We're home!

Right now, everyone in the family can attest to the phrase "Home Sweet Home."  We left for the airport on Saturday morning.  And so our long trek began...

We got on a plane from Guangzhou to Beijing--a two hour flight.  Gabriel is a funny kid...he actually likes airplane food and eats a lot on the airplane.

The fact of life about traveling all day long with two toddlers is that we did some diaper changes at 30,000 feet.  Not sure how the passengers felt about that but when nature calls, we have no choice but to answer.

When we arrived in Beijing, we found out that our flight to Seattle had been delayed by four hours.  Bummer!  So our 4-hour layover became an 8-hour layover that felt like forever.  We were a little bit demoralized at this point because we already felt a bit tired and we had yet to cross the ocean!  Also, as far as killing time, the stores inside in the terminal not your "normal" airport terminal shops that you can peruse through with kids, but are boutiques that sell high-end handbags or silk scarves.  They also didn't have any fast food, and simple restaurants -- only coffee shops and one place that gave us our "free" (paid for by Delta Airlines, because the flight was so delayed) meal, which is a set meal -- rice, seaweed soup, bok chou, and some meat.  It was OK, but not great...

But we did find these carts and the kids got pushed around in them for hours.  These were heaven sent.

So we boarded the plane at around 9pm, beyond the bedtime for most of our kids.  They zonked out pretty quickly and actually got quite a bit of sleep because they were able to spread out a little bit.

Elvin held Gabey for most of the flight, but when he had to go to the restroom, Eliana did the honors. Eliana, by the way, did great.  We got children's Dramamine from another family in our group and it worked wonders!  She did not get airsick at all.

Also, Emily did fine as well.  With the Sudafed she took, her ears did not bother her very much.  The flight across the ocean always feels super long but overall the kids did great.  They slept quite a bit on the airplane, even Xiao Yu and Eliana.

In Seattle, we went through Customs and Immigration.  We handed over paper work in the brown envelope we got from the U.S. Consulate in China.  They took about 20 minutes to process it and by the end, they told us that Xiao Yu is a U.S. citizen effective today!

Because we arrived in Seattle so late, we had to rebook to a later connecting flight to Portland.  It was a 30 minute flight home in a little plane.

When we finally arrived in Portland at 7pm on Saturday, we had been traveling for almost 30 hours.  We had also gone through security what seemed like 7 times (and each place had different rules about whether you can bring water through, etc.) and also picked up and re-checked our baggage at each airport.

At the Portland Airport, our friends met us there; they had also brought over our minivan so that we could drive home with all the requisite car seats.  The girls are very good friends and gave each other big hugs.  The kids also got balloons.

We're not sure if Xiao Yu has ever had a balloon before but he sure liked his.

When we pulled into our garage, the kids ran out shouting, "We're home, we're home!" and they did a happy dance.  Everyone was super happy to be home.

Inside our friends left little surprise gift bags for each of our kids, including Xiao Yu.

Our friends also stocked our fridge for us, made freezer meals, and even printed out some pictures of Xiao Yu and hung them on our wall for us.  We feel very supported and blessed by our community of friends here!

And for dinner...Mac and Cheese.  The kids have been dreaming of this for days now and finally got to indulge themselves.  Xiao Yu seemed to like it fine.

We are very grateful that we made it home safe and sound.  Thank you for walking through this journey with us.  We look forward to the coming weeks and months when we can integrate Xiao Yu into our family--without having to live out of a hotel room and eating out three meals a day!