Home........in a rented Ford Escape?

We've been home for about 4 days now! I haven't had time to post since we left Guangzhou, but our trip home was interesting. Warning, long post!  It all started Wednesday in Guangzhou about 4:30pm when Hattie's US visa arrived in the hotel lobby. We were then whisked right away to a van where we traveled to the Guangzhou train station to board our train to Hong Kong. Traffic was horrible. There was a major holiday starting the next day, so our guide says, "I think it will be busy." Understatement. We also got a completely timid driver, the first I've ever had in China, at the most inopportune time. We needed someone who was willing to get sideswiped or take out a biker, but not this time. As our guide started yelling at him to go I started to get worried about making the train. We were struck in traffic right in front of IKEA Guangzhou for about 10 minutes. I just stared longingly. We rushed through the train station, made it no problem. In fact our train ended up leaving late. Train ride went well. Hattie was great and finally used a "squatty potty." Which next time I need to work on my quads before I go to China for those damn things. I wonder how many elderly break their hips using them. Before we left Guangzhou, we went out to the hotel courtyard and took a few last photos of Hattie in China.

A few or our favorites above. Our train was an hour late getting in to Hong Kong, and apparently our escort to the hotel had gotten a bit impatient. He breaks in to an all out spring as we met him and hightails it out of the train station. I had to jog with a huge suitcase and carrying a 2 and 1/2 year old. Seriously dude, help a girl out. Took a van to a hotel near the airport in Hong Kong. It was a great ride as we got to look at the skyline all lit up again. I was a little sad as we were seeing our last parts of China that night, for a long time. We were taking Hattie from her home country for a long time.

The airport hotel was insane at 11pm. Adam had to stand in line for 20 minutes to check in. Slept and took the pedestrian bridge over to the Hong Kong airport, which is probably number one on my list of airports I've been to. Clean, great food, doesn't feel crowded, good shopping. While we were waiting for our flight, we found the Hong Kong Disney store. Hattie apparently loves Mickey Mouse. Not sure if she had seen him before, but she's a big fan. She would just stand in from of a sign with Mickey on it in the store and point. Picked up a little Mickey doll and coloring book for the flight. Boarded our 15 hour flight.

Bye bye China!

We flew Cathay Pacific, which we really liked. It is awesome to fly with kids. They have special meals for them and special kids packs with games, colors, and all kinds of cool stuff. Hattie was super good on the plane ride. Used the airplane bathroom with no problem and had one crying fit that lasted maybe 5 minutes. Couldn't have asked for a better flight really. She handled it better than us. I was ready to get off at the 7 hour mark, then looked and saw we had 8 hours left. Resisted the urge to throw back some benadryl and instead started watching the Big Bang Theory on the in flight entertainment. Which by the way now I will be watching regularly.

 Touched down in the US about 2pm and things started quickly falling apart after that. We were trying so hard to get back to the US and then totally got crapped on once we got there. Passport line was long and then we were sent to immigration, not the same immigration as last time at Ohare. Last time we handed our handy paperwork in, they stamped it and said see you later. This time there were massive piles of files on the desk and about 40-50 people waiting in a small area all immigrating into the US for the first time. We had 3 hours to catch our flight which we thought would be more than enough and then we started to worry. Immigration everywhere outside of the US had been was so much nicer. Adam went up to ask how long the wait was and the guy thought about 4 hours, and he said to just sit down and we would catch another flight. So incredibly rude. Oh and no purchasing food or drink or using any cell phones until we were out of there, for 4 hours, with a 2 year old. We had to sit on a dirty floor, and I couldn't believe this was the way they immigrated people in to the US. About a half hour passed and 2 other adoptive families arrived there that were on our flight. Once we had a critical mass and a father who was very outspoken, they somehow processed our files quickly because they didn't realize we had minors who didn't need to be fingerprinted. Congrats Hattie on your new US citizenship, now let's get our crap and run through the airport. Went in to an all out sprint to recheck our luggage and go through security again to make our flight. Got to the gate and it was delayed. Finally moved us to another gate, boarded the plane, taxied out the the runway and sat there for an hour while they decided whether to fly due to a storm. They decided not to, and gave us Nature Valley Granola bars for our inconvenience. Cancelled the rest of the flights out of Ohare to the west. We were then told we could maybe get a flight out tomorrow night and most hotels were booked around Ohare that night already. We made an executive decision to rent a car and drive back at that point. I think most everyone back home thought we were crazy but after you've been in a hotel room for 17 nights and traveling for 36 hours, your reasoning starts to change.

New US Citizen! I'm watching you America!

We ended up getting one of the last cars at Avis, a lovely new Ford Escape with leather seats. It made us realize.....we need a new car! It was Hattie's first time ever in a car seat. Turns out she knows how to make her body completely straight and rigid, so as not to get in to a car seat. Wrestled her into it and after that she actually tolerated it pretty well for the 7 hour drive home. Drove by another closed IKEA in Schaumburg. IKEAs just seemed to taunt me this whole way home. We had to give up our vision of our homecoming being at the airport and meeting Naomi there. But I'll be honest, at that point I cared about just being home, however we got there. Navigated our way out of Chicago and stopped for some snacks. Hattie ended up with Bug Juice and Mini Donuts. We're proud. I found out they make 7 layer dip combos. At this point we had had about 2 hours sleep in the last 36 hours which I think actually fueled us more. Drove from about 10pm-5am when we rolled up in front of our house. Naomi was staying with family at a hotel so we tried to get about 2 hours of sleep and then met her at the hotel.

Seeing Naomi again was amazing. She was as sweet and goofy as ever. Hattie and Naomi also met for the first time, as well as Hattie meeting grandparents. Naomi did so well with the situation and was very happy to finally be able to meet her sister. We are all slowly recovering from jet lag. The girls are doing amazingly well with each other. Things are good. Will post more about the transition later this week, but now I must nap as they are both asleep!

We all have a little bit of sleep to catch up on!