I am writing this from the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa. We want to let everyone know that we made it here. Everything has gone very smoothly. Here is a quick recap of the last 24 hours:

Flight to Rome & Ethiopia - Combined they were very long but they went well.  Ethiopian Airlines was great to travel with.  All the attendants were extremely nice and there was a noticeable difference between Ethiopian Airlines and US Carriers.  I would choose Ethiopian Airlines over the US carriers any day as not only were they very friendly but the service was top notch.  The flight was full of families and lots of kids so they are also very kid friendly.

Addis Ababa Airport - We arrived about 7:40PM Ethiopia time and the airport was not busy.  It was easy to get around.  We almost forgot to get our visas as you must do that right after you walk off the gate and before you to through immigration.  It was easy to get our visa as we waited in line for about 15 minutes, showed them our passport and an information card we got on the plan and paid $20 each.  After that we went to baggage claim where we waited for about 20 minutes for our luggage and it all made it here.

Girmachew - We then went through customs and met Girmachew our representative from American World.  He is extremely nice and very easy to talk to.  He had hired a driver for the week that will drive us around and they took us to the Hilton hotel where Girmachew took care of all the check-in while we waited.

Hilton Hotel - the hotel is nice and very easy to adjust to as it has a western feel to it.  It's all enclosed by a security wall and gate so it's also very safe.  Our room is a normal hotel room that does have high speed internet access (for a daily fee) and a hair dryer (this was a big question on our end as Courtney ended up buying a travel one... ladies no hair dryer needed, Hilton provides it.)  We ate dinner with Girmachew after we checked in at the restaurant downstairs.  We chose their buffett and the food was good (much better then the airplane food.)  We were avised to use bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth so we bought a large 1.8L bottle at the bar for 12.50 birr (whcih is ~$1.40 USD)

We're hoping to upload some video to our site but the connection isn't super fast so I'll let it upload over night.  If not we'll put some pictures up tomorrow after we see Noah at the orphanage!

Thanks everyone for praying for us and all your support.

Love,

Scott & Courtney