Journal Entry 9-22-07

Sunday – 9/24

We went to the same restaurant that we were at the week before for breakfast, this time with Mehandis. It was fun to have him along. We sat there for a while and then went to the bathrooms to freshen up before going to find out gate for the ride back to Chicago. We did not know we had to go through security again since we did not on the way to Addis but we found a really long time to get to the area where our gate was located. But when security saw that we had a baby, they put us in the first class line and we got through security quickly. Soon we made it to our gate and we made sure we had a bassinette seat for the flight home.

We boarded the plane and Mehandis was in a great mood. We gave him a bottle and he quickly fell asleep. We got him in his bassinette and he was out.



We enjoyed a nice lunch and then watched Oceans 13 as we crossed the Atlantic. Shrek 3 was the second movie and it was not nearly as good as the first (I never saw the second one). On the landing in Chicago, we made sure we gave him a bottle this time and then I held and played with him and did all I could to prevent him from crying. I held him up in the air like he likes to do and got a lot of smiles out of him and waves from the people behind us. He did puke on me, the worst we had seen him do, but I just wiped us down and kept playing with him to keep him happy. I was so engrossed with him that I did not realize how close we were to landing and was surprised when we touched down.

We got off the plane around 12:30PM and went through customs and after getting our luggage, we went to immigration to get final approval. We had to wait for the customs official to come back from lunch to process us. So we used the time to change my shirt and Michele put a new homecoming outfit on Mehandis. But Michele was not done when the customs official arrived and Mehandis was just in his diaper when we brought him forward. He quickly took our paperwork, stamped the papers and we walked out to the free world. But we saw no one waiting for us, a small disappointment. But we saw another exit that had many more people waiting by it, so we walked over there. Soon we saw our parents waiting for us but they did not see us since they were looking through the doors and we were coming from the side. So we decided to sneak up on them and surprise them. They were plenty surprised and we had a happy homecoming!

We drove back to Michele’s parents (The K’s) house with my parents driving me and Mehandis and Michele were with the K’s.





We found out the K’s sold their house in a week! We talked about the trip and looked at pictures and ate snacks. My parents left around 4PM and we had a nice dinner together. However I felt so tired after dinner that I laid down on the couch and quickly fell asleep. Michele and her parents took care of Mehandis for a while and then at 7PM, all of us went to bed (well the three of us).

We all slept great that night, waking up Mehandis at 1AM to feed him (he was not crying but we thought it would be a good idea) and I slept to 5AM. So I basically slept 12 hours. I got up, checked my work e-mail and went back to bed at 6 to be with the family. We all got up at 6:30.

We had a nice breakfast with the K’s and soon after, we packed and drove home to Milwaukee. We arrived with Mehandis in our home around 12:30 in the afternoon on September 25th, 2006.



It is hard to believe having him here in the United States, it is surreal. You start this adoption process and the baby is only a concept until you receive the referral. Then you think and talk about a child that you only know as a picture for a couple of months. Then after a year starting the process, you get on a plane, meet him and bring him back to your home a week later. We are so lucky to have Mehandis and we are looking forward to our future together as a family.