Leaving Hong Kong- Home Here we Come!

From July 26th- Today would be one of the longest days we've ever experienced.   We woke up early and took the 8:20 hotel shuttle to the airport.  We saw the Peak family in the airport- made the time waiting in lines go quickly!  We left Hong Kong at 11:10 a.m. on United flying directly to Chicago.  The flight actually went much better than I thought it was going to.   I was so worried that Lena would not sit in her own seat because she wouldn't on the in-country flight and because she wanted me to carry her almost always the last two weeks.  She was so excited to see the big planes coming into the gate.  Her and Evan enjoyed that together.  We were able to work on the sign for airplane a lot. :)  

When we got to our seats, she happily sat down and buckled up.  She was very excited actually!   What a great surprise. 

Her and Evan stayed up most of the first half or more of the flight.   They both finally crashed and were only able to sleep for about 5 or so hours. I had one head on my one side and one set of legs on my other side.   Lena only fussed for a few minutes a couple times, mostly because she was uncomfortable.   I was only able to sleep a little less than 2 hours and Rick hardly slept.  We finally arrived to Chicago.  We had a long walk to get to customs and immigration.   After getting through that, we had to get our bags.  They were already off the baggage carousel and there was a woman pushing a man in a wheelchair near there too.  We were tired and felt in the way.  It was likely at this point that Rick put all our big bags on the luggage carts and then our carry-ons,which he had put off to the side.  When we were almost home (a 2 hour drive), he noticed we didn't have one of our carry-on bags in the car- the one that had many of the gifts we bought for Lena and for a couple other people, including many fragile things, as well as chargers for every technological device we carried with us.  After getting our luggage, we  had to go to a special desk to hand in our adoption paperwork.   Then it was out the exit where there were many people waiting for their friend or loved ones.  Since our plane arrived 30 minutes early and we made it through customs and immigration fairly quickly, no one was there for us yet.  Rick went to one part of the hall to look for family and then I saw Rick's parents coming towards me.  We got a few pictures and headed right to the car. 

The rest of our welcoming crew- my mom and our other 4 boys, were all waiting for us in the driveway with their cute little tye-dye t-shirts on and 'Welcome Home!' balloons.  It was such a great feeling to see them again and to finally be together as a family of 8!  It was also a good feeling to be able to just have Lena home and no more hotel living, airplane hopping, etc...that is a lot for any child to go through, but especially for a child whom you are learning to communicate with.   Home sweet home!

 Landyn lovingly helping her drink...so precious!

 So happy to be playing outside with her brothers!

 Our kiddos together in their pajamas hanging out... minus Evan.