Hello Everyone!
Sooooo glad to be home. China was a great experience this time, but, one day too long for us, did I mention we were out of clothes by the end.! :)
We got up early on Thursday, to meet all the families in the lobby of the hotel by 6 am, so we could all get to the airport. The two other families were flying together through to Narita (Japan) then on to their homes from there.
Max did great on our short flight to Hong Kong to meet our connection. We took a local Hong Kong airline, Dragon Air (hi Long!) and it was almost a brand new plane. Again, all sorts of stares, and pats on Max's cheeks and head, a common form of hello to kids in China. The pilot had a British accent, how cool right...well it was Hong Kong.
We had a short layover in Hong Kong, and boarded our big bird, a 747 (the kind that has an upstairs) with a nonstop flight to San Francisco. We settled into our seats, Max would not leave John's lap. He had a "lap seat" since he is under two years old, and we had our arsenal of crackers, snacks, toys etc. for him. Though they confiscated our bubbles (thought I had just 2 oz in the bottle). Oh well. 11 hours 45 minutes of fun with a toddler on your lap, ahem, John's lap. Needless to say, Max slept for about 3/4 of the ride home to San Francisco. One of the male flight attendants, came by, and offered to take Max on a spin around the plan for a bit so we could get some rest. I seriously wanted to offer him money. He began speaking Chinese to Max which calmed him immediately.
Max was passed around to some of the 12 attendants on the plane, and when I woke from a snooze, he was sleeping back on John's lap. How sweet, and wonderful. (kudos United Airlines!)
I got a bit teary again (one of many teary bouts, since I'm exhausted and overemotional) telling Max as we landed that he is now an American citizen. One of the flight attendants came over to us and spoke to Max and said how lucky he is to begin his new life here in the U.S., and he is such a lucky boy.
We deplaned in San Fran, to get in line for customs. Ahhh, the United States. Hi, armed Homeland Security guys, I missed you. Hello, English everywhere...we went right to an open line, and had our passports stamped (John and myself) Max's not so easy, we promptly were told to take him and his little red passport and the magic secret brown envelope (not to be opened until now, remember?) to lane 4. As we got closer to lane 4, we noticed two exhausted other couples with Chinese kids hanging off them in bjorns. Hmm, didn't see them on our flight, but again it was a big plane.
I gave each of their kids suckers, after hearing they had another 5 hours ahead of them to get to the east coast. We, thankfully, just had a short hop up to Portland. We all must have been a sight. Smeared crackers on our shoulders, from little mouths wiping them (parents you know it) sweaty, red-eyes, yet big grins to be almost home, almost giddy with laughter.
We all cracked out the brown envelopes and surrendered them to the customs agent. Stamp, type, stamp, type and done. Were passed. 2 years of paperwork and waiting, now 24 hours of flying, and done. Hooray. Our paperwork trail, kinda makes me think about the "lost ark" in the first Indiana Jones movie, at the end where the ark is put in storage among many other relics, after chasing it for so long. That's where all of our paperwork may be. Maybe someday it will all be electronic.
Next up, getting our bags, and rechecking them, for our short domestic flight to Portland. Ah, Portland. Who doesn't like to come home to sweet PDX. The green and blue patterned carpet, skylights, and welcoming faces of fellow casual Oregonians.
My mom and Juliette met us at our house, instead of the airport, so we could just jet home, quickly, knowing like last time, we were exhausted. We strapped Max into his carseat, his first carseat ride ever, and he couldn't figure out why he was being restrained. He kept putting his hands out for us to pick him up, but, of course we couldn't. We got back to Salem in no time, and waiting for us outside, was my mom and Juliette. She ran up to us, and yelled, "mommy, daddy...where's baby Max?" Needless to say, we all embraced and introduced her to her little brother. Note, we think Juliette grew about 2" while we were gone, it was the V8 juice, Smitty.
As we walked in balloons welcomed us, and special trinkets for Max left creatively around the house. (we're on to you Krystal) So, fun to find.
Currently, Juliette loves being a big sister, as she wants to help with everything. Awesome. We are thrilled that she is handling everything ok at this point. Max too, is enjoying exploring. Our house has a lot of stairs, as many of you know, so, we pulled out all of our baby-gates again, to keep everyone where they are supposed to be. It's hard to remember how active toddlers are. He definitely loves his sister. He mimics whatever she does, and just stares at her, for her reaction, which is always a smile.
So, here we are. Home. Unpacked. Clean laundry (hooray) and trying to figure out our new life with 2 kids. Juliette is handling her new status as "big sister" nicely. She wears her pink "big sister" Chinese t-shirt every day so far. (see photo) It's a hard adjustment for everyone, Max waking up at night, making him comfortable, and keeping Juliette included, she is an amazing helper as well. We will just take one day at a time, as we ease into a new routine.
Hello comfy bed, I missed you.
Thank you all again for following along in our journal/blog.
With Love,
The Lloyds
Hohhot Time
Portland Time