Friday in Ethiopia (part 3)

Off we went for our flight that was to be around 10pm. Within the first half an hour T had a meltdown. There was no consoling him. A few Ethiopian women came over and tried to help us calm him down. He would have none of it. The good mommy that I am I broke out baby Benadryl and gave it to T. We had done a test run with the Benadryl while in Ethiopia to make sure it made the boys drowsy. The test run was successful.

While we were waiting we had many people come over to us and ask us about the boys. Most were missionary workers. Then we heard our flight was going to be delayed. T was still having a hard time keeping it together.

There was a large group of teenage children from another African country with White English speaking leaders. These children and their leaders started to entertain us all with song and dance. From what they chose to sing we knew they were Christians. We all had such a good time listening to them.

Our flight didn’t end up leaving until around 12:30am. You may be thinking the boys were asleep by this point, nope. Not sure what happened to my trusty friend named Benadryl but both boys were wide-awake. We found our sits. There were right behind the row with the bulkhead. The backs of our seats were against the wall. You know how you can recline your seats on airplanes. You can’t if there’s a wall behind you. I felt screwed out of those few precious inches for 16 hours until we reached Washington, D.C.

As we buckled in T he had another meltdown. Again, a few Ethiopian women tried to calm him down. Again, he would have none of it. Yes we were that family with the screaming child for the ENTIRE flight. Okay literally it was not the entire flight but it was a lot of it. I know he must have slept at some point but I don’t remember when. The only one who slept was K and that wasn’t even much. But Boy did we eat well. I felt like a senior citizen in a retirement home, the one that spends their time thinking about and excitedly anticipating their next meal. You know you’ve traveled for a long time when you eat three meals on the same flight. We did stop in Rome to refuel and have a change in staff. Before we took off we all were instructed to buckle our seat belts. The plane isn’t moving yet and we try to buckle T in. This brought on another meltdown. The airline attendant came over to us and said something to the effect of "Can’t you make him stop." To which we replied, "No, we don’t even speak the same language. You try." So she did and it didn’t work. Then she said, "Why did you fly if this is how he reacts?" How helpful! Yes how stupid of us not to find alternate transportation from Ethiopia to the U.S. She must have realized the stupidity of her words because when we were getting off the plane she was very nice to us (or maybe she was just happy to see us go).

So there we were trying to make the best of our 16-hour flight with two boys who couldn’t understand a word we said. T continued to have meltdowns. As I looked at the others who sat around us no one seemed bothered by it. I had a bag full of new toys to keep the boys occupied. They worked on K but not on T. He couldn’t be bought.

K continued to have diarrhea. The lady in front of us offered her bassinet attached to the bulkhead. Although very tempting it wasn't a good idea because I didn't want to pass on what K had to her child. We didn't see any place to change K in the airplane bathrooms. I changed him where we sat.

Part 3 coming soon.