I usee this blog as a memory book for my kids more than anything, so I think it is important to blog our memories from our trip to Micah Awate.
We got up early for a 6am flight to JFK. We arrived at the airport to super long lines and LOTS of crabby travelers. We were met by the crankiest airline worker I've ever seen - and that says a lot. He kept shouting "I don't feel sorry for you! You should be here 2 hours before a domestic flight and 3 hours for international!" Just shouting that to the crowd in general - super big helper. The computers for people to do self check-in were not working - people were asking for help. Helpers were yelling at them. At one point the cranky airline worker says "What do these people think I am? Jesus Christ? I'm not a savior!" WOW!! I am glad he cleared that up - he was acting suspiciously like Christ would, so I was wondering....We were calmed by the fact that we had 24 hours in Dubai and we were willing to give up any of those hours. We were confident that any delays wouldn't interfere with our meeting with Micah. For some reason, the cranky man took pity on us and helped us checked in. We weren't charged a dime for luggage! What a blessing!
We arrived in Dubai around 8 am the next morning. I had paid attention to detail during this entire adoption process. Lots of details. Apparently, too many. I had no idea what hotel we were staying at or where it was located. Plus, I hadn't processed that we were getting there at 8am - the hotel wouldn't have a room ready until 3pm. We were exhausted and that sounded a little like torture. We found a travel agency that was willing to let us use her internet and get the hotel name off my email. We took a cab to the hotel. "For an minimal fee" we were able to check in early. Minimal is a relative term. We didn't do good calculations on the exchange rate. I was sure that we made the right decision. We ate breakfast, walked the hotel grounds a little and tried really hard to stay awake. We were mostly successful. There were a few points where we were sitting in the hotel lobby sleeping while waiting for our tour driver.
We took a drive in the sand dunes in a Land Cruiser. We were in a van with a couple from England and their three year old daughter, Alicia. They were great company and great medicine for a momma missing her babies at home.
The ride was crazy! It is like driving in snow and ice, but it's sand. Just to prove that I can sleep anywhere - I fell asleep during the ride a couple times. We slept the entire way back to the hotel and crashed! Tomorrow was the big day!!
