Ethiopia

And then there were 4!

Wow! We have been home for more than a week now where has the time gone? First I must apologize to those that have pointed out our duty to keep you informed on how things are progressing here at home. Here goes... We are sorry for not updating since June 21st.

Life has been pretty hectic since coming home. Reuniting as a family after 12 days apart was rough and beautiful. Rough b/c most of us were crying at the airport a tearful reunion. We noticed the greatest differences in Kiara our two years old. When we left she was barely uttering sentences and upon our return she was stringing long sentences together. She looked like she had grown a foot while we were gone. This is just a perspective thing (since we were used to carrying and holding Ezra so much). Kiara just giggled uncontrollably when she first met Ezra... She kept saying his name and then laughing. she still does this every morning when she sees him after waking up. It's an accurate reflection of how we all feel. Giddy that he is finally home (it is still so unbelievable that he is now home).
All the girls just absolutely love him. Yelissa and Tianna are so good with holding him. Ezra is at peace with them (finally some brown faces for him to connect with after all those white faces being all up in his space).

Jet lag has been a killer. I had no idea it would be this bad. Those first few days were pure hell. By 4 o'clock our brains began to melt and our eyes rolled into the back of our heads. Of course that was right at what we affectionately call "4 oh freaking clock!" The time our kids are absolute bears after school just prior to dinner. Chris and I would share looks across the room indicating we did not think we would survive. I am glad to be able to report that jet lag eventually ends...

For the last week or so we have been sequestering ourselves and keeping things fairly low key. Family has come by to see Ezra and some close family freinds bt for the most part we are just home alone these days working on attachment with Ezra. Its been nice to focus on end of school activities and making a slow incremental adjustment to work at New Life. (Heading to work while Ezra is napping etc) This is all about to change tomorrow as we head to our annual Harambee Adoption Camp. A week long cultural camping experience with 60-70 other families that have adopted children of African Heritage. This is our 9th year going and we are super stoked. We are super grateful to the VanHuizen family for letting us use their trailer and offering to drive it out to Penticton for us what a huge gift that is... We will be gone for a week. This will hopefully give us a more relaxed opportunity to bond with Ezra in a holiday setting. The nice thing about the camp is that the people get the whole attachment process and will keep their distance and let us just do the whole attachment thing.

4 kids is VERY different then 3 kids. It feels like our family is complete and full. The journey has been insane but when we look at our now complete family we know it was worth every effort.

Thanks for following the blog...
For those of you that are part of the New Life family you'll hopefully get to see Ezra at Church on July 11th.
For those that are far away from Abby we hope we get to see you soon.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers well wishes, comments and support on this journey!!!

We will keep up the BeugelBlog (on a less consistent basis)
Time is much more valuable and elusive it seems with a family of 4, but we will do our best...

A final word: HUP HOLLAND HUP!!!

June 21st

June 21

Well we had a nice leisurely day at the Frankfurt Sheraton. A short
walk across the sky bridge gives us access to all the airport
restaurants and STARBUCKS!!! Still the worlds best caramel machiato is
found only in Ethiopia the birth place of coffee. Hmmm good...

Today we fly Frankfurt to Vancouver 10 hours and five minutes. We
leave at 7:40pm June 21st and arrive in Vancouver an hour and 5
minutes later... 8:45pm June 21st...
Dang that sucks!!! JET LAG here we come...

We are looking forward to just being home with the girls. For the last
few days we keep saying to eachother oh Yellie would love this or
Tianna would probably do this... Every time we see a picture of an
elephant we mimic Kiara and her animated dramatization of an
elephant... Hmm it's time to head back...

Ezra and Koen sent time watching soccer a great father son bonding
time. Ezra after a week of being with us has gotten increasingly
louder and more boisterous. We keep wondering why our children get so
loud and active... We have determined that it's probably related to
Koen's personality ;)

Well a few more hours to kill and off we go...

See you all soon...

Koen Chris and Ezra

Ezra in his first airplane!!!

Ezra sitting in an airplane baby basinet
These things are awesome!!!

Koenraad

June 20 (Fathers Day)

My first fathers day with Ezra and also my first fathers day without
our girls...

Homeward bound...
But first a run in with the German Bundes Polizei!!!

So apparently we do have to get a transit visa for Ezra... This we
discovered after being whisked away from the German border check point
by an officer of the airport border patrol.

After being told a number of times while we were in Addis that we did
NOT need a visa for Ezra we decided I should check it out at the
German embassy first hand. After showing up they told me I did not
need a visa for Ezra. I even tried to convince him that I did, but he
said if we stayed in a hotel in the airport we wouldn't need a visa.
So we changed our hotel reservations.
As it turns out you really do need it... We sat for two hours in a
white room with two locked doors while German officials decided what
to do with us... The options were:
1: Let us wander around in transit ie: no mans land (just like the
movie: Terminal with Tom Hanks) and not let us into Germany... no food
or hotel
2:Take two hours to get a transit visa fast tracked...

We choose the latter...
2 hours later we were on our way into Germany... With our son who
slept through the whole ordeal (thank you God!)
After locating our suitcases which of course were abandonded at the
carousel while we sat in no mans land... We arrived at our hotel...
Which was a welcome sight!!!

What an exhausting day!!!

Ezra travelled so well. Ethiopia airlines gave us a bulk head seat
with a baby bassinet which Ezra loved...
We did too...

The first leg of our return trip is done...
It was very eventful...
Let's hope tomorrow is less eventful and a bit more straight forward...

We'll be home soon..

Ezra in his big boy chair