Day 14 – Flight Home from Hong Kong! 9-01-11

We got up and got ready as quickly as we could this morning. We dragged all of our bags back down to the lobby to check out (we weren’t inclined to wait around for the bellboys this morning.) Fortunately, it didn’t take nearly as long for me to get checked out as checked in. We grabbed a luggage cart by the sky bridge and headed for the airport. We went back to Burger King for breakfast, (since I already knew where it was), then we headed for the departure area. It was a good thing we got there when we did as the line to the United Airlines check in counter was already very long. By the time we got to the front to get our boarding passes and check our bags, the line had tripled in length. Before, going through customs Trish went into this toy store she had spotted. She wanted to find some more toys that might keep Jacob entertained during our 14 hour flight back to Chicago.
Next stop was customs and security and again another line to wait in, but at least this one was moving fairly quickly. Once inside the gate area we had to still find our gate. Mercifully God guided us and did not allow us to get lost. We just followed the signs which took us to another set of escalators which went down. We opted for the elevator instead. When we got to the lower level we followed the signs again which took us to a train that said it was going to our gate area in Terminal 1. We get on the train which made a couple of stops before arriving at our gate area. There was a nice Chinese man on the train who spoke English and was on the same flight as ours back to Chicago. He helped us to get off at the correct station. Again, there was another escalator going up to the gate area. Again, we opted for the elevator. After making it up to the upper level we again followed the signs to our gate area. It was still a long walk before we got there, but we finally made it with enough time for all of us to go to the bathroom. I also had time to track down some snacks for Jacob and momma to have on the plane. For Jacob that meant some sort of crackers and fruit chews. For momma, that meant some sort of chocolate. I made it back just a few minutes before the plane started boarding.
The boarding lines for the different airplane sections were very disorganized. A lady motioned us over to the business section loading side because we had a child. We showed her our tickets and thought we were supposed to go ahead and board. We started down the gang plank and she started hollering at us and got all irate because had left the front. Apparently we still had to have the boarding clerk at the podium check our passports and tickets again. She made us stand there while the rest of the business folks loaded and then they checked our passports and let us go on down. We are thinking, so why did you call us on over? We get to the end of the gang plank and they are checking everyone’s carryon bags again. We had to open all of our bags for them to look through again. So that’s 6 total bags (2 each) they looked through. We finally get on the plane and our seats are almost all the way back in the tail of the plane. I was not having fun trying to get all of our carryon bags to our seats and in the overhead. We settled into our seats to await take off with Jacob in the seat between us.
The flight home was very long and went smoother than I had anticipated. Jacob only had a few squealing/crying meltdowns from being contained in the seat. None of us were able to sleep very much on the way home. So it was a challenge keeping Jacob entertained. Jacob enjoyed putting the lap trays up and down. He finally layed across all 3 of them and fell asleep for about 1 ½ hrs. This was a little challenging for Trish & I go to slide out to use the bathroom or do much of anything. We were very happy and grateful when it was time to land in Chicago.
As soon as we had departed the plane and set his feet on U.S. soil Jacob officially became a U. S. Citizen praise God! Yeah!! We celebrated briefly but had to move on as we were blocking the walkway. The first stop after departing the plane we had to go through Customs. Customs went smoothly and the next stop was claiming our luggage. Next we were off to Immigration with our luggage to give them our prize USCS brown envelope. We had to sit and wait until they called our name. They eventually called Trish up with Jacob. They processed his citizenship documents and we would receive his official citizenship certificate in a few weeks through the mail.
We moved on to recheck our bags for the final flight from Chicago to St. Louis. By this time we only had a couple of hours left to kill of our 5 hour layover before the final leg of our journey. We were so tired we really just wanted to sleep. And, of course our flight got delayed by a half hour. We were so close to being home, but still so far away. We finally boarded and settled into our seats exhausted. We all 3 dozed off and we were only about 10 minutes away from landing when we awoke. We couldn’t wait to get off that plane when we touched down. But, we waited for most of the people to get off before we got our bags out of the overheads so that we wouldn’t bang people around with them on the small commuter plane. Trish got a little emotional when the flight attendant welcomed visitors to St. Louis & then said “welcome home” to those who call St. Louis home.
After making a brief pit stop at the closest bathroom we made our way out to the main terminal. It was such a glorious sight to see our Ellie there waiting for us!!! And of course all our other friends and family too! We grabbed Ellie and hugged her tight! I think Jacob was a little overwhelmed by all the people crowding around to see him. I think he recognized Ellie, grandma, his cousins, and aunt and uncle from Skype because he seemed to warm up really quickly to them.
After much conversation, many hugs, and congratulations we were off to our vehicles to head home. But, before going all the way home we had a stop to make first at one of our favorite places. We stopped with our family for dinner at Culvers for some good old fashioned “American” hamburgers!! They tasted really, really, good. We had really been looking forward to this!! Trish started talking about Culver’s when we left Hong Kong.When we got back to our home we were so grateful to be there. Lucy our Golden Retriever was grateful to see us too. Jacob was not sure what to make of her. I don’t think he had ever been in close proximity to a dog before. Jacob yelled at poor Lucy anytime she was near him. He didn’t even want to be walking on the floor when she was near! We eventually made it to bed totally exhausted. All of us slept in the same bed as a family that first night. We just praise God again for His provision and His help in completing our journey! We were finally home with the son he has given us!