A Family is Complete!

We're home!  I apologize about the delay but I did not have the energy to even log on when we got home yesterday.   On Tuesday night we went to Bole Airport in Addis Ababa to go home.  It is always with a heavy heart and mixed emotions when I leave there.  For one I am excited to get home and see my daughter Josina and friends and family and am also abler to show off Sophie. One the other hand there are so many people that we started to get to know in Addis.  Also the weight of knowing that we are taking a little girl from her home country and people is difficult even thought we are bringing her to a better life that she was chosen for.

On the flight from Addis to Frankfurt we were fortunate enough  to have a seat with a bassonette for Sophie.  She was great and slept a good part of the trip. I did sleep a couple of hours but Tammy did not. The flight attendant on Lufthansa was originally from Ethiopia and was a big help. She is also trying to match Sophie up with her year old boy.  The flight was on time and we arrived in Frankfurt about 5:30 AM local time.  That airport is confusion, makes Heathrow look easy, and the staff there are not particularly helpful in contrast to Lufthansa in plane staff who are the best I have ever seen.  We could not get seats with a bassonette for the Frankfurt Calgary trip.  We were in a three seat row and the flight attendants once again were great and moved the the guy in our row.  This way Sophie could sleep in the seat between us.  Before we took off she was been silly and was making the loudest raspberry noises.  For about 4 rows behind us everyone was laughing out loud.  She was great.  She did take a couple of naps and I did take her on a few walks around the plane.  Only on the final descent did she get upset and was really screaming for about 15 minutes. Customs and immigration was a breeze.  In fact the guy at immigration did not understand that Sophie who was traveling with an Ethiopian passport could be a Canadian citizen and that the visa said so.  We could have told him anything and he would have believed us.  Then we had a fantastic welcoming group waiting for us at the airport.  Grandparents, aunts, friends etc were all cheering.  The bet of all was seeing Josina and was she excited to see baby sister "rophie".  Lots of hugs, kisses and tears.  Sophie really seems to like Josina.  She has also had a pretty good night with a period of about 5 hours straight sleep.

Now our family is complete.  We never thought that we would ever see this day.  Now2 we are hoping to have a more "normal" and "boring" life without talk of paperwork, slow downs and adoption.  I am ready to be just a daddy to my girls and and hubby to my wife.  I could not have done any of this without the hard work from Tammy.  She kept to process on track and me too and for this I am forever thankful!

Josina seems to have had a great time with her Oma's, Opa's, Tante, Uncles and especially her Auntie Karen.  We can't thank all of you enough for what you have done so that we could travel without worrying about Josina.  For the next couple of days my girls get to enjoy their 'Bamma from BC. Over the next week or two we will sift through video and pictures and get them posted here.

It was also comforting to know that people from all over the world were following our travels here and supporting us with their prayers and thoughts etc.