We couldn't have asked for a better trip home!! We had to check out of our hotel room at 3:00 in the afternoon and since we didn't need to be at the airport until 9:30 we had the concierge hold our bags and we went out for last walk around town, dinner, and some last minute shopping. We returned to the hotel by 4:30 and just hung out in the lobby (there were a lot a seating area's). Our Holt SW came by and gave us Olivia's passport with US visa and had us sign a couple of documents that he had forgotten to have us sign earlier. After I had signed and set it on the table for Elliott to sign, I looked up and was talking to our SW and Olivia decided she would sign it, scribbling all over it. AAGGHH! At first we weren't sure what to do but then I remembered the business center at the hotel. I ran over with the document and asked if they could retype it for me (it was in Vietnamese) and for $5.00 (rediculous) we had a new fresh copy. We signed it and he was on his way. We were tired of waiting around and since it was a 40 minute drive to the airport we decided just to go early. So at 7:45 we headed out in a taxi to the airport. We got there and had to wait for an hour before the baggage check opened up but Olivia acted like a seasoned traveler. Sitting on top of our luggage on an airport cart we just waited for the counter to open up, then got our bags checked and headed through security to the gate. While we waited we talked to another American family who was heading home with their new infant son. They had been in VN for more then 3 weeks. The families that we traveled their with are still in VN and are still waiting for passports. We are the only family that we met on this trip that had things go so smoothly and going home in just 13 days. Praise God!! And thank you all for your prayers, I know that is what made all the difference!!
As soon as we got on the plane, Olivia sat in her seat, I put on her seatbelt, she smiled, put her head on my lap and fell asleep. She slept all the way to Souel!! We woke her when we landed and carried her off the pland. We had a 6 our lay-over in Souel and she just acted like a trooper the whole time, we feed her breakfast (she slept through the meal on the flight), went into the bathroom and "cleaned up...brushing our teeth and hair", and then just played around. We boarded our next flight and again she promptly fell asleep. This time she slept for about 1 hour(her normal nap), woke up and played and watched video's. She enjoyed getting meals and stayed awake like it was a normal day falling asleep again this time sleeping about 8 or so hours! Awesome. She was awake the last couple hours of our flight. We arrived in Chicago at 9:30 am and went through immigration and customs without a problem. Then things got a little crazy for a little bit. Seems that Korean Air hadn't checked our bags all the way through our Northwest flight home so we had to carry all our bags through 2 terminals to get to the Northwest counter (and no carts allowed on the airport train). There they rescanned our bags (hadn't they just been checked by customs?) and someone in Northwest flagged Olivia's ticket so when we went through security they made us step aside so they could search her.....can you imagine...a 4 year old!! She of course did NOT appreciate it and screamed through the whole thing. Now mind you......we had just gone through immigration and she was cleared there...again...AAGGHH!!! Needless to say she wasn't a happy camper any more. I did manage to take her into the bathroom and get her calmed down and cleaned up. I changed her into her "coming to America dress" and we boarded our last plane, she was started crying again but we got her settled down. I called my sister to tell her we were on our way and the pilot came on and said there was a problem with water leakage in the plane and we would have to unboard and take another flight an hour later. AAGGHH again! So we got off the plane, I went and sat down with a now crying little girl again while Elliott got our new boarding passes for our new flight. She fell asleep and slept through our hour wait, we preboarded and she continued to sleep all the way home. We woke her up to get off the plane. We were met at the airport by family and friends. Olivia smiled shyly at them but stayed calm. We we walked out to the cars and she was hit by the cold air she started to cry. By the time I strapped her into her first carseat she was a mess, wailing all the way home. Luckily we are only a 15 minute drive from the airport. She started repeating something over and over in Vietnamese that I didn't understand. Finally after 30 minutes or so I figured out she was saying something about Hoa (she best friend in the orphange). I started repeating Hoa's name so she would know that I knew she missed her and she started to settle down, I rocked her until she fell asleep. She slept for about 45 minutes and woke up happy. She was a bit shy at first but then took right to her big sisters. From then on it's been just wonderful. My friend Kelli had come up from Nebraska with her 2 little girls (adopted from China) and Olivia, Sam, Kelli's girls, and my big girls played the rest of the night. We put her to bed at about 9:30 and her sister Emily slept with her, she slept until 8:00 the next morning (miracle...no jet lag). She woke up happy again, ate scrabbled eggs with the other kids, and played again all day. The only this she didn't appreciate was having to take a nap!! Last night, our second night, again I didn't put her down until about 9:00, this time I layed with her until she fell asleep. She woke up once during the night, again I layed with her until she was back asleep and now at 8:00 am she is still asleep. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!! It is that that has made this transition so smoothly!!!
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!
