When arriving at the Addis airport we were extremely exhausted. The night before we left our home in America we got just an hour and half of sleep. When we arrived little did we know that we would be in the airport for 3 hours or so. Since 2 pieces of luggage did not arrive Trent had to wait in a long, slow line to claim the pieces that would be arriving in the next few days. We are delirious about now and still needing to get our 22 bags through customs.
We roll in with our posse that is helping push our carts and they start going through the x-ray machine. One by one they started pulling the pieces aside to look at what was in them. In the end we only were getting taxed on our 24 inch flat screen that we bought in the states. We had receipt in hand ready to show them that we only paid 200.00 for it. Well they have a set price on this taxed item and let’s just say it’s more than we paid for it. We left it at the airport to discuss what we would do.
In the end we decided that we will pay the taxes on it. We feel it’s important for the kids to have it to watch movies on and to be able to play the wii. Okay so we may not be your average missionary’s b/c of this but you know what it’s us and we go ALL-OUT!!
We are riding through the city and I began smelling all the wonderful smells of this place we love, this place that is now home. On the way here I remember thinking on the plane that I really shouldn’t watch all the movies because I would need something to watch on the way back. Then it hit me…..oh we won’t be coming back. Reality is sinking in that this is our home.
We get to our neighborhood and we start to think these were our stomping grounds last summer. I must admit that I wasn’t felling confident in our journey ahead. I guess I just thought that I would arrive with boldness ready to love, but I found myself feeling a little bit out of place. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. When we pull in our driveway we see familiar faces of our girls. BIG SMILES and BIG HUGS were given; that was refreshing.
The house is more open than our home last summer. We have a bit more space BUT man does it have some work that needs to be done, LOTS of work. The next couple of weeks we will spend this time getting our home livable so that we can function as a family. Please pray for us through this process, we have a lot ahead of us.
We will be staying in a guest house for the next week which is a blessing because we can get away from the chaos and rest. We know that it will be very challenging possibly even more so than last summer but we know that once we get settled in; it will be on.