Saturday (8/22) & Sunday (8/23)

This was the least exciting part of the trip...at least until we actually got to Ethiopia!

Dwayne took us to the airport on Saturday morning...flight to Chicago and D.C. was uneventful. We did get exit row seats on the way over thanks to Kenny fast talking the flight attendant! Let me tell you though...I don't EVER desire to fly for 16-17 hours straight again! It is miserable to know that you have to sit in they same spot for that many hours! We boarded for our 8:30 pm flight...and didn't get off the plane again until 7:30 pm in Ethiopia...the NEXT day!

Once in Ethiopia, we stood in line for what seemed like an eternity (remember that we are starving at this point due to the stellar airplane food) to obtain our visa's to enter the country. Once through customs, we headed to get our bags and prayed that we would find someone that would be taking us to our guesthouse. We had anticipated finding other families with our agency on the plane ride, but all the adoptive families we talked with were with different agencies, so no luck there. Much to our surprise, we stepped into the sea of Ethiopian faces in the airport lobby to see a tiny sign that said "Cook Family". We decided to claim that as us (although we later questioned whether there could have been other Cook's...).

We had anticipated staying at the Yeka, but we were taken to the Amanaya Guesthouse instead...which is where the confusion set in, since we were not being taken to where we thought we should be. We kinda felt a little bit like we had been swept away in the night and rushed off to a strange and unfamiliar location. The staff at the guesthouse was expecting us, so that made us feel a little bit better.

We tucked in for a good night sleep (yeah, right!) before meeting our boys the next day...

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We just got back from taking the boys to their first appointment with the pediatrician. It went better than I expected, as both the boys were fairly compliant (of course, no shots today, so why wouldn't they be compliant?). We have two pretty healthy little guys!! Dr. Church was impressed. We do have another round of antibiotics for Sam...to finish clearing up what is most likely a combination of allergies, sinus infection and maybe a little bit of pneumonia. He felt like 2.5 was a pretty accurate age for Sam, but like us, feels like Charlie is probably a little older than 5. We will go later in the week for blood work for both boys (should be fun) and a bone scan to see if we can get a more accurate age for him.