Our Journey to Ghana (part 2)

After writing the first post I am realizing this may end up being more like a four part series and not two as I had originally thought.

We finally landed in Ghana around 2:00am. Having no idea how to navigate our way through the airport we just followed everyone else from the flight. Anxiously waited in line as we went through customs and was just hoping I answered all of the questions correctly.

Onto baggage claim. We had thought we strategically marked our black suitcases, soon to find out a few others had the same idea! I tried to quickly glance over everyone else’s bags to make sure ours didn’t mistakenly end up on their cart.

Thankful we had almost all of them, but soon realizing the one bag still missing was my mine! As the bags and people dwindled down, I had to face the reality that my bag was officially lost. So we moved on to filing the lost bag claim, where I was told it would probably arrive in one day. Grateful they didn’t know or tell me the reality of how long it would actually take to get, because I probably would have had a meltdown at this point.

Now almost 3:00am and there was still no sight of our driver and we had no clue where we were going. We were approaching the last door that led outside. It looked like there were a few people waiting behind a gate along with numerous taxis that I was praying we wouldn’t need to use. I had no plan B for this scenario and was ready to camp out at the airport until morning in the case we were stranded.

Prayers answered!! I about jumped out of my skin and had to fight back tears when I saw our driver waiting for us! A rush of relief!! I repeatedly thanked him for waiting for us for over 5 hours!

We arrived at the hotel nervous, excited, overwhelmed, exhausted and the list goes on. Most ready to catch some sleep as we had another driver scheduled to pick us up for church at 7:45am. Who could sleep?!? We were in Africa!! We were meeting our sons in 12 hours!!!!

We had both just finally fell asleep when the alarm went off. Here’s to hoping adrenaline would be enough to get me through the day. Waiting for our driver 7:45 came and went, soon it was 8:15. So I decided to give him a call.

He assured me he would be there at 8:00. We went back downstairs as we thought that meant he would be there any minute only to realize it was really only 7am!! Our phones didn’t switch the hour difference from Frankfurt and at this point we were really wishing for that hour of potential sleep back!

I guess we were ready an hour early and he happened to show up an hour late! Finally at 8:45 he picked us up for 8:00 church. I told him we would be back in 15 minutes, not knowing Mass in Ghana isn’t the typical American one hour. Nonetheless I was grateful we had that time to pray before meeting the boys, not to mention it was the Feast of the Holy Family.

I was flooded with emotions as I continually counted down the hours until we would meet our sons for the first time. I tried to put my feelings on paper and write them down, but it was all beyond words. Feelings so new and so profound.

Unsure if I could hold it together and not become an emotional mess. Having loved them for years, now finally able to hold them in my arms. Most of all I couldn’t wait to see them smile!