Random notess about getting home and the last few days.

So we made it back to Tulsa!  We had lots of friends and family present and Mr. Social did great!  It was funny when he saw Naomi and started chasing her around the airport lobby.  :) I also thought it was sweet that when he saw NaiNai, he asked Tim where YeYe is.  That helps me know that he really did get to see the picture book that we sent (or he could have just been being logical).  

The flights all went exceptionally well other than very little sleep.  The kids all got about 4 hours sleep in the last 26 hours with Jay maybe a little less and Ian maybe a little more.  The grown-ups mostly got considerably less.  The only time we had an American delay of flight was the DFW to Tulsa leg tonight and it wasn't bad, we came in about 50 minutes late.  Bless the hearts of our friends and family that met us, that put them out fairly late for a work night!  

Ian seemed very pleased to meet his new family and extended family.  Tim and I were talking tonight in the car on the way home about sort of hating that they call the nannies in the orphanages "Aunties"  or Ayi.  That is the same term for aunt as in my sister (or sister in law).  When we introduced him to Auntie tonight we sort of half wondered if he didn't think she would be his new caregiver.  She is from Thailand and he thinks she speaks Chinese, he just rattles off mandarin and she smiles and nods although she doesn't understand him any better than I do.  :) 

One snafu I didn't anticipate was on the DFW to Tulsa flight, the bulkhead seats (that we had 3 of) were an exit row.  So that meant the little were supposed to all sit together across a row with only one adult.  At that point, Katie had about had enough and wanted Mom and Dad.  Eventually, we got a lady to switch to the bulkhead and let Tim move back although she wasn't too thrilled.   It all worked.  :) 

The last few days were fun at HK Disney but I think we were all ready to head toward home.  At one point when we were at Disney, Katie said "I want to go home!"   When Tim asked if she meant the hotel, she clarified HOME.  Ian has been a little more subdued than he had been since he started seeing a lot more non-Asian people in the airport but on the final leg, when we were walking toward security, he asked Tim if we were in America yet.  When Tim said we were, Ian gave a big fist-in-the-air pump.  Loved seeing that even when it is becoming more real, he seems excited about it.  

We are in the car as I speak, Mitch is driving the van with the luggage and Nai Nai (yes, the van that was dead at extended parking when we got there) and Tim is driving the van with the rest of us.  Mitch is the only one of my five currently awake.  

I think jet lag is a little like labor; you forget how bad it is until it happens again.  Tonight I apparently kept saying Naoma and Jessie instead of Naomi and Jessa.  (Sorry, Jessa and Naomi--thanks for not correcting a crazy lady!)  Even when Laura corrected me, it still sounded correct in my head.  I will definitely not get back into the office until my head has cleared some.   (Not a place I want to say one thing and mean another!!)  We took 4 weeks with each of the first 2 adopted kiddos but will probably not go that long with Ian.  He is adjusting so well and being older, I think he will understand more easily when we can't both be home together with him.   One thing that should make it much easier this time is having wonderful friends that set up a Meal Train for us!  We have about 2 weeks that we have friends that have committed to bringing by dinner.  Oh, to not have to cook in this muddle brained state is going to be wonderful.  :)  :)  

There is probably a lot that got missed in the blog in the last couple of days.  I'm going to make a blog about HK Disney in a few days (I hope) with lots of pics.  As a minimal commentary about the last few days of the trip:  the mood stayed good for all concerned, it was incredibly hot in HK but even with that, everyone did well.  None of the kids (or grown-ups for that matter) had a bad case of gimme's at Disney.  I wondered how that would go.  Ian asked for things on occasion but was mostly perfectly fine with being denied.  We allowed them to get some souvenirs but always as a planned thing.  One tim allowed at literally the last few minutes of our Disney extravaganza was the light up Mickey light sabers.   (they were lots of fun carrying thru the airports)  I think he said yes because of how much he enjoyed watching the wonder and excitement on all 3 faces during the night time Light-Up the Night Parade.  The Hong Kong Disney hotel was magnificent.  HK Disney is a great end to the adoption trips because it is still Asian for the newly adopted kiddo but is a little more American for the rest of the family.  If feels a lot like home at the end of a long trip.  Its hard to be unhappy at Mickey's house.  Katie got to do all of the random transportation things that she kept saying that she wanted to do "Once we get Ian" like boats, trains, planes, vans, buses, teacups, Dumbo and horses (on the carousel, that is).

I will try to add photos tomorrow.  Thanks SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT; it would have been a much more dificullt journey without all the help we'ver received along the way!

It is now Thursday morning and I am still looking at a mess of a house!  We came home to a nice clean house and then brought 7 people and 11 suitcases full of dirty clothes, souvenirs, and other random stuff into the house.   It isn't pretty!  We have our clothes sorted at least, so that's a start.  I think life will be easier once we find a new normal and get things back in order.  We are already much closer to a normal sleep schedule than I could have hoped for though and for that I am very thankful.  It is amazing how much sleep affects life.  

One of the hard things about international adoption is that you come home from that incredible trip and are so jet-lagged that everything seems harder than it should.  Yesterday for breakfast, I had decided pancakes would be an easy, well accepted choice.  We had left-over fried rice from Auntie as well.  So when I was looking for Bisquick, I realized that the 2 cups that we had were not going to feed a family of seven.  (I will eventually learn to put things on the shopping list sooner, at least as long as I am cooking for 7 at each meal.)  In China, breakfast usually included rice or noodles and so I asked Laura to "Warm the K-Y please."  When she gave me a very confused look, I pointed to the rice.  To which she responded, "Shall I warm the rice instead of the K-Y?"  (To those who don't know me personally, I am a family med doc who does ask for K-Y frequently but not usually at home.)  Luckily, I have a daughter with a good sense of humor.  It is so weird that random things pop out of my mouth that have very little to do with what I thought I was saying.  So, if you call my house, bear that in mind and take whatever I say with a grain of salt for the next week or so!  Not enough Bisquick and asking for random things still ended in a lovely breakfast of cake-batter pancakes and shrimp fried rice.  :)  

We also got our first "Meal Train" meal last night!  It was wonderful and included vegetable beef soup, salad, buttered french bread and fresh cut pineapple.  We devoured it happily.  Ian had three bowls of the soup, which also made me happy.  I have been nervous about feeding a 10 year old who has primarily only eaten Chinese food and have been very relieved to see him enjoy American foods.  I thought it was funny that the friends that brought the meal, the Nichols, whose daughter is from the same SWI as Ian, got to answer a very confused child about why they were bringing us food.  She asked her mother several times why they were bringing us food.  Her mother's answer of "to be helpful" just wasn't cutting it, so finally she asked her if we had a kitchen!  Hehe, it makes me giggle just to think about it.