We’re HOME!

Welcome to the U.S.A

After 25.5 hours of travel we made it home in one piece with all of our luggage! Amelie did really well on all 3 flights. We had our own row from Guangzhou to Korea and she just played around and ate. Then for the long flight from Korea to Los Angeles we were split between 2 rows. Mike and Nadia sat in front of Amelie and I. Amelie did great and probably slept about 6 of the 11 hour flight. Nadia didn’t do so well on that flight because she couldn’t get comfortable to sleep, but she did enjoy watching “Beauty and the Beast” about 5 times and playing Memory on the personal TV screen she had.

We were blessed to connect with a family at the airport in Guangzhou who gave us an entire bottle of Advil! Mike and I doped ourselves up and survived the trip. (Mike is waiting at the doctor now to have his ear checked out while the girls take a nap)

Then we landed in LA and got through immigration and collected our bags. It took a while to get through immigration and then we had to move to another terminal and get checked in for the DFW flight. It was on time and we were glad not to have to wait a long time. Amelie was being really cute with Mike and giving him kisses and everything, so that was very sweet. You wouldn’t have believed it was the same kid from 12 days prior.

We got home and Nadia was manic to see our house again and wanted to show everything to Amelie at one time. Amelie was plain overwhelmed and wandering around. We had to back Nadia off and then got them a very late dinner and into bed.

We are so happy to be home and grateful for everyone’s love and support and prayers through this trip.

Headed to the airport

We leave for the airport in 90 minutes. We have a 3 hour flight to Korea, then a 2 hour layover, then a 11 hour flight to LAX, then a 3 hour layover. Then a 2.5 hour flight to DFW.

That is a lot of travel time and we are grateful for your prayers. Specifically:

  • For Mike’s ear to stop hurting so bad.
  • That I wouldn’t cough so much since that is what aggravates the pain in my side.
  • That both girls sleep on the planes.
  • That no one pukes or has any other sickness.

Thanks for all your support during this adventure.

Friday – our last full day in China

China 2011 (Day 16)
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Amelie having pizza for the first time – she loved it!

This is going to be the fastest typed post in the East because I am tired and we need to get to bed because we leave the hotel at 10:30 am to head for home. We have almost everything packed except the toys and the toiletries so I am feeling like I will sleep well tonight. Praying that Amelie sleeps all night! We got up and headed down to breakfast and then decided we better head to the island to finish our shopping while I was feeling good from all the medicine. We headed to “Jade’s Place” to get a chop with Amelie’s name and “Michaels Place” to pick up some gifts I had on my list that I didn’t get on Tuesday. We saw a family from our travel group (the Nielands) and posed for a quick photo since they were headed to Hong Kong in the afternoon.

China 2011 - Day 16

We had lunch at the Deli at the White Swan and then went back across the bridge to our hotel so Amelie could have a nap. At 3:45 her and I headed down to the lobby to wait for Grace to show up with the children’s visas and our brown envelopes for immigration in America. After that the Hameloths said they were going to get Pizza Hut so we decided to have a pizza party (reminded me of Nanchang with our 1st travel group). That sounded great to us and we went down to the club level to eat. Here is Logan and the girls playing “ring around the rosie”.

China 2011 - Day 16

And here is a photo of us with the Hameloths. We traveled the paperwork and matching road together so it was very fun to get to spend our week in Guangzhou together getting to know them in person.

China 2011 - Day 16

Thursday – off to the medical clinic

China 2011 (Day 15)
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So I went to bed on Wednesday basically in tears and woke up in tears and told Mike I had to go to the doctor. There is a clinic in the White Swan on the island, but after reading about everything we decided they might want to do an x-ray so we should head over to the big ex-pat CanAm clinic at the Garden Hotel. After breakfast we took a cab over for my 11 am appointment. In the cab Nadia puked all over herself and Mike. I was glad that she refused to eat breakfast at that point so it wasn’t really icky.

At the clinic they were very friendly, everyone spoke English and they asked a lot of questions on the consultation. After that the doctor decided that I should have a chest X-ray and we waited around for the results. The X-ray came back that I hadn’t done anything to my ribs and from the other exam she said my heart and lungs were fine. She did say that I had a respiratory infection, but that it was strange that I didn’t have any fever or ear pain. She said that my throat was swollen where my tonsils should be. They gave me a stronger anti-biotic, a Chinese cough syrup, an American cough syrup and some extended release Advil. By the time they were done with me Nadia was back to her old self and chipper as ever. She was still coughing though and we have continued to give her medicine.

The Garden was really swank. Check out this staircase and Nadia counted that it had 50 steps.

China 2011 - Day 15
We headed back to the hotel and hung around the room. At one point Mike went to get the photos from the orphanage, but only 4 came out because we think the film was loaded wrong. I will post those after we are home. For dinner we just went down to the club level and ate there. Then we all went back to the room to get to bed early. I was in pain again and was ready for sleep.

Here are some shots Mike took from our hotel room.

China 2011 - Day 15

China 2011 - Day 15

Amelie continues to be more and more relaxed with us. Nadia continues to learn about real sharing since she didn’t really expect this about having a sibling no matter how much we talked about it. She is very possessive, but the good thing is we are hearing less and less about the Green Goblin and how he would react to situations.