Home Sweet Home

Hello from good 'ole NashVegas!

It is soooo good to be back home....in my own bed, eating "regular" food, using MY own hair dryer.....you know, the little things.  We made it back around 6pm last night and were welcomed by so many loving friends and family from as far away as South Carolina and Atlanta.  What a surprise!   It was so amazing to walk through the exit and see so many familiar and smiling faces.  Granted, some of them looked like paprazzi, but we will let that slide for this occasion.  :) But, seriously, we are so blessed to have always had amazing support from everyone.  We will have pictures to post soon, but Olivia was a little overwhelmed with the spectacle.  She was pretty stoic but not many tears.  She did well riding in her car seat for the first time, and honestly, we've only had tears once on the car at all.  

After we left the airport, the Dulins were kind enough to have a little Welcome Home Celebration for us at their house.  Olivia became more comfortable with everyone and came out of her shell a little.  She enjoyed playing with some musical instruments.  Ansley was on cloud 9 with all of the attention, so that helped her as well.  

As I walked in their house, I realized that Olivia has probably never been in a house before.  It was a sobering thought as she was exploring around, climbing steps, and looking in all the rooms.  This little girl is going to have so many firsts in the next little bit, and I can't wait for us to be the ones to show her.

The travel day started bright and early at 4am China time, 5pm Nashville time.  We had to ride in a van from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.  It took approximately an hour and a half to get to the border.  Some of you may not realize this, but while HK is technically also part of China, it hasn't always been like that.  For 99 years, HK was under British control.  Only until a few years ago did it change back to Chinese rule.  It is still considered a separate entity from Mainland China, so we actually had to exit China and enter HK.  That meant two immigration stops and some stress.  

The first stressor was Olivia got car sick before the first border crossing.  Luckily, I had a package of wipes pretty close by when it happened.  My thought at that point was that I would just change her clothes when we got to the airport.  I had only packed one extra outfit in my carry on for when we got to Chicago, so I had to re-think that strategy.

We made it through the Mainland China border just fine.  We had to enter this tunnel-type thing; the driver had to open the back of the van for them to look at our luggage; we had to present our passports; and there was a bright spotlight-type of thing that they turned on us.  The officer went through every passport and compared the picture to us.  All was well, and he sent us on our way.

The Hong Kong border was more stressful.  For those of you who have seen the movie, "Argo," that's what I felt like to some degree.  Again, another tunnel.  This time, the driver not only opened the back of the van, but he opened the back door to where we were sitting.  The first officer scanned our foreheads for fever.  (He didn't get too close, thank goodness.). We had heard that they scanned for fevers, but we couldn't figure out who they monitored that.  We are so thankful that Ansley's fever went away before the scan.  After the fever scan, we went to a second officer.  He looked at our passports once again, and when he got to Olivia's, he said in broken English, "This your adoptive child?"  I said, "Yes, sir."  He said, "I need paperwork."  So, I got out the brown envelope and handed it to him. He then closed his window.  Now, keep in mind that we could not see inside this little window when it was closed, so I couldn't see what he was doing.  It seemed like he was behind this window for hours, but I'm sure it was only minutes.  

I just realized that I failed to blog about the brown envelope and its significance.  We received this brown envelope from the US Consulate when we got Olivia's visa.  It is the ultimate, the end-all-be-all envelope, the "guard with your life" envelope, and WHATEVER you do, DO NOT OPEN THE BROWN ENVELOPE.  If said envelope is open when you get to customs in the US, you cannot bring the child into the country.  Period.  

So....when he said, "I need paperwork," and proceeded to close that window that I couldn't see behind, I thought I was going to lose my mind.  My stomach ended up in my throat, and I was sick.  Philip and I looked at each other, and I said, "What if he opens the envelope?"  About that time, he opened the window, handed the brown envelope (unopened) and passports back, nodded his head to the driver, and sent us on our way.  Whew!!!  Praise God!

Right after I had breathed a sigh of relief, Ansley said, "Mommy, Olivia threw up again."  This time, it was more than any other, and she was covered in it.  We ran out of wipes about the time we pulled up to the airport.  We unloaded our stuff and ran into the airport to find a bathroom.  I changed her into some pajamas that were on top, thank goodness.  I also had Philip dig through and find one more outfit and some more wipes before we checked our bags.  Once we checked our bags, it would be too late.  I had 7 diapers with me at the time as well.  That is critical because, you see, she blew through 5 diapers and all available outfits except one before landing in Chicago.  The only outfit left was the one that I had planned for the girls to wear upon our arrival in Nashville.  Thank goodness we made it through customs before having to use the last diaper and outfit.

When we boarded, you could see the look of dread on some of the passengers faces when they saw a 4 year old and a 2 year old come aboard.  There were others that smiled at us.  I think they probably figured out what we were up to.  The flight attendants were fabulous again and very considerate of the girls.  All of them were Asian this time, except for one.  The pilots appeared to all be American.  The girls did really well on the flight in totality.  Olivia had a spurt of crying, but it was over after a few minutes.  They each slept approximately 7 of the 14 hours.  After we got off, someone complimented us on their behavior.  That made me feel really good.  Unfortunately, it was a full flight.  We were sitting 2 and 2.  The only good thing was that because of where we were sitting, there were only 2 seats on one of the rows, so we didn't have to worry about a "neighbor."  But, inevitably, both girls wanted to sit with me most of the flight, so there were 3 of us in 2 seats.  It ended up fine, but we were pretty crowded.  Philip felt terrible that I had both of them most of the flight (which meant basically no sleep for me) but I decided to just let them be instead of fighting with them about where they were sitting.  I could sleep later.  14 hours of flying later, we finally landed.  After celebrating landing in the good 'ole USA, we had to get our luggage.

After retrieving our luggage, we had to go through immigration in Chicago.  This is where Olivia would become an American citizen, and where we had to present the SEALED brown envelope.  We had to pass through a couple of passport checkpoints before getting to the "brown envelope" line.  As we were standing in that line, one of the workers saw us and could see that Olivia was the only reason we had to stand in a special line.  (Most of the people in line were entire families or groups of people.) She pulled us aside and had us give our file to another officer and have a seat.  At the time, he was dealing with a large family that appeared to have been coming from Africa.  They had about 4-5 children with them, and one was particularly wild.  The officer eventually had to get stern with them and tell them that they all had to stay together for this portion.  After that circus was over, he called us up, opened the brown envelope, stapled some stuff together said "Congratulations and welcome home!"  That was it.....no pomp and circumstance with the envelope, no pictures allowed.  We were done!  We did it!  Philip and I breathed another sigh of relief, said, "Thank you," walked away, and high-fived.  Again, Praise God!  We then went through baggage re-check and went to find our gate.  Everyone was hungry, and we found a mini-Chili's.  We ducked in there and had our first "real food" in 2 weeks.  By the time we ate, we only had enough time to change clothes, freshen up, and board the flight to Nashville.  It's a good thing that we had almost 4 hours between flights.  It would have been even more stressful if we had to have worried about missing our connector to Nashville in the midst of everything else. 

Some of you may not realize this, but Philip did not fly back to Nashville with us.  He had a commitment in France that I insisted he keep.  It is a bike trip that he has done for the past couple of years, and I wanted him to be able to do that again this year.  My Mom and sister were more than happy to come and help while he is away.  

I wasn't sure how Olivia would react to Phikip not coming, so he just kind of disappeared when it was time for us to board.  It was a tiny plane; 2 seats on one side and 1 seat on the other.  Technically, Olivia had her own seat, but there was no way she was sitting by herself.  Thank goodness the flight attendant understood.  She sat in my lap and was quite wiggly until we took off.  The people on the flight were so nice to help me when I needed it.  Then, thank goodness, both girls fell asleep for the duration of the flight.  

I will never forget the feeling I had when we walked off that plane in Nashville.....home.  We walked around the corner of the exit, and there stood all of those people looking at us.....how awesome.  It was emotional.....after all of these years, all of the prayers, all of the paperwork, all of the tears, all of the frustration.....it all went away in the blink of an eye.  We.were.home.  

So far, so good.  Olivia is adjusting remarkably well.  She slept until 4 am this morning and then took a really long nap this afternoon.  She went back down pretty easily tonight.  She is sleeping in her crib, so that is good.  I have read blogs where around the 3rd or 4th night, sleep becomes difficult, so we will see.  She is eating really well and drinking whole milk.  I found some more of the sippy cups that she likes, and that helps tremendously.  And, you were right, the Danimals drinkable yogurt has been the trick.  She loves it! 

Ansley is doing well, too, and insisted upon going back to school today, so I took her for a little while.  We introduced Olivia around, and she got to meet Mrs. Ping!  Mrs. Ping tried to speak with her in Chinese, but Olivia wasn't having any of it.  She stuck to me like glue, so we will see how it goes with them on down the line. I had read that some children never felt comfortable around Chinse people going forward.....I hope that's not the case.  

Tonight, Ansley asked if we could go to Chick-Fil-A, so we did.  Olivia had her first experience there and loved it!  We will see what this weekend holds.  If it's nice, I'm hoping to take the girls to the park and maybe have a picnic.  I've started laundry and unpacking.  Yuck!  

Many of you have asked if I will keep blogging.  All I can say is that I'll try.  I'm flattered that so many of you have been enjoying the blog as much as you have.  I'm amazed by your sweet comments and number of viewers every day.   I'm not sure that our "real life" is all that glamorous, so we will see if I can come up with things to talk about!

Wow, I just realized that I wrote a novel in this one post, so I apologize.  Again, I'll try to post some pics from my paprazzi as soon as I can.  Philip has the laptop, so it's a little more difficult for me to do things on the blog.  If I've left anything out that you're wondering about, feel free to ask.  I'm sure I've left out a lot!  I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  "THANKS" for going on this journey with us.  It's been a trip of a lifetime, that's for sure, and God has indeed blessed us beyond measure.  Have a great weekend!

Take care,

Jill