My Dearest JP,

Well, if it were a perfect world, we'd be soaking in the sights and sounds of your birth country and feeling all the night-before flutters in anticipation of meeting you.  Instead, I'm sitting under the golden arches in Frankfurt, Germany hoping to get to Ethiopia by morning to see your beautiful face for the first time. Your dad and I have had quite the journey thus far and I wanted to write it down before the details left me.  We drove to Atlanta in fog and downpour yesterday and arrived at Hartsfield Airport at about 4 PM.  Our flight was scheduled to leave for Frankfurt at 6PM.  Luck so had it that our aircraft was struck by lightening landing in ATL!  You'll soon find out that your mama is a nervous flier and this news only frazzled me more than I normally am at an airport.  If that wasn't enough, I spotted two very suspicious passengers booked for our flight!  At some point between 6PM and 10PM when we finally left, the TSA came to our gate pacing around my suspects!  They left without find but I was still nervous to board our lightening-struck aircraft that suspicious fellas on it.  We were in the very back of the economy zone and your dad's lap tray wouldn't stay up for the entire flight!  Don't get me wrong, we're economy type of folk, but for your sake I might book business or first class when we come back to bring you home.  We had very turbulent conditions and your dad and I both thought we might get sick.  Daddy even broke out in a sweat and had to get out his barf bag!  We touched down in Frankfurt to a picture perfect winter scene and the land blanketed in snow.  It was sight to see but once again, made your nervous mama scared we'd skid off the runway.  Thankfully we touched down with no problems:)  We missed our connecting flight and were redirected 4 times before we had to wait for 1.5hr to get our next flight.  Once I got to the booking desk I politely informed the attendant that we had to get a flight before the next day so that we could meet our son before our court date.  Evidently Germans aren't use to this kind of helpful direction from their fliers because I was asked not to get hysterical!  We got it all worked out and we are now enduring our 9 hr layover before boarding our Ethiopian-bound plane.  I can't wait to see your sweet face and put all these travels woes behind me.  Seeing you will be all worth the setbacks we've encountered.  More to come from your hysterical Mother....