Home 1 week and 1 day (and the trip home OY VEY)

This post started out as "home a few days", and then became "Home almost a week, and then became "home 1 week", and now it is "Home 1 week and 1 day." I was starting to think it would never get finished.

So the jet lag is finally starting to wear off. Another couple days and we should be completely back to normal or as close to it as we can get because, well, we are so not normal, lol.

Let me back track and fill you in. Thursday, our last day in Guangzhou we finished our shopping and got everything packed up (only had to buy 1 extra carry on bag to make it all fit AND we stayed under the 44lbs per person checked, yes we are so awesome like that, lol). Got Cori's Visa around 5 pm and had dinner. Then we went swimming on the roof top of the Victory one more time (this is seriously the most peaceful place in Guangzhou) and called it a night.

Friday- got up at 4 am to meet our ride to the airport in the lobby at 5:15 am (not sure what I was smoking when I booked our return flight). Checked out and were given breakfast in a box from the hotel... or shall we say yesterday's left overs. Warm yogurt, green bananas, hard boiled egg, and some other weird things (I should have taken a picture of this, lol). This was totally a fitting start to our trip home.

Got to the airport with our overpriced and way over tipped Lotus guide only to find out that China Air has no record of us at all. The guide suggests we call our travel agent to which I suggest he or the lady behind the counter make the international call or find us in the system. Then he insinuates that we might not have paid for our tickets. Oh ya, I am going to come all the way to China without paying for my return tickets (which he is holding in his hand)??? I pulled out the receipt. After making it clear I was not leaving the counter until she found us in her system she magically finds our Guangzhou to Beijing portion but not the other 2 flights but some how is magically able to still check our bags all the way through to Tampa (hmmmmm???). At this point I ask the Lotus guy to make sure if we need to collect our bags and recheck them in Newark to go through customs and he says no they are checked all the way through.....

So now we are sprinting to get to our plane with no time for breakfast before we get on the plane. We just get there as they are loading the plane. Once on the plane we realize that the lady at the counter changed our confirmed seats and put Cori across the isle from Michael and I. Needless to say Michael and Cori switched. This gave the flight attendant a good laugh when she brought out the children's meal to Michael. Cori did great on the 3 hour flight to Beijing and we finally got some food but it wasn't that good.

We landed in Beijing and because of the lady at the counter and the guy from Lotus in Guangzhou we had to go out of the domestic terminal (instead of just making the simple transfer to the international terminal) and find our way to the correct terminal to check in and get our boarding passes and PRAY that we were in their system. We asked at the 1st info kiosk we found and they told us to go to terminal 2... but didn't tell us how to get there. After a few minutes we found signs towards the bus the terminal 2. We got on and got crammed in like sardines. I had Cori in the Mei Tai on my back (thank God or she would have been trampled because no one cares about anyone else there, not even children or the disabled) and some guy kept whacking her with his backpack. I finally gave him a sharp jab in the back with my elbow and kept my elbow there the rest of the 10 minute ride to terminal 2 to protect Cori. Once inside Terminal 2 we found out that we were supposed to be at terminal 3. So once again we got on another bus/sardine can (at least this one had better a/c) and rode another 10 or so minutes to terminal 3. Finally were were inline to check in and check in we did and we still had our correct seats (this was the highlight of the day). By the time we got through security our 5 hour layover had turned into 30 minutes to get a pizza at Pizza Hut (I cried real tears when I saw the Pizza Hut at this point) and be at the gate for pre-boarding.

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER again will I fly continental(or now it is United) or any other American Carrier internationally. While at least on this flight our flight attendants were friendly if not slightly stupid (on the way there they were typical american flight attendants, "don't bother us") but the food was inedible, the seats were very cramped and they didn't even have extra blanket to put on the seat when Cori wet the seat (she woke up from sleeping and didn't make it to the potty), they just threw a wad of paper towels at me. The food was DISGUSTING. 2 very small under or over cooked meals and a snack sandwich that was supposed to be Chicken but looked and felt more like really bad rubbery tofu (for the record, I like good tofu) on a 13.5 hour flight. I have an obviously malnourished child and I asked for milk to mix with her formula to make her a protein shake (I figured I can at least give her that since the food was inedible) and was told they only had milk for adults having coffee and not for the children. WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?! So all 3 of us basically starved the entire flight. At least all the bathrooms were in working order on this flight. On the way to China half the bathrooms were broken. Cori was such a trooper though. She slept most of the flight and watched movies the rest of the time. She watched Horton Hears a Who in Cantonese twice and loved it. After that I put on Disney's Cars but they didn't have it in Chinese so I put it on in English. You should have seen her face trying to figure out why she couldn't understand it, lol. Poor thing. So, 13 hours later we were exhausted, starving and really ticked off. Then the pilot comes on and says " we are a half hour early into Newark but due to weather we can not land we will be circling for a while and we only have 30 minutes of extra fuel..." GREAT! Then 20 Minutes later "We will be diverting to Stuart Airport but you won't be allowed off the plane because it is not an international airport we will just refuel and wait to fly back to Newark" Then after over an hour of circling we got good news "Well folks, we hung around up here just long enough and they are going to let us land in Newark." I am telling you I think they ran out of gas on the way down because that was the roughest landing ever. So rough in fact that the dishes and glassware broke free from the business class galley ahead of us and shattered everywhere.

Other than the Beijing to Nanning flight where they kept saying "the aircraft is experiencing trouble, please stay in your seat" I have never been so glad to be off of a plane!!!

Immigration went smoothly and Cori became a US Citizen. (word of advice for future families. do NOT wait in the new immigrants line. grab some one and tell them you are US citizens and your child has an IH-3 visa and you just have his/her visa packet to drop off. They will escort you to the special assistance line and you will zip right through. I am so glad someone told me that.) Then we got fast tracked from Immigration right through customs. We were feeling relieved until we saw the sign AFTER we passed through customs that said "re-check bags here"... Uh what??? We were supposed to collect our bags then go through customs then re-check them but Lotus guide told us not too!!! I ran up to the closest customs person and told them what happened. Thankfully we did have a long layover so she said that they should have enough to time to pass customs on their own and make it to Tampa when we do... We prayed again.

So, we wandered on to the terminal and celebrated Cori's new US Citizenship with a hot dog and hamburgers! However from the jetlag, near starvation on the plane and almost 3 weeks on Chinese food we almost couldn't keep the really yummy smashburgers down. This passed a little time but it seemed our flight kept getting later and later. Finally at 10:50pm our 9pm flight boarded. We touched down in Tampa at 1:40am and went to grab our bags praying they would be there. There has never been a more beautiful site at 1:50am after 30 something hours of travel than our 3 bags riding around on that carousel. We got into the Marriott at 2am and totally crashed. We decided since we were getting in too late for my parents and Emmi to come get us we would stay over and have them come in the morning, We could have gotten a cab home but we didn't want Emmi to think we went home with out her and wonder how long we'd been there.

As you can see from the pictures the girls were thrilled to finally meet in person. It was such a sweet reunion for all of us. We had lunch at the TGIFridays in the airport and then we went home.

While the jet lag has been HORRIBLE the girls have really been doing well. Emmi is really becoming a great big sister and Cori is settling in. It was such a blessing that a few of the girls from my moms group brought us dinner the first few nights home. They will never know how grateful we are. The jet lag was rough and we were also getting very little sleep because we had 1 that was jetlagged and 1 that wasn't. Emmi was so excited we were home that it took until midnight to get her to sleep and then Cori would wake up hungry at 1am (because her stomach was on China time and thought it was lunch time) and then be up for good by 5am. Thankfully, I think we are just about over the jet lag now. Still getting a little tired in the early evening but just about back to normal.

Cori has a few more English words now including "bubble" which is her favorite word right now. The fun thing with English is that so many of our words sound the same but mean different things. I can't remember which word we had that problem with the other day. I was telling her what something was and she just looked at me confused like "didn't you just tell me that other thing was called that too"

Bonding and attachment is going well too. We are in the extremely clingy phase right now. This (and pure exhaustion) has been why this post has taken me so long to write. We can not be out of her sight. Heck, we can't be out of arms reach most of the time. She also gets very quiet and concerned anytime we put her in the car. I think she thinks she is going to a new home (considering the last couple times she has been in a car that is what happened I can see why she would think that). She did sleep through the night last night for the 1st time since we got home and she hasn't had a wet pull up in days (she started wetting the bed in Guangzhou a little) so we think that might have just been an emotional thing during her transition. While things are very very text book and she seems to be attaching quickly, we are realistic and realize it is going to take a very long time (6-12 mo or more in reality) to prove we are forever. We found out that a month before we got to China her foster mom who she was very attached to was diagnosed with cancer and after she had surgery she realized she could not take care of Cori and she was moved to a different foster home for the final weeks before we got there. A 3rd home for her before her forever family.

Thursday we took the girls to the doctor. It was Emmi's 4yr old check up and shots and Cori's 1st visit. Emmi did great and got 4 shots (my poor little pin cushion). She is currently 38 and 3/4 inches tall (25% percentile) and 37.6 lbs (60th percentile... I blame this on almost 3 weeks being spoiled by her grandparents). Cori, got a good bill of health except that she is very malnourished, and has poor gross motor skills in her legs. So, we are having to supplement her with those expensive kiddie protein shakes (pediasure, boost) and work with her on her gross motor. If that does not improve by late August she may be going for physical therapy. Please pray that she improves on her own. That being said her measurements were 35 and 3/4 inches tall (15th percentile so not too too bad) and a shocking weight of only 24.5 lbs (10th percentile). Apparently, Michael did not get as good a look at the scale at her visa medical as we thought. No wonder we can't find panties to fit her. It really is funny in a very pathetic way to see her running and her panties falling down. Anyone know where to find panties in an 18month size??? (update: JCPenney's had tiny panties! YIPPY!)

Yesterday we took Cori on her 1st big outing. This might not have been so well thought out, lol. But then again, I am the same person that agreed to that cockamaymee route home. Anywho, we took the girls to a Splash Bash at church to celebrate the new playground. I thought by the time we got there all the slides would be up but they weren't all up apparently... We were sitting on a blanket eating pizza when I looked over at Cori who was sitting there frozen with this look of shear fascination and fear all rolled together. Then I saw what she was looking at... the backside of one of those gianormous slides being inflated and two men holding ropes trying to tie it down. I can only imagine what had to be going through her mind, lol. It's so not funny, but it is, lol. Thankfully they also had a bunch of little kiddie pools and that is where Cori and I played for most of the evening. Emmi went on all of the big water slides though of course. Cori did get up the courage to ask (ok well, grunt)for me to take her on the little slide. She LOVED it but had no desire to do it again, lol. I am just proud of her for trying it (she will attempt just about anything big sister does)

So, we have been home a week and we are shockingly more settled in and more bonded then I thought we would be at this point. I am going to try to continue to blog at least once a week. Before these pictures though I want to give a little disclaimer and my heartfelt thoughts.

I want to be clear for those who are waiting to travel for their children or are considering adoption. While we are all happy and optimistic and have really had the best case scenario so far it is not pretty and it is hard. I recently read the blog of a family who had just come home from their 1st adoption and was very resentful and negative because it wasn't all sugary sweet and instant bonding and easy and the story book that they thought it would be. Future families, PLEASE do your home work. Read the books, do the online courses and talk with lots of families about their experiences and be prepared. Adoption is wonderful, and beautiful, but it is hard, and attachment takes work (even for the parents a lot of times. Do not expect to be instantly connected to the child). It starts with wanting to be connected, and being committed to being connected, and working at that connection and then that connection and attachment will come. And one day you will find yourself thinking "wow, I could not love this child more than if she/he came out of me" and realize that it is the same and that God designed this child just for you and designed you just for this child... That you were meant to be! That day will most likely hit you by surprise, but in the mean time there is grieving (sometimes the parents too), rejection, confusion, and other surprises that can and most likely will come up. Adoption isn'tt pretty and it isn't for the weak, but it is magical and beautiful and natural and one of the greatest blessing God can lead you to!

Ok, so now for the fun part... the pictures! You know what to do. Just click the picture to go to the album =).

2011-06-25 Final China pics and 1st week home