The start of journaling

Arriving at Detroit

I did a good job of keeping up with journaling on the first 5 days of the trip. I will post much of what I wrote and then try to remember at least the basics of the last 5 days. Much of the second half of the trip will be saved for Levi's ears. He will hear as much as I can possibly remember from our meeting with his birth family. I have had a hard time knowing where to start in regards to sharing about Ethiopia and its people. I'll start with what has already been written and add to it as I go.


Wednesday June 10th:
So, is skipping down the jet way a bit much? I thought so. And yeah, I did it! Today we started our trip to come get you Levi Dereje! We had a flight to Detroit that was short and sweet (a mere 2 hours) followed by a 7 hour flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands. We have never flown on a plane for that long before and it wasn’t too bad. We watched a few movies, tried to sleep but weren’t successful, and just sat quietly next to each other thinking about the week ahead. What will it be like to meet you tomorrow? I think that it will be just as great as when we got to hold Juliana and Evan for the first time. We are coming Levi Dereje!

There was a song running in my head the entire flight to Detroit. It is a song called "God is Good" and I only know the chorus well, so that is what was in my head. This is how it goes:

How can I thank you?
What can I bring?
What can these poor hands lay at the feet of her King?
I’ll sing you a love song.
That’s all that I have.
To tell you I’m grateful.
For holding my life in your hands.

I feel so unworthy of this trip. I can think of so many reasons why I should not be the recipient of such a wonderful gift and only one reason why it is possible. God’s grace is abounding to sinners such as us. He will enable to do all that He has called for us to do in raising you Levi Dereje.

This is Sudan, which we actually didn't stopover at until Thursday. It was dark both times we flew over Ethiopia.