We’re finally home!!!! After more than 30 hours of travel our plane touched down in Dayton a little after midnight Friday night, June 11. We had risen around 4 a.m. Friday morning (China time), caught an early flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. We arrived late in Hong Kong, grabbed our twelve pieces of carryon luggage – oh why did we need those four tea sets…?, two strollers and two little girls and hopped on a bus packed full of mandarin speaking people. We tried to balance all of our luggage and the girls while trying to rip the plastic packaging which covered our strollers from the previous flight without toppling over, all the while praying we would make our connecting flight or otherwise be forced to spend an extra day in Hong Kong. The minute the bus stopped we were off the bus and told to follow a airline employee to ticket Zoe whose seat could not be taken care of until we arrived in Hong Kong. So we ran with all of our belongings to the 50th gate with several other adoptive families. And we made it! The only casualty was my neck pillow for the long flight home which lay somewhere in an airport terminal in Hong Kong!
Everyone did great on the long flight to Chicago except for a tantrum Zoe threw as we circled waiting to land. She crammed herself under the seat in front of us and screamed making the already annoyed lady in front of us happy I 'm quite certain. We realized sadly that we might miss our connecting flight to Dayton to bring us home by 6 p.m. Unfortunately, we ended up having to make a landing at Rockford IL instead of O'Hare since we were going to run out of fuel! Eventually we were up in the air again and landed at O'Hare, but needless to say we missed the flight. After what seemed like hours of customs, review of Zoe's TB documents with the immigration physician, adoption finalization, waiting in lines for our new tickets, rechecking our luggage, three trips through security, and a quick bite to eat, we were on our way home!
Now that we are home it has been quite a week of adjusting but things seem to have taken a turn for the better and are starting to settle down. The following slideshow, compliments of my dear friend Michelle McKibben who was in Florida for our homecoming, includes the photos from Ashley Weidner a new photographer friend who patiently waited out all of our travel delays in order to be at the airport at midnight to photograph our family for this momentous occasion. Click on the following link to view:
Thanks for your continued prayers as we adjust to life as a family of six!
"Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man." Psalm 66:5
4 comments:
Hello Family of Six!!!
I'm so very glad everyone arrived home safely. The the homecoming video was a tear jerker! I will keep praying for a deep and easy attachtment for Zoe and the family. God Bless!!
so glad to see you are home. Sounds like a very trying experience in Chicago. I remember our not so fun experience there coming home with maddy.
Zoe is so beautiful and Sasha.. I can't believe how much she has changed.. what a beauty she is as well.!! I'd love to catch up some time when you are all settled in. :0)
blessings!
Robion
So glad all of you are back home! I remember how I just wanted to kiss the ground when we landed...and to think we are about to do it again :) The video was amazing. I, too didn't have a dry eye. Hope each day shows progress as you're settling in to a family of six.
We adopted from Yangchun and our daugther was also at the House of Grace. Our forever family day was 11/29/2010. If you'd like to stay in touch our email address is deagle1@carolina.rr.com. Blessings to you and your family!
Leslie
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