Friday, December 5th

So it was the night before our journey to Ethiopia, and both Joi and I were highly motivated. We were going to be leaving for Ethiopia in less than twelve hours, and to top things off we were going to be spending the evening with some of our favorite people in the world for Jade's 40th birthday party at McMennamin's Edgefield. Krista, our sister, had set the whole thing up. It was a surprise birthday party that was disguised as a get together with Joi and I for drinks prior to our trip. She rented a house that they rent for large parties, and decorated it. Jade was sick, and thinking about bailing, but I called and harassed him. I don't really think that he was going to bail, but there were a lot of people in on the surprise. It was a lot of fun, but I definitely did not want to be drunk or hungover on a long international flight, so Joi and I had a great time and turned in early. Our friends Sam and Morgan drove us to the airport at 4:30 the next morning. They weren't sleeping anyways. We boarded our United flight to DC and fell asleep. We were off to Ethiopia. I have to admit that there were a few times when we both confessed to each other that it was a very emotional flight for us, and we thought about Graham a lot. I don't remember a lot of the flight over given that we were in the air a lot, the shades on the aircraft were pulled, and I was watching movies on Matt's little I-pod.