Part Two: Toronto to Frankfurt

We left Toronto at 6:30pm and the kids enjoyed watching TV, ate some
supper and then fell asleep about 9:30pm. The flight went quite well
though I didn’t get much sleep. Sonia was distracted by all the
televisions on and the people so I ended up walking with her allowing
the children to stretch out on our seats and on the floor. Rolf and
Nadia were across the aisle.
We asked a few kids to pray that our children would wake up happy when
we woke them up to get off the plane in Frankfurt. Answered prayer!
They were all cheerful after only 3 hours of sleep. The stewardesses
were very helpful getting off the plane but we discovered we had a
missing carry-on piece. It was likely left behind in Toronto at the
gate.
How discouraging as it was the carry-on with ALL our DVDs and CDs (many
which I had hoped to copy before leaving home because they were
homeschool resources). This didn’t happen because our computer
screen crashed a week before leaving and wasn’t functional until 5
days later. Of course, as I lie awake at night, I wonder why I put
them all in the same carry-on. Why didn’t I properly mark the carry-on
in the inside (it is possible Nadia ripped off the tag on the outside
which is why it will take a miracle to be found.)
We managed to get onto the bus to the airport (barely as we struggled
under our carry-ons). When we arrived, Kalia and Joel both felt ill.
We found a quiet area and lay blankets down.
5 hours was supposed to be enough time to get some rest for our next
flight. Instead, I was busy in the bathroom with 3 sick children.
Air sicknesses? Flu? Not sure but thankfully we didn’t soil any
clothing or floors in the process. Those airplane baggies really do
work!
Rolf went to look into our lost luggage situation and a possible
internet connection....not successful. We found no helpful people
in Frankfurt to our dismay but from past experience we weren’t
surprised. It is a busy and cold airport. We decided to head to
our gate and just wait there. Empty seats – hurray!
We relaxed for 20 minutes and were then told we had to leave our seats
because another flight was boarding. So we moved, not so cheerfully
on my part, with our 5 children and 12 carry-ons to an area 20 feet
away. By this time, we were all so tired that we lay on the kids’
blankets on the floor. Rolf tried to find a helpful person.
Kalia threw up again (into her airplane baggie) and the kids and I
fell asleep. (Actually I almost passed out I was so tired). ½ hour
later, Rolf woke us up to tell us the bad news. Our gate had changed
and we had to go back upstairs. I was not impressed by his “sense of
humour”.
It wasn’t a joke. This time our children were not so cheerful and
none of them were able to carry their bags. There was no way we
could move without help. I called out to the Lord, “Is there any
righteous person in Frankfurt? Please send someone!” A few minutes
later (yes we were actually glued to our spot unable to move without
help), a ticket agent asked us if we needed help. Hmm...yes. She
graciously helped by transporting several roller bags to our gate.
We were just in time for boarding (where did the 5 hours go?) Our
children were all so tired, 3 of them needing to be held. We boarded
a bus and they all promptly fell asleep. 10 minutes later, we had to
wake them up and board the plane. A fellow passenger helped us out.
Thank you Lord.
Truly, I felt so bad for us. Kids crying, Kalia sick and all of us
sleep deprived. We found our seats were scattered and the
stewardesses were so helpful. They promptly gave us 2 rows across
from each other so that I could sit with 3 children and Rolf with one
plus Sonia on a lap. I am sure they felt we were crazy moving to
Ethiopia with 5 young children. At that moment, I felt the same way.
What are we doing?
We settled our exhausted bodies into our seats and life drastically
improved. Kalia still felt ill and threw up again into a bag but we
knew this was the beginning of the end.
*Sorry no pictures for this part 2 of the journey. I decided I didn’t
want the children to have more than a distant memory of this aspect of
the trip and neither do I.