One year ago today, after about 24 hours of travel, we made it home from China! I originally had several homecoming posts covering it all, but I've combined it all here. What a crazy, amazing journey it was:
We packed as much as we could the night before we left China. Friday,
Nov 22 we got up around 5am, as we had to be ready to go by 5:45. We
boiled one last bottle of water for Maggie's bottle and off we went. We
said goodbye to our wonderful guide Jason and he put us in a van with a
driver who would take us to Hong Kong. We thought the trip would take
about 2.5 hours from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, but it took about 3. It's
so strange to be alone in a van with a stranger who doesn't speak your
language! We were really on our own without our guide and it was a
little nerve wracking. But I knew our agency would only put us in the
best of hands and our driver seemed to be very nice. The van we were in
was a newer Toyota, with the steering wheel on the right-hand side
since they drive on the left side of the road in Hong Kong (in China
they drive on the same side we do).
We had to go over the border into Hong Kong. This was a little crazy, as
we had to wait in long lines and then show our documents and have our
van and luggage inspected. I kept making sure we had our passports in
hand and not lose them on the last day! At one point at the border
someone came over and pointed a little gun-like laser thing at us...
we're thinking they took our temperature to make sure we were okay to
cross over into Hong Kong! Maggie did well in the van, but didn't sleep
a wink despite being woken up so early.
We finally got to the Hong Kong airport, which was massive. We got all
checked in and on our way to our gate. It took FOREVER to get to our
gate, it was such a huge airport. The crowds there are just so crazy,
people everywhere! They wouldn't let us bring our thermos of extra hot
water for future bottles for Maggie. We had to dump it and then go get
more from a restaurant once we were past security. Finally it was time
to board the long flight home... only to discover they made just about
everyone step aside before boarding the plane and search our carry-ons!
We had to throw out our liquids again... ugh! More security steps
there than in our other flights for some reason. We were on the same
flight as 3 other adoptive families. We had no idea what to expect
flying for nearly 15 hours with our new little ones! Once on the plane,
we realized the other families were in the back but we lucked out.
Although we paid for economy seats (and chose not to get a seat for
Maggie since she's so little-we only had to get her a lap ticket), we
requested an infant crib. I guess that automatically bumped us up to
economy plus seating where there was space for a crib, which was so much
nicer. We were right behind the bulkhead, so we had lots more leg
room. There were some drawbacks, though, to sitting there. All our
carry-ons had to be stashed up above since there were no seats in front
of us to put them under. We were one of the last ones on the plane so
there weren't any places up above for our stuff, so our bags ended up
being scattered about the plane, which was frustrating. We had lots of
baby supplies in there that we couldn't get to initially.
At this point Maggie was losing patience since we had already been awake
for so many hours. We desperately had to track down a flight attendant
before take off for hot water (she'll only take her formula hot, typical
for Chinese babies).
So we were a little rattled at first. We were in the middle group of
seats, with a very nice but larger man in our group of 3 with us. Of
course the crib attached to the bulkhead in front of him, so after we
got settled into the flight, we switched seats so the crib could be in
front of us. I was able to get Maggie to sleep in my arms a couple of
times, only to have her wake soon after very upset. The flight
attendants were so sweet and tried to help. They attached the crib but
Maggie was NOT going to lay in there for anything. Being in the front
of the entire economy and economy plus sections put us pretty much on
display, so we did everything we could just to keep her quiet. But
having the crib there was pretty nice anyway, we used it to stash her
toys, feeding equipment, blanket, etc.
We quickly realized that getting her to sleep on the long flight home
was going to be no easy task. I spent a good amount of time standing up
and bouncing with her. We gave her some Benadryl (don't judge!) and
that didn't really seem to help either... we did finally get her to
sleep in a couple small stretches, I think she slept a total of 5 hours
on an almost 15 hour flight. The rest of the time we had to just pass
her back and forth and try to keep her happy. We took turns getting
some rest, but we didn't sleep much. I did watch one of my favorite
movies, Crazy Stupid Love. I was probably a little slap happy at that
point, but I was literally laughing out loud on the dark plane while
people were sleeping. I so needed a comedy break at that point!
So the flight wasn't easy but it wasn't terrible either. She didn't
sleep much, but she really didn't fuss that much either. I'm just so
thankful she didn't scream the entire time!! I tell you, I have never
been so happy for a plane to land in all my life as I felt when we
finally landed in Chicago. Maggie officially became an American citizen
when that plane touched down. I wanted to hoot and holler a bit, but
everyone else was subdued so I held it in. :)
In the van on the way to Hong Kong.
Sights of Hong Kong.
One of her few cat naps on the plane.
We spent many hours doing this... just her standing in my lap wiggling....
And being silly.....
And oh so tired!
We were beyond exhausted, but we had one last leg of our journey. We
had to deplane, get her stroller and carry-ons and then get our checked
luggage, despite having a connecting flight! Such a pain. We had to grab
that and then wait in line for a while to go through customs. Then
onto another wait at immigration. It took a while but went smoothly for
the most part. We did have one glitch-we were supposed to go thru a
security check after immigrations and Jeremy lost a little form we were
supposed to turn in. We thought we had to get out of line and go find
it, but the security guards there kindly waved us through. My dear
husband has a habit of misplacing things, and we had been awake for a
very long time at that point and I started to panic. I was SO happy they
let us go through anyway, I wanted to hug that guards!! Then we had to
re-check our bags and go thru the main security again. C.R.A.Z.Y. But
we did it.
Then we had a couple hours of down time to regroup before our last
flight. We said goodbye to the other families we had been with the
entire trip, as we all went off to different final flights. We had
avoided salads in China, so I was craving a salad and a big iced tea
with ice!! I had that, Maggie and I changed our clothes and before we
knew it it was time to board our sixth plane out of 6 flights. They
changed our gate at the last minute and for a moment we were afraid we
were going to miss the flight, but thankfully we got there in time.
I have to say I handled nearly everything about this trip with unusual
ease. I don't love traveling for long amounts of time and I really
don't like flying. I'm a homebody. But I feel like I was filled with
extra strength during those 17 days, and I felt next to no anxiety for
the entire trip. Those of you who know me well know how amazing that is!
It was awesome to not fret about things that I normally would have
fretted about. We kept our cool on the long flight home and I thought
that last flight would be cake.
But when we got on that last plane, Maggie started to panic and so did
I. She just hit an absolute wall from all the traveling and lack of
sleep and boy did she scream. Loud. It was a TINY plane, which I hate.
We were in the 2nd to last row and I could just feel everyone's
annoyance at our screaming baby!! The more she screamed the more I lost
my cool... then when the plane took off I was just an emotional mess. I
wanted her to stop crying and I wanted off that tiny bus in the sky. I
don't know why it freaked me out so much, I think I just had nothing
left to give at that point. Plus I just kept imagining seeing my kids
again after 17 days and I couldn't stop the tears from streaming. I
think the women behind us thought I was crazy! Thankfully it was only
about an hour's flight and I was PRAISING the LORD when we landed.
We had done it. We made it through 17 days of uncertainty, the trip of a
lifetime, got our girl and made it back home. I was much calmer by the
time we got off the flight from Chicago, but tears just kept leaking
out. We made a quick pit stop in the bathroom (Maybe that iced tea in
Chicago wasn't such a good idea!) and started to head toward baggage.
After spending so many days in overcrowded China, the Cincinnati
airport was a ghost town. We had this long, straight, quiet, eery walk. I
wasn't sure where we would find our family. All of sudden I realized
they were all straight ahead at the end of a very long walkway. I swear
it was the longest walk of my life! We could see each other but it just
seemed like we weren't getting to them! My parents were there, my
sister and her kids, my grandma (who said she wouldn't have missed that
moment if she had to crawl!), and Jeremy's brother. Our friends Leigh
and Brian and their daughter Evie was also there, Leigh taking pictures
of our homecoming for us. There are no words to describe the emotions
of those moments. I was just sobbing the whole walk and my babies were
jumping up and down waving madly to us. Of course after all our efforts
to get Maggie to sleep on the flights, she chose that walk to fall
asleep in her carrier on me!
Finally, finally, we made it. It was hysteria by all, lots of tears.
There were several video cameras and cameras going and such high
emotions. I wanted to just pick up each of my children and squeeze them
for dear life. But I had our new child strapped to me , so we did lots
of side hugs. :)
Relief. Such huge amounts of relief to be safely back to my babies and
back home. Thanks to my dear friend Leigh, we have beautiful pictures to
document these moments. I love looking through each one, relieving
those moments second by second. It brings back a flood of emotions every
time I look at them. Leigh, I'll never be able to thank you enough for
these pictures!
We came to know Leigh and her
family when we were in the process to adopt Allie, and our girls came
home together from Korea. Thank you Leigh for such beautiful memories and for what I know will be a lifelong friendship. In fact, these pictures and Leigh's article was published in our local paper!
Here's the link to the article!
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
These final few we took ourselves.
Home at last.
