The Long Way Home

Our trip home involved some unanticipated events, some good, some not so good. On Friday, July 2 we got up at 4:45 AM, anxious to get to the Hong Kong airport and begin the long journey home. Thoughts of seeing the boys were on our minds as we left the hotel to get on the flight to Tokyo. That trip was short and sweet, and Zoe did great. We landed in Tokyo and hung out in the airport for several hours, along with Dan, Angie, their son Joshua, and their new daughter Emma.

Angie and I prayed for bulkhead seats so the girls could sleep. Those are the ones at the front of a row with plenty of legroom, AND, in the big planes, a place to hang a bassinette. Unfortunately, due to mechanical difficulties with the plane, our 4 PM flight to Seattle became 5 PM, then 6 PM. We finally got on the plane sometime after 6. We were so excited that both of our families had been given bulkhead seats! Prayers answered. We settled in for the 11 hour flight, and the plane took off. Well, pretty soon the flight attendants started getting up, sitting down, getting up, talking on the phone, sitting down, getting up, talking on the phone, then RUNNING down the aisles. Needless to say, we were getting a little nervous. On top of that, the plane was VERY loud. Like, unusually loud. Like, something is WRONG loud. The pilot finally came on and in his best "nothing to worry about folks" voice, told us that due to mechanical difficulties with the hydraulic system, the landing gear wouldn't go up and we were going to turn around (somewhere over the Pacific!) and go back to the Tokyo airport. There, although "this is not an emergency," we would be met by fire trucks and then towed into the gate. In my mind I prayed, "Let me see my boys again...Let me see my boys again." Prayers answered...the plane landed easily and we all burst into applause.

More drama to come. After the several hundred passengers deplaned, we were told to meet the buses to take us to a hotel. Much confusion followed as everyone scrambled to find the right bus to the right hotel, then more chaos as we all showed up at the Tokyo Marroad Hotel to wait forever in the line at the front desk. While Kevin was checking in, I fed Zoe, and then Angie and I discussed whether we had enough formula and diapers to make it home (we didn't). At least everyone had a change of clothes, but I had no make-up or hair products ...yikes! When Kevin and I opened the door to the room, we discovered that it was lost in the 70's. Threadbare carpet, outdated everything, no crib, and a small bed. After 2 weeks at the Marriott, we really felt like we were roughing it! We were allotted one 3-minute phone call, so I called Mom and quickly told her what had happened. I said we would be coming home a day late, but we were safe and staying in a crappy Tokyo hotel. After eating a boxed meal of fatty beef, potatoes, and gravy, we laid Zoe down between us and then fell fast asleep....at least Zoe and I did. Kevin worried so much about rolling over on Zoe that he could only sleep for an hour.

The next morning, Kevin bought what looked like formula at the little store in the lobby. The writing was all in Japanese so he wasn't quite sure, but the clerk assured him (in Japanese) that it was for babies. We caught the bus and went back to the airport. Luckily, we got there early, because later the line was incredibly long. Dan and Angie were booked on a flight to Minneapolis, and Kevin and I were booked on a flight to Seattle. On the SAME PLANE that had the mechanical problems. But then Kevin checked the tickets and realized that the flight home would involve a FIFTEEN HOUR layover. That's when he lost his cool. He cut in front of the line, went up to the desk, pounded his fist, and demanded a different flight (totally out of character for him!) But hey, it worked...we got $200 in Delta coupons and a flight to JFK with only a 2-hour layover!

We said our goodbyes to Dan, Angie, Emma, and Josh, and then I went to their gate with them so Angie and I could use the nursery there and divvy up our baby formula. I rushed back to our gate, found Kevin and Zoe, and then finally, 24 hours late, we boarded the flight for home. I had prayed for the bulkhead again, but this time our seats were much further back. I saw a man standing in the bulkhead looking toward us, and I thought to myself, "Look at that man GLOATING because he has a bulkhead seat. He doesn't even have a BABY!" At least Delta had managed to give us an extra seat, so I figured maybe Zoe could sleep sitting up. We got settled in for the 13-hour flight. But then a flight attendant knelt down beside us and asked if we wanted to move to the bulkhead. We're like, "Of course! But why?" Then she told us that the family sitting there wanted to give us their seats! Turns out they had seen us with Zoe, figured out we were coming back from adopting her, and wanted to do something nice for us! Why? They had also adopted a baby, 15 years ago, and they were on their way back to Long Island from a trip to Korea to meet his foster mother. The mom (Jane) told me it was "karma" and they really wanted to do this for us. So I started crying, she started crying, the flight attendants started crying...it was definitely a moment I will never forget. Talk about prayers answered! Here's the kicker...her husband (John) was the man I had seen "gloating," but actually he was the one who spotted us and told his wife! I guess I learned a lesson. They were such a a nice family and visited with us later in the flight.

Their son Michael was really sweet and wanted to help us with Zoe. She actually slept in that little bassinette for 9 hours!

We had met a musician sitting across the aisle and he sang her a lullaby while we waited to land. When we got to JFK, Kevin and I were exhausted, my cough was pretty bad (sorry to anyone sitting near me on the plane), and we had just 2 hours to catch our flight to CVG. First we were stuck in a huge crowd of people being funneled into customs and immigration. (That's our musician friend at the bottom of the escalator.)

We thought we would never get through the crowd, when all of a sudden a flight attendant told us and the families around us with small children to follow her. She cut a swath through the crowd saying, "Let the babies through!" If she had not done that I'm sure we would not have made our connecting flight, because we also had to wait in a long line to get through immigration. When we finally got to a counter, we gave our sealed brown envelope to an immigration agent named Hassan. It took him some time to go through all the paperwork, but finally Zoe was officially proclaimed a U.S. citizen!!! I would have felt very emotional if we hadn't been so tired and rushed.

But while we were waiting to get our luggage, Hassan found us, took Zoe's passport, and made us follow him to an office. We were worried that something was wrong with our paperwork. Soon he came back out, handed us the passport, and told us everything was OK. Maybe he had forgotten to do something? I don't know, we didn't ask, we just took off through customs. Next, we had to wait forever in a Delta line to get seats on the flight to Cincinnati. By the time we got through there, we had to high-tail it to the gate where we took a shuttle to the plane. Once again, great seats in the bulkhead! It was a smallish plane and we had a wonderfully short, uneventful flight. Well, there WAS one little incident. Zoe had a very dirty diaper which I had to change in the airplane lavatory. I mean VERY DIRTY. Doe the term "back-poop" mean anything to you? I had to wrestle the clothes off of her, clean her up with our last remaining wipes, use our last remaining diaper, put her little outfit in a ziploc, and then try to wipe the poo off the changing table, walls, floor...you get the idea. So I walk out of the bathroom 10 minutes later, and the whole plane is laughing at me holding a naked baby!

We landed, got our luggage, and caught the shuttle to the parking lot. When we got to the car (Hallelujah!) Zoe didn't fuss much considering she was naked and it was her first time being put in a carseat. I sat in the back with her and we headed home. We called our moms, who didn't know for sure where we were. My mom was still at our house with the boys. I'm so glad Aunt Karen was there to help her. I know she had to be exhausted after 2 long weeks, and worried sick the last 24 hours. Luckily, an hour earlier Karen had gotten hold of a Delta agent who told her we were probably on the flight to CVG. So she knew we were most likely safe and on our way home. I cannot tell you how happy I was when we turned the corner and saw our house!! We pulled into the garage, got Zoe out of the car, and then...TO BE CONTINUED.