Coming Home

Coming Home

Yes, I had to resist using the title, “Coming to America”.

Our journey home went very well.  Our departure time from the hotel in Almaty was set for 1 am.  Mike and Asa went to bed at about 9 and slept for a few hours.  We had done a 2nd scabies/lice treatment on Asa that afternoon, so we had to give him a bath before leaving. And traveling for 30 something hours is not pleasant, especially in the bathing department, so Mike and I showered right before leaving also.

The airport in Almaty is small.  You can sit in a chair and see every gate.  Every gate.  We checked out large red suitcase and gated checked the stroller.  The tag they put on the stroller made me suspect that we would not see it at the gate in Frankfurt Germany, but the ticket agent assured me that the stroller would be there waiting.

We boarded the plane for our 3:40 am flight.  Asa was now tired and I was really expecting him to fall right to sleep. That was my plan; I had been up since 8 am on Wednesday.  Asa was so fun to watch as we got settled in our seats.  He pushed every button, including the call button for the flight attendant…several times.  He discovered the movie Cars and he had his snack cup.  And his machinas.  He was set.  I fell asleep quickly, and so did Mike.  And Asa did not.  He stayed awake for most of the seven hour flight watching movies and playing with his cars.  At one point I half consciously saw the flight attendant hand him a cup of water and his sweet little voice tell her, “Spaciba” (thank you.)  He did quite well taking care of himself during that flight!

We arrived in Frankfurt and had a 1.5 hour layover. We had to change airlines which meant traveling from what seemed like one end of the airport to the other end.  We got off the plane and the crew member said that our stroller would be brought to us at the other end of the hallway.  Fifteen minutes later, same crew member came to us and in his thick German accent told us that “my colleague said that your stroller is with the luggage.  You will receive it in Chicago.”  Nice. 

Off we go, trying to hurry through the airport, now 15 minutes behind in our quest to find the other gate.  Asa does not walk very fast.  And he tires quickly.  And when that happens he wants to be carried.  Carrying him is like carrying a 40 lb sack of sugar.  That was fun.  I am thankful for those moving walkway things.  Very thankful.

We reached our gate and found our traveling companions.  We had some time to kill, so I wandered over to buy some water bottles and a magnet.  I only had American cash.  A $50 bill was my smallest.  I paid with that and received the change in Euros.  I was not able to exchange the Euros back to American cash until we reached Chicago where I am sure I got a horrible exchange rate.  I think that the two water bottles and magnet ended up costing me $30 US or so. 

We boarded our flight from Frankfurt to Chicago and within minutes Asa was asleep.  He slept for about five hours of that flight!  Mike and I were also able to sleep some and watched some movies.  I don’t know what we’ll do to keep current on movies now that we are not traveling internationally every month ;)

We arrived in Chicago at mid-morning.  The three times I have been through immigration at Chicago, it has been very quick.  When we arrived there with Ezra, we were literally off the plane, through immigration, had our bags and through customs in less than 30 minutes.

Not this time.  We walked through the hallway and emerged to find hundreds of people in line for immigration.  Hundreds.  We waited in line long enough for Asa to need two potty breaks.  Finally we reached the immigration booths and the officer who took our things then led us to “the room”.  I have heard of families having to go “the room” but I had never been there.  It is a room that new immigrants are taken and their immigrant visa is processed before they can enter the US legally.  Our things were handed to another officer and we were told to take a seat and wait. 

Our friends had a connecting flight at 12.  We were in “the room” for an hour. They missed their flight.  Asa and Kolya entertained themselves and many of the other waiters by re-enacting Kung Fu movies.  It was hilarious! Finally they called our names and we were stamped and approved and our boys became US citizens!

We waved goodbye, again, to our friends and off we went to recheck our luggage.  We met our friends again at the luggage check. We told them good bye again.  We dropped our bag off and went to meet Mike’s sister and our niece.  They live in Chicago and we were able to go to the airport hotel for lunch and to allow them meet Asa.  He did very well!  We had a nice lunch and had some run around play time for Asa.

With a couple of hours before our flight, Asa was beginning to fade.  He had only slept about 6 hours of the last 24, so we took off to find our gate and let him nap in the stroller.  Yes, we got our stroller back!  We made it through US security.  Since Asa is a minor, he does not need to show ID for domestic flights.  It was quite a feeling to hand the TSA agent both of our boarding passes and not have to PROVE that he was my son!  To not have to show adoption paperwork, or passports, it was such a satisfying feeling.

Within minutes of finding our gate, Asa was out.  And so was my phone!  We wandered around to find a free outlet to let our phones charge and to just sit and relax.  It is quite comical to see the scene in American airports of people camped out near outlets letting all of their electronic gear charge.  Some airports have installed poles with outlets all around them for this purpose.  I guess the United terminal at Chicago O’Hare has no desire to serve people in this way.  We found an outlet under a payphone at another gate and we set up camp.  Asa slept like a champ and I dozed off a couple of times.

It was a very sad thing to have to wake the boy to take him potty before we boarded our plane. He was exhausted.  His body was still on Kyrgyzstan time and he was not having any of it.  He screamed, threw a fit and just did not want any part of going potty.  He ate two bananas and I hoped that would wake him up and he would stay awake until bedtime that night. 

Not so.  As soon as we were on our plane to Dallas, he was out.  And stayed out most of the flight.  We landed in Dallas at 8 pm and were met by our friends Joshua and Jeralee.  They were so kind to take us to eat real American food.  Chili’s is about as American as you can get!  Asa enjoyed his French fries and kind of enjoyed his chicken crispers.  He was quite offended by the hamburger Daddy tried to share with him!

We got to our hotel at 10:30 and were in bed shortly after.  Asa fell asleep quickly with no tears!  He slept straight through until 8:30 am!  This was more than I could have dreamed or hoped for for our first night in this time zone!  This was a great start to dodging the evil monster, Jet Lag!

Mike’s dad picked us up the next morning and Asa got to meet his grandfather.  We had pancakes for breakfast and I think he liked them!  We had a good visit with Phil and Asa was happy.

Our last flight left Dallas at 1 pm.  Asa was not so pleased about this flight.  He insisted on closing the shade on the window next to him.  He screamed and cried.  And the nice lady in front of us gave him some peanut butter crackers.  This made it all better!  The rest of the flight was good and only an hour!

Our arrival at Midland International Airport was fantastic.  We had so many friends and family there to greet us. We were not sure how Asa would respond to the crowd, but he ate.it.up!  The minute he saw everyone he seemed to know that they were there for him and he grinned and laughed and had so much fun running around with his brothers and sister!  Another dream come true!

His first night at home was fun.  He enjoyed the other kids. He is supremely scared of our boxer.  Thanks in large part to Buster’s welcome home kiss right in Asa’s face.  But I am sure Asa will figure out that Buster means no harm and they will be friends.  Someday. 

We went out to eat at Logan’s for supper.  A tradition of sorts, this is where we ate out when we brought Ezra home.  Asa refused to try the broccoli on his plate, and then shocked us all by further refusing to try the macaroni and cheese.  He nibbled on his chicken and then threw a big fit when he couldn’t eat the chips left on Josiah’s plate.  Learning to eat what is on your plate BEFORE you get chips or other treats might be a hard lesson for the little king who has never heard the word NO before. 

Bedtime brought a few tears, but once Daddy crawled into bed with him, Asa fell asleep and slept all night long.  Another huge step towards living full time in this time zone!