Ethiopia Day 2/Day 3 Germany?

Ok, we haven’t posted in two days.  I’m going to try and make this a brief summary of what has happened.  Maybe at a later time I’ll give the full story of what’s happened.  To sum up the last two days, Vanessa got a virus and got severely dehydrated.  She’s been in 3 different hospitals in 2 different countries.  She is finally getting some sleep for the first time in about 30 hours.  I’m going on 40 hours now with no sleep and I just sat down to my first real meal in 2 days.  I’ve been living off energy bars.  We are currently in Germany waiting to fly home tomorrow.  We were able to go to court and give our answers to the judge.  So we fulfilled the requirements of our court date.  However, we do not know the results of the court because we have had little contact with anyone the last few days. 

To avoid dwelling on the negatives of the last few days, I’m going to take this time to share the good in all we’ve experienced the last few days.  We have seen God at work in many different people.  Many people, most strangers to us, have gone out of their way to get us to where we are now.  Here are some of those people:

Solomon: our driver in Ethiopia.  Not only did he drive me around Addis Ababa for 4 hours trying to find a Lufthansa Airline office so I could change our flights but he also spent a lot of time taking care of Vanessa while she was in the Ethiopian hospital. 

Matt and Andrew Pirotte:  They are brothers from Kansas, I think, that were volunteering at the Ethiopian Hospital.  One of them had just arrived the day before.  They made sure they stayed at the hospital until I could return and take Vanessa to the Airport.  It even made them miss a dinner (or at least late to it) that they were supposed to attend.  They were also the ones that took care of Vanessa, got her in good enough health to travel to Germany, and told us it was imperative that we get her to a better hospital in the event she went into a crisis because of her MG.  

The Illien Adoption Staff in Ethiopia: They were able to get us into court and in to see the judge within 30 minutes of calling them to tell them Vanessa was sick.  For those that have dealt with the Ethiopian court system, this was not an easy task. 

The Ethiopian Judge: She was going to just have Vanessa sign a power of attorney but instead went ahead with our court case so I could escort Vanessa home. 

Wes and Nina: A couple adopting from Ethiopia.  They went out of their way to help me find the Lufthansa office right before I had a nervous break down. 

Amy: Another person adopting from Ethiopia who was going to take Denver his picture book that we did not have a chance to take to him. 

There are many more that have been there with encouragement and prayers.  We are thankful for all of them.  Just so you know, Vanessa is doing much better and we expect to be able to make it back in OKC by tomorrow night.