Bringing Babies Home

Imagine two adults who are fairly well traveled flying internationally. Then imagine the same scenario, but each of those adults has to hold a baby the whole time. It definitely changes things!

We tried our best to pack light, but we were also brand new parents and wanted to be sure that we had everything on hand that the babies might need for the 18 hour international flight, a combined 7 hours of layovers and 5 hours of domestic flights. We checked our largest bag. But on the long trip from Ethiopia back home we still had one carry on item, one personal item and one baby each. We both agree that the airport was a much more difficult experience than the plane ride!

My favorite memory is of my dear, patient husband in a security check line with me. He was carrying our brand new son in a Baby Bjorn carrier on his chest. Unfortunately our son wasn't happy. And he let everyone know it. Poor baby boy screamed at the top of his lungs for about 20 minutes straight! Now that I'm a parent I know that this is much easier to take when you're not the one holding the baby. But when the baby is attached to you and screaming, you feel a strong desire to calm that baby down.

To make matters worse, hubby realized that he had a jacket on under the Baby Bjorn carrier which he would have to somehow remove before going through security.

We're totally new at all this!

He started working his way forward in the line, asking people if they minded if he got in front of them. Nobody minded. Not when he had a screaming baby attached to him. Baby girl and I stayed where we were in line.

When I finally caught up to him on the other side of the security check, he'd discovered the reason that baby boy wasn't happy. Poor thing had wet his diaper and it had soaked completely through his outfit.

And the Baby Bjorn carrier.

And daddy's outfit.

And we realized we had no baby wipes left.

Again, we're totally new at all this.

We didn't even have a change of clothes for either child. Who knew you'd need a change of clothes? I mean, why would a baby possibly need a change of clothes when you're looking ahead at a 30 hour trip? I had picked out a cute coming home outfit for each of them to meet friends and family in at the airport. So much for those!

Thankfully, we had the outfits with us that they had been wearing when we first met them in a carry on bag. I'm planning to save those outfits. So...they put them on again.

Yup, they.

Baby girl had wet through her outfit too. She was just less vocal about it. We're much more attentive to how often we change diapers now.

But, let me say that the plane ride itself wasn't all that bad. We had a number of people praying that the babies would do well on it, and I know the Lord heard and honored those prayers. Our international flight had other adopting families on it, so the tone of the flight was baby friendly. And our babies weren't the only ones who were fussy now and then. It was long. But we got through it just fine.

We are so glad to be home and settled!