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

June 19

June 19

Today Kids Link (Orphanage) set up a shopping day for us. Our driver
Solomon picked us up and brought us to a blind and disabled persons
hospital. There they had a gift shop with some excellent crafts and
Ethiopian souveniers. We then drove to the top of Entoto mountain at
9500 feet elevation. (just 500 feet shy of mount bakers elevation) the
views of Addis were beautiful. The rest of the morning we spent
travelling around Addis collecting the typical Ethiopian souveniers
one might expect...

We spent the night packing by candle light because power got shut down
in Addis. Apparently we are lucky to only have had this incovenience
once. It happens quite regularly we are told...

We got an early nights sleep because tomorrow we are heading HOME!!!

We can't wait to see you all

Koen, Chris and Ezra

June 18

Christine finally enjoying the worlds best caramel machiatto.
And we both enjoyed a complementary massage at our guest house... Ahhh
the life...

June 18

Eye Contact?
Maybe just eye to big nose contact...