier. She went into pure freak out mode. I couldn't help but laugh. We also discovered her LOVE of escalators while in the London airport and sitting by the window with daddy watching the planes fly in and take off.  It's the simple things y'all!

Aren't they the cutest little airplanes?

I was so excited to board the plane in London. This plane would take us to America. Where home is. Emme quickly fell asleep again on this flight and stayed asleep for quite awhile. This plane had individual movie screens, thank goodness. Emme spent most of the flight watching Princess and the Frog over and over and over. Without head phones mind you! I think we watched it 4 times while in and out of sleep. She slept, not me. Phillip also slept. We had one meltdown on this flight. It had been like 8 hours since Emme had gone to the restroom. I couldn't get her to even look at the bathroom on the plane. At this point we had another 8 hours to go until there were normal potties. She had to go wether she liked it or not. So.. Phillip and I teamed up and made her go. My poor sweet girl was beyond terrified. Out of pure horror when I pulled her pants down she peed everywhere, including on my legs and feet. Awesome!! But hey... She went! Ha! So I traveled the remainder of the way home with pee legs. I did finally get to sleep about 1.5hrs on this flight. It felt good since I had been awake since 6:30am Ethiopia time the day before!! 

*Turn my music off below to hear the sound!*

Emme singing one of her sweet little song in Amharic

Finally we arrived to Houston. Our plane was 15 min late getting there so Phillip and I were scrambling to get off the plane. I think I was literally running with Emme on one hip and my hands full of bags, all the way to the customs line! It was a long line. We knew for sure we weren't going to make our connection after seeing the line and knowing that we also had to go through immigration with Emme. I was heartbroken and started crying. Missing your flight home, the last flight of your journey, is a really big deal. So.... we made it through the looong line, got our passports stamped and were escorted to the immigration office. Where they told me only one parent could go in. OMG so naturally it was ME and Phillip had to wait. I needed Phillip with me. He is my safety net and my security at times. And this was really uncomfortable and I needed him. But they refused to let him go in too. So I sat in this room with 40 other people waiting for approval into the country. I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. Some to shameful to ever say out loud. All I needed was for them to stamp her passport. I sat and waited for what seemed like forever. Finally, with emotions way past 10 on the emotional radar I mustered up some nerve, went to the counter and asked how long this was supposed to take? I didn't just ask...I sobbed and asked through a river a tears flooding my eyes. I had completely lost it. I was beyond that point of tired where everything was funny. I was to the point of tired where everything makes you cry. And not just shed a few tears, I am talking weeping and looking really embarrassing. Emme looked at me like I was nuts. The officer behind the counter said "Ma'am, you will be next". Five minutes later I walked out of their office with her stamped visa in hand. The drama didn't end there. It turns out we did indeed miss our flight and.... the next flight out was FULL and if we wanted on it, 6, yes SIX people needed to not show up. Guys, I was praying in the spirit that these 6 people would miss their flight. I needed them to miss their flight so I could just get HOME! Finally at 9pm after harassing pressuring the poor lady at the Continental counter for seats, she told us we would be able to board. Again...here came my tears! This time tears of thankfulness and excitement! We were going HOME!!! 

Up Next... Our welcome home party at the Midland airport!!