Home again, home again, jiggedy jig!

Tim here with the coming-home-blog.  (Lots of exhaustion, so no guarantees that this will make any sense!).

Random, Daddy moment shot:

THE FINAL HONG KONG DAYS

Saturday we moved from the Disneyland Hotel to the Sky City Marriott near the airport, the same hotel that we had stayed at two weeks ago during our overnight layover, and also the same hotel we had stays at when we were getting ready to fly home with Jaden last year.

We had a great last couple of days in Hong Kong and got to meet up with some special folks  ... a friend had arranged for us to meet with some of his friends in Hong Kong.

On Saturday we got to go into Hong Kong itself via the subway system to meet with an American who came to Hong Kong for 6 months about 30 years ago and has not managed to leave yet.  He took us down to Stanley, which is south of Hong Kong ... It used to be a quiet fishing village, but not any more.  He took us out for lunch and then we did some shopping at the local market and also at a mall, and then he took us on a tour of the MaryKnoll House which is where the Hong Kong Walk to Emmaus weekends are held.  It was very special to be able to connect with the Hong Kong Emmaus experience in that way.

On Sunday Jaden and I got to have a great 2+ hour Dim Sum meal with several families who live in Hong Kong.  I had never had a meal like that ... Basically there were lots and lots of Chinese dishes brought out and placed in the center if the table, and each person chose what they wanted to have.  (We had a meal similar to that after we toured Jaden's orphanage last year but that one had lots of entrees set in the middle if the table ... This was more like a large variety if snack sized foods and was much much much better.)   We got to try small portions of lots of different dishes.  Combining great food with great conversation made for a very special brunch.

We went to the hotel pool the last two nights we were in Hong Kong, and Katie showed that she continues to want to emulate her brother by trying it jump into the pool after he did the first time and by splashing wildly after he splashed.  Both kids had a great time, and Sunday night Jaden jumped into Tracy's arms about 30 times, each time delighting Katie.

Jaden and Katie spent a lot of time playing together in the hotel room, playing chase and tickling each other with squeals and giggles.

(Jaden has still been trying to work out what being the big brother for Katie will look like ... He also wants to be our baby, and has taken to telling us often that we have "two babies" now.  Tracy explained that we actually have four since Laura and Mitch will always be our babies, too, that no matter how old our children get they will always be our babies.)

Then it was time to pack up and prepare for the marathon day of 24+ hours of travel time.

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THE LONG TRIP HOME ...

9:00 AM Monday (Hong Kong time) = 8:00 PM Sunday (Tulsa time)
Heading out the door to go to the airport.

9:20 AM Monday (Hong Kong time) = 8:20 PM Sunday (Tulsa time)
Wow, what an amazing sense of déjà vu I had when we walked into the airport terminal this morning ... Our flight out of Hong Kong two weeks ago was a domestic flight on Dragonair, so we went to a different entry than we went through today. the door we came through today  is the same one we used when we were coming home with Jaden, and once inside we walked down the same long ramp into the terminal.   I was totally taken back to 15 months ago.  :-)

12:40 PM Monday (Hong Kong time) = 11:40 PM Sunday (Tulsa time)
And we're off!  We took off 15 minutes ago on the way back to the good ole USA.  The flight time will be 14 hours for this leg, then we will have the processing of Katie's paperwork at Customs and Immigration in Chicago where she will become a US citizen, then a layover in Chicago, a flight to Tulsa, a short drive to okmulgee and we will be home!  It will be a very very long day.

There is definitely a part of me that is not wanting to leave yet, but another part of me is ready to get this trip behind us so we can find a new "normal" and also so Katie can meet the rest of her family.

Jaden has starting talking more about going home in the past two days or so.  He is definitely ready!  He has missed his other siblings and he likes to tell Katie (and lots of total strangers, too) about his "sister Walrus" and his "big brother Gege Mitch" ... He says those names like they are titles.

7:00 PM Monday (Tulsa time) = 8:00 AM Tuesday (Hong Kong time)
We are so exhausted, but everything has gone well.  We are on the plane to Tulsa and should be there in an hour.  We did not get as much sleep on the long flight as we had hoped.  Katie slept a total of about 5-6 hours, 3 1/2 of which were in the bassinet that was mounted on the bulkhead wall.  She is such a wallower when she sleeps that she kept waking up because there was not enough room to roll around.  Jaden did not sleep nearly as well on the flight back as he did on the flight over.  And the parents grabbed a few hours total.  It's a bad sign when you are trying to keep up with your sleep time and you keep adding 8-10 minute naps to your total.

And you know it's a long flight when you look at your watch and feel very thankful that you "only" have 4 1/2 hours left in the flight.

For whatever reason, Katie has decided in the past two days that I am ok to be around, and she has let me hold her lots!  I think that maybe Tracy bribed her, because Katie ended up sitting with me for a lot of the long flight over from Hong Kong.  No complaints, here ... That will always be a very special time and memory for me.

Like I said, though, everything has gone well.  The flights have been on time and the kids have traveled very very well.   I just wish that there had been more sleeping.

However, we have had MUCH more sleep than we had when we brought Jaden home ... He had a TOTAL of about 90 minutes or so as I recall during the entire travel from Hong Kong t the Tulsa airport, and most of that was on the last flight ... so that when we got to tulsa he was in his wake up weird and freaked out zone that he has when he has to wake up before he is ready.

Katie is being restless in this flight and Tracy has been singing to her most of the way to keep her calm and settled.  Having a 13 hour time zone change does weird stuff to you.

We are looking forward to getting to the airport and seeing friends and family.  And we are looking forward to sleeping in our own beds, too!  Then comes the challenge of settling into a new routine.  There is no way to know how long that will take.

We will plan to limit Katie's exposure to other folks until she is settled in, so please be patient folks.  We will share her with you once we feel she is ready. :-)

Thanks everyone for your support and prayers.  Please keep 'em coming as we enter his next phase.  (Tracy here, I'm proofing this for Tim before adding to it and posting.  I'm leaving the last typo.  I assume Tim meant "this" next phase but "as we enter His next phrase" is also accurate!)

ARRIVAL AND THE TRIP HOME

Tim is now asleep as it is 1:30 am and he handed me the baton, so to speak.  We got to Tulsa just a few minutes late and I had to wake Katie as we stood to gather our stuff. So glad that she doesn't wake crazy like someone else we know.  :). We had a really cute outfit to change her into but I assumed that anyone waiting would rather a rumpled outfit with a smile.   It was so wonderful walking down the terminal and seeing people and balloons awaiting our arrival!

Katie got to see family and friends and didn't even cry.  She stayed tucked under my chin but didn't seem too panicked at the excitement.  She didn't exactly show her bubbly side but for her to be able to look back later and see the homecoming,,,priceless.  Our worry was that the would let the entire county hear about her displeasure at having to be put in a car seat and that just didn't happen.  She was fine with it and actually, before we were even out of Tulsa, she was charming her sister with peek a boo and giggles!  Jaden was so, so excited seeing so many of the people he has missed.  (On the way home though, he did say he missed the airport.).   Another worry we had was our pets.  The cats look fat and happy (Thanks, Gael!) and Katie did just great with them.  She offered to share her toy with Xiaomiao the cat.  We still have yet to see if she likes 140 lbs of slobbery dog, we'll work on that this week.  :)

Tim and I can't thank everyone enough for the many ways everyone helped out.  The prayers were felt and answered every step of the way.  Coming home to the mail checked, animals happy and bread and milk available...just wonderful.  I told Tim on the last leg of the journey that we were finishing up the easy part...I'm ready to start this new leg of the journey though.  Please continue to pray for us and to be patient with us.  My prayer requests center on the changes in all 4  (whoa, 4?!) of my kids' lives.  Laura is about to enter the last finals week of med school, Mitch is about to enter his last set of undergrad finals, Jaden is working hard learning this new birth-order position and Katelyn Ann Sanford is going to have to learn a whole lot in the coming weeks and months.

If you still have prayer time left, please think of the kids we had to leave behind.  There are so many just waiting on their family to show up.  And if you've felt a little tug somewhere along the line during our adoption journey, stop and really pray over whether or not your child may be one of those waiting.  We'd love to help you find him or her.
Blessings!