london heathrow

wow....remember what i said previously about two days travel feeling like three weeks??  yep, uh hum.....
where do we start?  how about a hello to my five little cherubs at home.  J, H, A, L, and H...we miss you and can't wait to be all together for Christmas....J&H, it feels very strange to be in so many similar places without our amazing travelling companions with us.  you'd be loving this too....well, most of it....
so, we boarded a VIA rail train Monday evening, dropped off by my brave brother Joe and my dad also along too for support.  barricades and road closures would not deter us.  Jeff had earlier dropped off our girls to his parents, and isn't quite sure how he made it home.  he surely felt protected and covered, and had conceded that we'd likely not even attempt to go to the train station after tackling what he saw on Confed. and Telfer.  but, thanks to Joe and some snow tires we got through just fine, and once we were at Modeland things drastically improved.  we waited for several hours in the train station, just happy to be there.  until the chill of no heat in the station began to take over and we started shivering. literally. we finally boarded and what should have been a four hour ride to TO turned into 8.5 hours.  frozen switches, disabled freight trains in front of us, shift change of engineers, etc....whatever, we were still thankful to be on our way.  we made it to TO with about an hour before we were supposed to check in for our first flight!  so, needless to say, we scrapped the hotel idea and went right to Pearson.  after a brief luggage scare when we appeared to have said good-bye to our cab driver without having possession of our personal clothing (good times), we located the missing bag and were on our way.  the flight to London was delayed an hour and a bit, but uneventful otherwise.  we slept a few hours in the airport here, and are now checked in and through security and will board shortly for the flight to Frankfurt.  then, about three hours after arriving there we'll board for the final leg to Africa.  amazing.....we should be in Addis by about 9:30 this evening.  they are eight hours ahead of us back home.  jeff and i are holding up fine.  the train ride was actually surprisingly refreshing, albeit long.  we thawed, we slept, read, talked (yay!! :) ) and just generally unwound after a very hectic and stressful day.  we sat in Pearson airport this morning...i mean yesterday morning, and listened to the news reports of the state of emergency back in Sarnia.  we hope and pray all are safe and warm.  what an adventurous ride that will surely make for an interesting read in AJ's lifebook one day.  we are so thankful to be here, and realize that in just two days we'll likely have AJ in our arms for good, for as long as we're blessed to be his parents.  thanks for praying for us.  we're doing well and will try to keep you posted as we go.  to dear Ome Jan and family in Holland, we are so close to Amsterdam that we really wish KLM could compete with airline fares, because it would have been great to see you all......hopefully the thought is worth something! :)
love to all....