"I am sending an
angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I
have prepared."
Travel
Day 14
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - Homeward Bound
& Kya becomes a Citizen of the United States today!
Today we left Guangzhou
early in the morning and headed for Hong Kong where we had a short layover and
flew to Chicago. Thankfully the flight back to the US was not as bad as the
flight leaving the US...even with a baby in our laps the entire time. Kya was
pretty good on the plane. It was a full plane and 13 hours is long, no
matter how old you are. She only got fussy once or twice and not for too long.
She ripped paper out of magazines and snacked a lot. She kept squirming, of
course. It didn't bother us but it might have bothered those around us.
When we landed in
Chicago we were a bit clueless where to go. The part of the airport we were in
seemed rather empty. We were suppose to make our way (in a hurry) over to
customs. We had no idea where this was and there was nobody to ask. Fortunately
most of our group was on this flight and we could just hurry and follow
them. Thankfully they got us to the right location. We waited around a
long time at the immigration desk as they went through all the paperwork for all
the babies. Then they called us up one family at a time, looked over some stuff,
gave us a stamp and that was it....Kya became a U.S. Citizen!!!! We'll
receive her official certificate in the mail in about 30 to 40 days.
We had to change our
luggage at this point from the international belt to the domestic belt and the
area was just full of tons and tons of people and bags. It was all very chaotic.
Some lady in a airline uniform said she'd take care of it for us and to hurry to
our plane, it was about to leave. We then caught some kind of tram, losing our
friends Bill & Debbie, went across the airport some where. This airport is
like a city in itself! My goodness! We got to the other side and the security
lines were long, long, long. We were really nervous at this point, just wanting
to get home and not miss a flight. The plane had completed boarding by the
time we got there but we didn't miss it, thankfully. As we sat down in the back
a huge relief came over me. We were on the home stretch! We were about to
land at home, with our daughter in our arms finally. As we approached home the
emotions stirred up again. When I felt the wheels of the plane hit the ground, I
just hugged Kya and cried. She was home. Home at last!
We had a few friends and
family meet us there. That was nice but nobody came back over, we were so tired.
The luggage didn't make it though. We were still in that clueless sort of stage.
We had been standing around for probably 45 minutes to 1 hour with our friends
Bill & Debbie and our two sets of families before someone finally said to
us, "Have you noticed nobody is here, there is no signs saying that luggage
is coming and the belts seem closed." The people on our plane and everyone
else I suppose, along with the luggage, had come and gone. We'd missed it all
during the meet and great with our families. And, our luggage, never made it on
the plane. :( It was coming in on the next flight from Chicago and
the airline delivered it to our front door around 3am that morning. We just
slept through it all.
Below are a few pictures
from home.
Click
here to see our full photo album for the first few days home.
The first few days at
home were happy and exhausting. Above are pictures of Kya (and more in the
photo album) of the first few days at home. It was all like a dream sort of and
funny thing is, the trip is more magical and China is more wonderful, now that
it's over. They are precious memories of a dream coming true, a trip of a
lifetime, becoming a first time mom, holding our daughter for the first time,
getting to know her in her birth country and connecting with God on a different
level...memories we'll always treasure, always hold dear and always be thankful
for, thankful to God who made it all possible.
Delight yourself in the
Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart! Psalm 37:4
Thank you dear Lord for
this child, for this blessing!
