Part 6

Getting up to go to the airport at 1 AM was not as difficult as I thought. Ayana was fine, she always makes a crazy fuss when she wakes up, wether I wake her or she wakes up herself. She always cries. Anyway, we got the call that Solomon was downstairs and we dragged our luggage down. Ellie was VERY sad to be leaving Ethiopia, she cried a few times about it. But I think she was feeling excited to go home this day. We drove the 2 minutes to the airport and said our goodbyes to Solomon and Gerwechew. We gave them some money for the transition home and gifts for them both. They asked for our e-mail addresses, I have not heard from them. I would love to. Anyway, we checked in and waited to board. We got on the plane and it was virtually empty. We did not have a bulk head but it didn't matter. We took off and Ayana fell straight to sleep in my arms and immediately laid a huge stinky mess in her diaper. Once we were at altitude I had to change her. She usually cries her head off when I change her (a lot of times still does). So away I went. It went pretty well, the flip down change table worked very well. Anyway, the flights were all a blur of exhaustion and planes, and airports. Ayana was very content, and slept a lot or played. She was very attached to me, which was exactly what we wanted. It couldn't have gone better. Ellie was such an amazing traveller too. On the flight from Aman to London, Ellie and my Mom were sitting waaaay at the other end of the plane, in the same row, but Ellie seemed a million miles away. I was holding Ayana, and I just started to freak out. "Oh my God, what have I done???!! Oh my God!! Ellie is so far away!! What are we doing???" This was a very scary thing to have happen. I was, as I said, beyond exhausted, you cannot even imagine, and had been holding her in my arms for already about 8 hours. I was clearly overwhelmed and having a full blown panic attack. My Mom came to sit with me and then told Regan to "sit with your wife", as she knew I needed help. So Regan sat beside me and I hyperventilated as I sobbed. The people on the plane probably thought I was terrified of flying, or that someone died, it was that bad. Anyway, I talked to him about my feelings, and about my fears, and he was SO WONDERFUL. Holy moly. He just said, all of the right things in his very pleasant voice, and we even started to joke as we talked about other normal life stuff. I felt so much better. The other problem was that Ayana would not go to anyone else. And the thought of the next 20 hours was very daunting. We landed in London and went for something to eat. She sat in a highchair for the first time, and loved it! That was very liberating and fun to watch. She played and I fed her some cereal, and we ate and it felt great to not be on a plane. We had about 3 hours in London which was really nice, to not be rushed. As we were sitting there Ayana started to make the "I'm doin' some business" kind of face. We all laughed as usual, as it is actually very comical. Then I noticed that it was very wet sounding and looked down and realized that she had exploded so much that it was all over the highchair and on the FLOOR!!! Okay then! My Dad told me after we got home that my mom marveled with how calm I handled the situation. I actually was prepared for this sort of thing, so it did not surprize me or freak me out, and I was VERY VERY relieved that this did not happen ON THE PLANE and ALL OVER THE AIRPLANE SEAT AND ME!!! Could you IMAGINE????!! So I calmly took her to the bathroom after wiping off the seat and the floor and changed her and her clothes and put the offending clothes in the large ziplocs I had brought for specifically this purpose. We boarded the next plane for the London to Toronto leg. This is where I could have kicked myself for not going thru Frankfurt. Ugh. This would have been our last leg, but anyway. I realized that the last long flight Ellie was too far away, I wanted her to sit with me and Ayana. And since Ayana did not cry at all on the last two flights, Ellie thought she would like that. And this plane was AMAZING!! It was brand new, and it had those beds in first class that you can completely lay flat in them! they look like pods on a space ship! And we had TV's in the back of the seat in front with many movie channels and you would touch the screen. You could watch a movie over and over, AND you could pause, rewind and fast forward!! Ellie watched "Surf's UP" about 5 times. I watched it with her too. She stayed up WAY too late, but we had fun. Ayana even slept on the seat in between us for awhile. I felt much better having both of my children within arms reach. I felt much better in general. I even managed to dose on and off after Ellie fell into a deep deep sleep. Ayana woke up about 1 hour before we landed so I walked around with her a bit, and the flight attendents held her for a little while. My left arm was numb from holding her, but everyone was so impressed that she was such a quiet baby, and just dumbfounded that we had only had her for a few days! They thought she had been with us her whole little life!! We landed in Toronto and went to immigration where Ayana became a Canadian. A permenant resident. I got a little emotional here. It was so fast, but so profound. We all welcomed her to Canada, and a lot of the staff at the airport were just so excited for all of us. We were extra excited because this was our last plane ride and it was only 4 hours long! We got on the plane and I think Ellie fell asleep, I don't remember this flight at all. I really don't. We were all very tired. We got off the plane and walked towards our exit. Ayana had had another accident so she was now pantless in her onesie and a warm jacket wrapped in a blanket. (I ran out of clothes for her) I was a mess, my hair was disgusting and I was just yuck! The first person I saw was my brother in law Ken with his camera, then I saw my Dad. He came accross the ropes and was crying as he approached me and Ayana. It was so beautiful, I started to cry, he hugged us and looked at her, and then I noticed this GIANT line of our family just cheering and saying "Oooooh there she is!! She is so cute!!" My best friend was there, my sisters, and some of my neices and nephews. My Dad went straight for my Mom, I am sure he cried even harder when he was hugging her!! I don't think she will be allowed out of his sight for awhile! Ayana got passed around from one loving set of arms to another. Her God parents (my neice and nephew) held her, pictures were taken on Cell phones, it was just awesome! There were people watching, even some folks my sister knew who were waiting for someone else waited to see our reunion! Anyway, we waited by the baggage corral and chattered about everything. It was so WONDERFUL! To have everyone there. Just so moving and special. I loved seeing all of their faces, beaming at us. And Ayana did not make strange at all. Just stared very seriously at everyone. So cute! We then went out into the -25 weather. Everyone was so excited to see how she would react to the cold. I covered her head with her blanket and she actually held over her head! Everyone laughed and laughed. We got into the jeep and she settled into my lap. We chatted with Dad about this and that. Then we were home! I immediately went upstairs and put Ayana to bed who went to bed without a fuss. Regan made us some coconut shrimp and we stayed up till about 2 AM. The next day was the start of our new life, and we were so happy to be home safely with our new little girl.

To be continued.