Homeward Bound!!

Headed home!

Last night was a crazy night for me.  I was up super late doing final packing for the trip today, and I was so tired when I finally laid down that I was really over tired.  I couldn't relax at all.  On top of that natural insomnia that came because of my packing and travel anxiety I was suffering with a horrible cough.  I could not shake the stupid hacking.  I never have any problem at all while I am up and walking around, but as soon as my head hits the pillow I can't stop coughing.  I was up all night.  I think that I finally got to sleep around 4:30 in the morning.  That was not going to lead to a good day for flying since we needed to be up and out of our hotel before 8 am.  I was going to have to get up early for the last second packing we needed to do in the morning.  Ugh!

Our last subway line.

We were able to get things all packed nicely and ready to depart on time.  We caught three cabs outside our hotel to drive us to the Kowloon airport express line of the metro.  With all of our luggage it made it necessary to use three cabs, so we had Laney and Savannah take their own cab.  They did a great job on their own, and we all showed up at the right spot.  The nice option that this airport express station of the subway offers is that we were able to check our bags and check in for our flight there at the subway station so we didn't need to haul all of our stuff on the subway line.  They just had a line that would take our stuff all the way to our flight.  That was a tremendous blessing because it opened our arms up and it gave us the chance to check our large family in without the larger crowds that are present at the main airport.  So I pulled out our nine passports for what would be the first of about twenty times I would need to display them all day, and we were on our way.

Our last trip on the subway.

We took the subway line all the way in to the main Hong Kong International Airport facility.  We passed through security there, and I have to say that I loved the process there so much better than what we face when we travel in the US.  They were pretty thorough, but they were relaxed with smaller lines and friendlier workers who don't seem quite as frazzled as some of our TSA agents can look sometimes.  We didn't have to take off our shoes (the most ridiculous requirement of our security practices in my opinion).  I still felt totally safe after the experience.  The lady assisting customers through the process even sent our family to the priority line set up for diplomats since we had so many children.  That made things go nicely.

After getting through security we headed to our plane boarding area.  We made it just on time and arrived just as the plane started boarding.  I'm not exactly sure why this was, but the boarding of our large plane in Hong Kong seemed so much quicker and more orderly than the boarding of our large plane had been in Chicago.  It was a relatively relaxing experience here in Hong Kong, and that is saying something when I am loading up a family of nine. 

Getting ready to board.

This plane ride was my biggest fear of this trip other than my fears that Minsy would have a difficult transition to our family.  We were going to be on a plane for fourteen hours with a little girl who really would not be able to understand us as we tried to help her to stay calm and seated througout the flight.  I anticipated lots of crying and screaming that would disturb all those around us and make for a miserable experience for Minsy.  I tried to prepare things to help prevent this, but there was just no way to know what to expect.  I am happy to say that the flight was absolutely amazing.  Minsy took a few naps here and there, but she remained awake for a majority of the trip.  She really wasn't wiggly at all.  She was happy to sit with us and play with items in our area.  She liked going between the three sections of seats that our family occupied, so she was never really bored too much.  She sat with me most of the time, and this prevented me from getting the sleep that I really needed, but I tried to nap when she did, and it worked out okay.  We sat by friendly people who enjoyed talking with the kids, and that made things easier as well.  Several people on the two flights we took today spoke about how well behaved our children were and how attached Minsy seems to be with all of us so quickly.  I really appreciate those compliments.  I'm not sure that I have anything to do with it, but I am grateful to have such good children, especially on a crazy long trip like this one.

Hyrum and Minsy on the flight to the US.

When we arrived in Chicago we had to go through immigration and customs.  I was a bit nervous about both of these processes because I wasn't sure just how complicated dealing with the government agencies would be with so many of us traveling.  The first thing that we had to do was to go through immigration to get our passports checked and stamped.  I wasn't quite sure which line to enter because they had a lines for citizens and lines for visitors.  We had eight US passports but one Chinese passport for Minsy.  I wasn't quite sure where she fit in yet.  Although we had done her immigration work in Guangzhou, she wasn't technically a citizen until she got through immigration in the US at the airport.  I chose to go through the citizens line and luckily ended up with a super nice immigration worker.  He did all of the family US passports and sent everyone but Minsy and I on to grab our bags from the baggage area so that we could take it through customs. 

This immigration worker wasn't exactly sure what to do about Minsy, so he grabbed a guy who did know, and he led us into an immigration room next to the entry lines.  We were able to step to the front as Minsy's name was called.  He had taken the brown sealed envelope we received in Guangzhou with strict rules not to open it.  This guy opened it.  I really hoped that he was the person authorized to do that.  I still wasn't sure.  But soon he called Minsy and handed her her Chinese passport and said that she was all good.  All good?  What exactly does that mean?  Did that mean that she was now officially a US citizen, or did that mean that she was a resident alien who was free to visit the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore now?  I asked if that was all we needed to do, and he said that yes, her passport was now her greencard. 

So now Minsy is a US citizen.  Hurray!  I'll admit that I was a bit underwhelmed with the process here.  I remember when my brother Bryan became a US citizen after being adopted from Vietnam.  I was pretty young when it happened, but my memory was of him being in a large room with several other people of different nationalities, and everyone raising their hands together as they became citizens.  I remember that all of us got a small American flag.  I kind of wanted something more official like that.  I guess that our ceremony in Guangzhou was kind of like that, without the flag.  Maybe it was just a different sort of process since we did it overseas in China rather than when we arrived in the US.  Either way, it's okay.  The important thing is that Minsy is now a citizen.

After immigration we headed to customs.  I thought that this was going to be a major pain because we had so many purchases from China.  I thought that they would need to go through all of our luggage.  It was going to take forever.  I have heard nightmares of the kinds of experiences that people have had in customs at airports.  Well, for us we were kind of at the end of the line because of our extra time spent working on Minsy's immigration status.  Still, the lines were smooth and quick.  When it was our turn the worker took our paper that said that we had nine people traveling with us.  They asked if it was true that we really had nine in our family because they said that they don't really ever see those sorts of numbers before.  Once they saw the size of our family they just waved us through without looking at a single thing.  They just took our word for it that we weren't smuggling merchandise into the country.  I'm not sure if they just didn't want to deal with a large number of people in our group, slowing down the rest of the line, or if it was because we looked like such an innocent family, or maybe they have some sort of system to notice the type of people they need to check.  I don't know.  I was just glad that it went smoothly for us.

I thought that we were done having to go through security, but for some reason in Chicago after arriving on an international flight we still need to go through security at the airport again.  The security line in Chicago was chaos compared to the system in Hong Kong.  There is not enough room for what they are trying to do.  But the workers were super nice to us and very patient, and we made it through.  Last time for awhile, thank goodness.

Waiting in Chicago for our flight to St. Louis

We left Hong Kong at 11 am on Monday, and through the miracle of time changes, we arrived in Chicago at 11 am on Monday.  It's like magic!  Unfortunately, although the clock made it seem as if we had traveled from China to Chicago in less than a minute, our bodies were still on China time, so we were really messed up.  We did okay on our trip to the US, but it really hit us on our trip from Chicago to St. Louis.  We managed to keep all of the kids awake in between flights, but as soon as the plane pulled away from the terminal all of us were asleep.  We didn't even notice the liftoff.  The flight from Chicago to St. Louis is only 45 minutes long, so we didn't have much time to sleep.  I was able to wake up about halfway through the flight, but everyone else was out cold.  Herman woke as we were coming into the St. Louis airport, but the kids didn't budge.  The flight pulled up to the gate, and everyone got off, but we could not wake the kids up.  Finally we managed to get most everyone off the plane, but Katie would not wake up at all.  I poked and prodded her for several minutes but she wouldn't move at all.  I was already carrying Minsy, so I couldn't carry her.  I managed to finally rouse her into a sleepwalking state, and we got off the plane. 

And this is how we all behaved on our trip from Chicago to St. Louis:

With groggy eyes we shuffled through the airport and got all of our bags.  None were lost at all on the flights.  Hurray!  My brother, Joe, picked us up after keeping our van with him while we were gone.  We smashed ourselves and our things into the van, and after dropping Joe off at work we were on our way home.  The kids slept most of the way.  I was a little  worried about how Minsy would do on the two hour drive home because she was going to be in a car seat.  In China they do not use car seats, and in most places they don't use seat belts either.  But luckily Minsy did great on the drive.  She only cried a bit after waking up in the middle of the drive, but I switched seats with Laney to sit next to her and comfort her, and it worked out wonderfully.  We stopped quickly in St. Louis to get some fresh Krispy Kreme donuts to feet our craving some horribly bad-for-you fried, sugared yummies. 

When we arrived home we let Minsy explore all around.  She has been wonderful.  She fits right in.  It is almost like she has always been here.   We are now hanging out, planning on spending the next several days to try and reset our internal body clocks to Missouri time.  In addition we need to get used to this cold weather.  When we left Hong Kong this morning (er, yesterday) it was 75.  It was 40 degrees when we arrived in St. Louis.  It was a jarring experience.  But this colder weather will  help our heads wrap around the fact that it is already Christmas season now.  I missed almost all of November here.  Hopefully we can get ourselves together soon so that we can get the calming influence of a regular schedule into Minsy's life.  That will help her feel comfort in our home more than about anything, I think.

I have loved keeping this blog of our trip.  I will probably not write each day after this.  I have to do a lot of catchup and add some of my reviews of books I read on my trip onto my goodreads.com reviews on this blog.  I will also take the next few days and fix the formatting and add pictures to all of my China trip entries.  I can't wait to show some of the sights that I have only described so far.  I hope you enjoy all of it.  For now, I'm happy to go to my own bed for the first time in almost a month.  The Great Blau Family Adventure Through China 2011 is officially over.