Repatriation

“The act or process of restoring or returning someone or something to the country of origin, allegiance or citizenship.”

A word that wasn’t even in our vocabulary a few months ago; and yet, it has now become a part of our story forever.

We’ve officially been repatriated. Here we are. In the USA again. Restored and returned to our country of origin and citizenship. And, like so many other expatriates out there, incredibly uncertain of what’s next.

Our repatriation journey was quite the process. And it certainly wasn’t a decision that came lightly. We began hearing of repatriation flights happening around the world the end of March. We had no idea if one would come for us. Kenya was relatively stable and at that point had barely any cases of Covid-19. But still, it wasn’t long after that that we started talking about if a flight came - would we try to get on it?

The truth is, we went back and forth for weeks - all the while it wasn’t even an option. Kenya closed its borders (and the international airport) on March 25th. We were stuck. So talking about the possibility of a flight was somewhat maddening, because it wasn’t even an option.

Until it was.

We got word on Thursday, April 9th around 1:30pm that the US government had arranged a special flight out for American citizens for the following Tuesday, April 14th. The price was roughly $2,000USD per ticket from Nairobi to Washington D.C. Whoa. That was no small price tag! Especially when we are used to paying maybe half that for a round-trip ticket all the way from Nairobi to the West Coast of the USA!

Still, we had been talking and praying for weeks: if this became an option, would we take it? And we had mostly decided we would. We would put our trust in God and faithfully ask our friends and family who love us and support us so well if they would help. But that would all have to come AFTER we clicked the “Purchase Now” button. Deep breaths.

I would be lying if I said we didn’t hesitate that Thursday afternoon. We did. We went through the process to purchase the tickets, but we were apprehensive. It was a big deal! Nearly $10,000 just to get to Washington D.C.?! Are you kidding me? Still, we got all the way through the process, inputing all our names and birthdates, etc. and when we got to the “Purchase Now” part something happened. The screen refreshed. But instead of a confirmation of five seats on the plane, we were redirected to the homepage with a banner saying the tickets were no longer available.

Talk about a blow. It felt like we had just been punched in the gut. Literally. What just happened?! We refreshed and tried and tried again to get it to go through, but it was all for nothing. The plane was sold out. We got an official email notifying us of that just a few hours later.

Honestly, it took us a bit to recover from that. We missed our opportunity. Would there be another? Perhaps. But what if not? Now do we prepare to stay in Kenya for the long haul? Load up on groceries again and essentials to carry us through this thing? Or do we put our hope in another flight? If we do that, what if it sells out again?

The notification for the flight came through our email. We knew if another one was to come, it would also be announced with a link to purchase tickets through our email. So, we became attached to our devices, refreshing our email feeds every few minutes, and always one of us checking to see if anything had come in, ready to book tickets if they became available.

The good thing about missing the first flight was that it made us realize we really DID want to go. And not really even that we wanted to, but rather we knew it was the right thing for our family in this crazy time of Coronavirus. ‘

A little more than a week passed between the first email announcing the first flight and the second email announcing another flight. That week was tough. Filled with uncertainty and a lot of ups and downs. And way too much time spent checking our email.

But it finally came. On Friday, April 17th around 7pm we got the email and we immediately booked our seats to fly out of Nairobi on April 22nd. After that, we called our parents and immediately booked our Washington D.C. to Spokane flights. We arranged for a car to be dropped for us at the Spokane Airport and a house to stay in for the 14-day quarantine (thankfully we have amazing friends who happened to have a house available that they usually rent out on Airbnb but that was instead empty due to all the “Stay at Home” orders).

Groceries were purchased and placed in the home for us, toys and books and all sorts of activities were given for our kids to help them get through quarantine, and somehow we even secured bikes for all of us. Everything fell into place, and on my 35th birthday - April 23rd, 2020 - we landed on American soil. We were officially repatriated.

Wow. What a journey. Our kids were amazing the entire way. The two year old slept like a champ and was never cranky. We all wore masks the entire way and no one complained. We had the longest layover (8 hours) after the longest flight (18 hours!) but there was one Starbucks open and one restaurant in the terminal - our most favorite fast food spot: Chipotle! It really all feels like a miracle. It’s seriously so surreal to be here, sitting in this wonderful little house, just a few blocks up from the lake (my happy place) writing this post at the end of our 14-day quarantine. We did it. We made it. And we have no idea what’s next! 😬