Greetings from the Flower of Ethiopia!

From Tess Cox

It's 5:55 pm here which means that many of you have just gotten to work.
What a story just getting here has been.

Firstly, please allow me to apologize for any typos. 

I haven't slept in about 24 hours and even now the chair I'm sitting on feels like it's floating. 

Can't quite keep my head level....plus this Ethiopian keyboard is a little strange....!!!

Most of my teammates are in bed trying to catch 20 winks before heading out to dinner.  But I couldn't sleep before clearing my head.  (chocolate is helping) 

As most of you know, I wrote to you 5 days ago and asked you to pray because of an ominous feeling I had about the upcoming trip. 

In the past, that same feeling has truly foretold of something bad happening, meaning I need to pray and ask other to pray for whatever unknown situation was about to arise. 

Well two major things happened:

On Wednesday morning my Mom had a head on collision that put her into the ICU
Thursday a huge snowstorm hit Denver threatening my ability to leave town and make my flight to Ethiopia

All of your prayers were answered!!  My Mom has only a compression fracture in her spine which should heal with a brace and hopefully son she will be transferred to a medical rehab facility!  It could have been so much much much worse.  thank you for your prayers.

As for getting out of Denver. Thank God for my wonderful practice.  \my 7 pm flight was cancelled but I was told I could have a seat on the 12:30 flight. They so sensitively allowed me to skidaddle in the middle of the morning full of patients, taking my load and allowing me to make it through the snowstorm with only 5 minutes to spare before they would have refused to take my luggage.

Then, we were boarded onto the plane and proceeded to sit there for 45 minutes as the snow became a "white out."  The pilot said that somehow we had missed the window to be de-iced and therefore we would need to wait patiently for our turn. 
There were about 12 planes ahead of us for take-off!  UGH! 
We waited, we waited, and waited some more. 

An hour later they ca me to de-ice our plane, got half way through and stopped. 
It was snowing so hard we couldn't even see the de-icing machines. 

The pilot came back on and said that all the runways were covered with snow and closed.  So we would need to just sit and wait patiently for a runway to open.  So we waited, waited, waited some more!  Each time he came back on the intercom I cringed because I just knew they were going to tell us the airport was closed.  Then he came back on and we could actually see out the windows!  Then he said something that absolutely floored me: "Ladies and Gentlemen," he said, "we find ourselves in quite a "lucky" situation here.  Apparently there is One and only One runway open right now.  And, because we've all been waiting so long, all the planes in front of us are either low on gas or require repeat de-icing. They have had to turn around from the runway, and return to their gates. But because we have so recently been started in that process, they are going to finish the job and we are number 2 for takeoff!"

We sat there for two hours, no one single word of complaint...everyone just waiting patiently and hoping for the best...and we ended up being one of the only flights they allowed to take off.  I heard shortly after, they closed the airport. 

God meant for me to be in Ethiopia. 
Jerry Rubin was right...if it's God's will then it will be. 
It reminds me of something I heard Neil Anderson say one day:  "God's control cannot be calculated, God's Solution cannot be anticipated (amen to that!) and God's plan cannot be thwarted!

So, here I am.  Because of my constant journaling during our previous trips, they have asked me to be the official scribe. 

There is a special link set up for those updates and I will include that in my next update.

Just know that I am beyond tired, but heading to the Hilton for FOOD...because I am also quite hungry. 

May not be able to stay conscious the whole time, but there are some very big, strong handsome men in our group who, I have no doubt, would pick me up, sling me over their shoulder and make sure I get back to the hotel safely. 

By the way, we were treated like royalty.  When we arrived we found rose petals all over the lobby.  

Oh, and by the way, I met and had a very interesting conversation with the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia today.  He held quite a nice reception for us at the airport. Apparently, our trip has been officially sanctioned by the President and they will be holding a special dental clinic for those in need at the Presidential palace next week. 
Of course, I'll be back home by then, but at least I got to meet the Ambassador.

Blessings to all.  I promise to write more in depth tomorrow.  All I can remember from today is arriving in Addis through a huge stone arch that I never recall seeing before...because we arrived in the daylight for the first time....we always arrived late at night before.  I think this bodes well for noticing a lot of new things on this trip.  Please keep praying for me and my Mom.  Love to you all.  More tomorrow when I'm actually conscious.....

Tess