The day before we left, the U.S. embassy granted us our visas to travel to the United States. However one slightly alarming thing happened. They told us we would need to give original copies of our court ruling and guardianship order to customs in Entebbe and in Chicago. This would have meant that we would have no original copies of these documents for our dealings here in the U.S. However, upon reaching customs in Entebbe, we found out this wasn't true.
So, we were off! Our flight took off from Entebbe around midnight. We'd been talking up the airplane for about a week with the kids, so they were excited to see what it was like. All in all, we couldn't have asked anything more from them. When we reached the plane, they just kept pointing at it and staring, wide-eyed. When we got on the plane, both kids were very excited about having there own personal TV's in the their seats. Gideon slept about 90% of the flight to Brussels, Belgium, but Viola was far too fascinated with flipping between different movies to go to sleep. She didn't end up going to sleep till about 3 a.m. However, when she went down, she slept like a rock until our descent into Brussels. Around that time, she got a little motion sickness and spit up quite a bit of whatever was in her stomach. Of course, I got to be the one to catch it all [in my hands, naturally]. Sorry if that was too much of a visual for you.
Brussels was about a four hour layover. Gideon was all ready to go and explore the airport since he had 7 hours of sleep under his belt. Viola, however, was still very tired. So, Kristen left with Gideon to go to the transfer desk [we transferred to a different airline] and I got to sit with sleeping Viola, sip coffee, eat doughnuts, and watch the sun rise. It was quite pleasant. Even though we weren't home, that was the first real moment when I got to stop and think about the gravity of what we were finally accomplishing. I was overwhelmed with gratitude to our great God for the place he'd brought us to.
After Kristen got back, she informed me that I needed to take Viola over to the transfer desk as well to have them check our passports and paperwork. After all this was done, it wasn't too much longer before our flight into Chicago.
When we boarded the flight to Chicago, we were delighted to find out we'd been assigned the row right behind business class. This row has extra leg room and no seats in front of us for the kids to kick. Gideon was battling a little bit of a head cold, so the take off and landing for this flight was quite uncomfortable for him. After we were in the air awhile, both kids wanted their mommy [which is fairly typical]. So, I took a screaming Gideon to the back of the plane and rocked him in the bathroom for awhile. When I came out, the two flight attendants talked to me for around 15 minutes about our adoption, saying how awesome it was. After we went to sit down, they both came over and told us that the kids could sleep on the floor in front of our seats! They said 'We'll just tell the other flight attendants not to bother you.' Then, they brought us blankets and pillow from first class! For the rest of the flight, they were extra accommodating to us. The kids got to sleep for around four hours on the floor right in front of us.
The last scare of the trip was in Chicago. Upon reaching customs, they checked off on all the passports, but mine. A security guard came over and had us follow him to a back room. Mostly, this made us nervous because we only had about 90 minutes to land, go through customs, get our luggage, take a train to a different terminal, go through security, and find our gate for the flight to Cedar Rapids. After about 25 minutes, a security guard called me back and asked me a series of questions about the nature of the trip to Uganda and my job in America. I was glad when I learned he'd spent time in Waterloo. Once we made this connection, he let me go. I went back out to the waiting room to find a screaming Viola and a vehemently angry wife. After we left, I learned that Viola had run into an office where a meeting with several important-looking people from the Dept. of Homeland Security where seated. She got a
All things considered, we made it to our gate, only to find our flight delayed. We got back to Cedar Rapids an hour later than expected. But it didn't matter because all of our family was there to greet us. For an hour or so, the kids played with their Grandpa's, Grandma's, Great Grandpa, Great Grandma, and Aunts. We were very happy to see how quickly they warmed up to all of them.
Since then, we've been making the transition into Iowa living. The kids were a little surprised with the cold weather and having to be strapped into car seats in the car. Other than that, they've loved all the toys and food they now have access to. They were pretty freaked out by the dog at first, but that's getting better as well. All in all, they're transitioning very quickly. We couldn't be happier with how this step of the process has gone.
Remember to pray for us next week as Kristen and I both go back to work. This will almost absolutely be a difficult time for them as they haven't spent time away from both of us at all since we got them.
Looking forward to seeing you all!
Derek, Kristen, Viola, and Gideon
