The best birthday EVER!
The plane ride seems like a blur, but it actually went very well considering the kids. They pretty much slept through the flight to Amsterdam. The flight attendants were wonderful in helping us get the kids comfortable – in all the flights. We got to Amsterdam before 6:00 a.m. and the first thing we did was to find a place to eat breakfast. Would you believe the only place open at that time was McDonalds? The one place we have been vowing to not take our kids to. LOL! It did happen to be a very nice McDonalds in an area overlooking a whole section of the airport. So, to get there, the kids got to ride on the moving sidewalks for the first time, and the kids got to ride on a “lift” for the first time. There was also an escalator and we also rode on that for good measure. For the record, Aman ate his egg McMuffin and Serawit wouldn’t touch it. Good girl! Fortunately they also had croissants, and she had one of those. It was nice and quiet enough we just hung out there and watched the people until we had to find our gate.
The kids did well on the flight to Minneapolis, but Adam and I were grumpy. There were other babies sitting around us and the kids love the littler ones! We also realized that if you put a Serawit on a 9 hour flight, she’s going to need more anti-nausea medicine than what you give her before the flight. Found out the hard way. She was in Aman’s extra change of clothes when we landed.
Immigration took FOREVER! However, in line, would you believe the man standing behind us in line was Ethiopian. He was asking me about the kids and told me that he asked Aman if he spoke English and Aman said no. He asked him if we spoke Amharic and Aman said no. Then he asked how we communicate and Aman said “I don’t know.” LOL! We were a little leery about the Homeland Security officials, they were acting very cocky with everyone. However, when it was finally our turn, the guy was very nice, and made the kids laugh. Apparently he was adopted too. 
Because it took so long in immigration we had to scramble to make our flight, and did with just enough time for me to go find Serawit a cute top to wear on the way back.
Unfortunately by this time, the kids were so not wanting to go on another “air-o-plan” so we had to do some holding and comforting, but by the time we had to board they were fine. Also, again, the flight attendants were so helpful. The flight was only an hour, but it seemed to me like the worst flight of them all. I don’t know if my equilibrium was off but I felt every turn, every adjustment, and I didn’t like that at all. There weren’t a lot of clouds in the sky so Aman was able to look out the window and see everything. He was really amused. Serawit slept. However, by the time we landed, they were both excited to get off. We took out their picture books, and started going through the pictures of the family as we descended. We knew there would be some family, along with a couple of people from CHI waiting for us, but we weren’t prepared for all the flashing cameras. The kids hammed it up, but Adam and I were a bit overwhelmed. The grandparents got the kids teddy bears and bags of clothes and stuff. Somehow we made it through all that, baggage pickup, and into the limo we pre-paid for the ride home, so we could have the kids on our laps and not have to worry about anything.
We were all so tired when we brought them home that I got them settled in their rooms, we ordered Imo’s pizza (Aman ate some, Serawit would have none of it, but instead ate a banana), we gave them their baths and put them to bed. My head touched the pillow at 9:00. I vaguely remember Adam saying he was going to take the motorcycle out to get some allergy medicine.
The best birthday ever!