The Newest Landed Immigrant!

Well after 36 hours of travel we are home. We left Addis on March 17th and arrived at 11:40 pm on the 18th. Marie did excellant she was such a trooper. There were 6 other families traveling home all together with their children. This was our approximate itinerary:

Arrive at Bole international airport at 7:00 pm. Leave Addis around 10:00 pm. We were glad to have arrived the full three hours early because there was a glitch with one of our families tickets and they sat at the desk sorting it out until 15 minutes prior to boarding!

Arrive in Khartoum (Sudan) around midnight. Here we had a technical problem so we sat on the tarmac for about 2 hours waiting for them to fix the plane. This made the flight about 10 hours instead of 8. Most of the kids did awesome on this flight although for some of the older ones, it was the first time being buckled in anywhere and they were not impressed with that aspect. All in all though, they were really good. Jeremy and I took turns holding Marie (she weighs 12 kilos and did not have her own seat) and sleeping.

Arrive in Frankfurt around 6:00 AM. We parked ourselves in the McDonald's for our 6 hour wait due mostly to the location in the airport (close to two bathrooms and the shower) and the fact that we knew they would not kick us out. Jeremy and I each paid an appalling $8 US each to have a shower (yes it was worth it!). The prices in Frankfurt after the prices in Addis were quite appalling. At McDonald's Jeremy paid over five euros for an orange juice, a coffee and a croissant! We passed the time chasing the kids around alternating sleeping with our heads on the table. At the end of this layover we said goodbye to Deb Northcott (one of the directors of CAFAC) and an awesome family with two gorgeous little boys (ages 3 and 1). They were travelling via Calgary instead of Toronto.

Arrived in Toronto around 4 pm. This flight took 8 or 9 hours and was probably the easiest leg for us because we scored bulkhead seating and had a bassinet to lay Marie down in. This meant that when she slept we could also sleep. When she was awake, there was enough room at our feet for her to play on the floor. The only time she cried the entire flight was when Jeremy took her to the itty bitty little bathroom to change a dirty diaper. When we arrived in Toronto we passed through customs and immigration which was a breeze. The airport officials were friendly and helpful and we did the whole process in around 30 minutes. At this point she was officially a landed immigrant to Canada! It felt good to be back on Canadian soil even if we were still far from home. We celebrated by taking Marie to Tim Horton's for the first time ever. Yup she is now officially Canadian! On this layover (approx 4 hours). We said goodbye to the rest of the families. This was sad for us because we made some great friends and we are all scattered around the country. The closest family to us is in Vancouver, the rest are all in the prairie provinces. We got onto the flight home around 8 pm. All three of us slept the majority of the flight. We arrived home somewhere around 11 pm. Ryan, Paul, Nina, Mom and Dad, Erin and Devin and Auntie Sylvia and Uncle Bryn were all there at the gate ready to greet us with big smiles on. It was the best homecoming ever. Marie did great, she did not mind being passed around and was fantastic through the big hugs her new brothers gave with great exuberance! She did not even mind being strapped into her car seat. We drove home Caravan style and did not get into bed until around 1 am. It was fantastic. Paul had a hard time going back to sleep and so he was awake until around 2 am. Jeremy and I took shifts of sleep and awake because after all that good behaviour on the plane, Marie was wide awake and raring to go. She slept maybe 45 minutes all night. I have never been more tired in my entire life.

In the morning we all got up and played. The boys were stellar, the brought her toys and played with her and distracted her during diaper changes. They are the most awesome big brothers a little girl could ever hope for. Later in the day we went for a walk down to the lake. We came home and had lunch and my Mom came and took the boys out so that we could have a nap. Jeremy and Marie and I were down for around 5 hours. We drove out to Mom and Dad's and had dinner there, then brought everyone home to bed. We all slept like logs from around 8 pm till 5 (except Jeremy who has been up since 3). The boys are still asleep and Jeremy is busy trying to get Marie down for her morning nap. It is good to be home. I will post about our time in Addis later. We meant to do it during the trip but Ethiopia has blocked blogger.com and so we could not access it.