Well, I didn't get the chance to post a blog in England, I wanted to savor every moment I had with my brothers and friends so was not on the computer much at all. The two weeks in Britain was just too short and unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see everyone we wanted to. Next time we will have to stay three to four weeks. But having said all that, it was an amazing blessed time. I'm going to try and blog about it in two parts as so much went on and I have so many cool photos to share.
From the very start of our trip, the favor of God was on us. To get to England we found some pretty cheap tickets with Ethiopia Air. I was sort of dreading it but they were a really great airline (much more helpful than some of the major airlines, let me tell ya!) It added an extra 12 hours to our travel time (we flew into Ethiopia), but we would totally do it again. In Addis Ababa, Jordan was like a celebrity, everyone was staring at her with her blond curls and all the women kept coming up and kissing her hands and head (she loved it!).
When we landed at Heathrow, the first thing out of Seth's mouth was, "Look at all the white people!" Then as we went through customs we had to go up an escalator and half way up Jude ran back down it screaming at the top of his lungs. Then Seth came running out of the toilet saying very loudly, "You don't have to flush the toilets, they do it by themselves". So I'm sure anyone behind us must have thought we'd just arrived from the moon.
We were met at the airport by our generous friends, the Drakes (they drove 2 hours to bring us the car) and then they took us out for a delicious English breakfast, not a bad way to be welcomed into the UK. Immediately the english climate hit us, it was rainy, windy and chilly. Once again, our thoughtful friends had put coats in the car for us, as we didn't have anything warm.
Getting to meet my little nephew, Joel, (above) for the first time was definitely the highlight of our stay. He and Jordan were just two peas in a pod, both very affectionate.
Jordan meeting Uncle Dan for the first time (my oldest brother).
Always great to see your siblings after four years. Dan is in Torquay, on the southern coast of England.
The beautiful English Riviera
It was soooo cold, we were hoping to have an afternoon on the beach but there was just no way.
Jordan celebrated her second birthday in England. Thank you Uncle Dan for the beautiful cake!
We visited the Dartmoor zoo, the inspiration for "We Bought a Zoo"
The real Benjamin Mee!
Our boys were fascinated by all the ladybirds in England
We did experience some culture shock coming back into a "western culture." Jake and I stood about five minutes in front of the apples section at the supermarket as there were just too many choices. We kept comparing and just couldn't decide, in the end we just grabbed any bag (it's been this way with a lot of things!). Every time I feel the kettle or a bottle up from the tap, my mind keeps telling me, "This is wrong!" Also people in long queues (lines) waiting to get on a bus or pay for something, always makes me do a double take. And people not locking their cars and even leaving their windows open seems really strange to me right now. And it is has also been really hard to throw any left over food in the trash, as we pretty much save everything and what is bad goes to one of the animals in our house or the orphanage. And for some strange reason, all the boys are obsessed, and I mean, obsessed with toilets. Everywhere we go they have to use the toilet about every 15 minutes. It doesn't matter if we are at someone's house or at a shop, they just have to check them out. Hopefully they are going to get over this really soon! But I think the kids have adjusted really well and are loving being here.
So more to come about England in the next blog. The Lord really blessed us while we were there, so that even as gas was $9 a gallon and we were driving a Landrover, we never lacked and got to visit everywhere we wanted to. I am so thankful for the goodness of God!
