Travel
I have to admit the travel part was boring. There were no good movies on the plane so I watched one on my mom's i-pod. For those of you who are wondering how long the flight was, it was sixteen hours. That is long. I will never complain about the trip to my cousins' house again. I didn't even sleep the whole flight. When we landed I got sick. My mom thinks it was altitude sickness. When we were driving down the road it really struck me how much we have. Some of the houses were smaller than my bathroom. Then we saw some houses that looked as big as an average house in America. When we got to the guest house we were told as soon as we got situated we would go get Mari. When we got to the transition home Mari ran to my mom. The she was standing, looking at me like who are you? Then my mom told her I was her sister and she gave me a hug and we played for a while then we took her to lunch and she ate like a grown man! When we got back to the hotel I got sick again and then fell asleep till like 10 at night! The next morning we went to embassy and then we went to lunch and ate lamb and injera an Ethiopian flat bread. Then we went to the palace/museum and there was a picture of the princess and she looked just like me! the next day we went to the transition home and at lunch I ate weird ravioli. It was gross! Then we went back to the transition home for a couple of hours and then left. The next day we went to Entoto mountain and that was fun and saw another old palace on Entoto. Then went shopping and then went back to the guest house to pack. By then I was ready to be home. Going through the airport was tough with Mari. When we were waiting to board our plane we had to go through security again. Mari was asleep so I carried the bags for my mom. I was so tired I fell asleep during takeoff and slept till we landed in Rome and then stayed awake for the whole rest of the flight. When we were landing in D.C. Mari was screaming for forty five minutes. Mari didn't react to seeing America. The next flight to Atlanta I ate and was bored. While we were in the airport I was bored. When we boarded the plane I slept the whole way. When I saw everyone standing waiting I was so happy to see my family and friends. My mom was crying then we took a pic with Michael W. Smith. I would've been starstruck if I wasn't so tired! We stayed to watch someone else come home then we left! That's my story of when I went to Ethiopia!
Now that we are home I feel that God answered my prayers!
Ok, back to mama's commentary. I am so stinking proud of her. I love that in all the wonderful details she described, there is very little about the negative behavior of Mari toward her while we were in Ethiopia. I love that her sweet heart remembers the sights, smells, and adventure of Africa. And I love that she truly loves her little sister and sees her as the answer to her prayers because she did, in fact, pray for a sister from Africa for two solid years. I truly believe God used Katie to open our eyes to the reality of 147 million orphans and our ability to make a difference, one child at a time. I believe that Mari is home because of the fervent, faithful prayers of her big sister.
how awesome that your eldest daughter is journaling. in a few years maybe she'll have her own blog. love her account.
ReplyDeleteSo proud of Katie for recording her thoughts. I laughed out loud at the number of times she said she was bored on the plane. Poor girl - we ALL would be! I'm so glad she got to experience all of it, her little eyes have seen more than so much of the world than the rest of us. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteSweet, precious story! Thanks for sharing! What an amazing big sister she is! Love it! :)
ReplyDeleteso good:)
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