The morning of our flight home started well. We were in the lobby just before 7am waiting for our driver. We kind of knew whom we were looking for
We waited
And we waited.
It got to be 7:30 and we decided that by 8:00 we would try calling Holt to see what was up. At about 7:35, an airport Limo/Taxi pulled up in front of our Hotel. We thought he was there for some other gentlemen who were waiting with their luggage. I said to John, "He's gonna have to talk long and hard to get me into that Cab, cause that is NOT the Holt Driver."
When the cab driver came in, He said (in broken English), "Are you waiting for a ride? I said, "yes, but we have a driver coming" and pointed to the other men who were waiting. He said, "no, baby?"
I was thinking, I am not paying this guy to drive us that far when our Holt driver is coming. I said, "yes, baby" He could see Alyvia and John in the foyer. Then he said, "Holt?" I said, "Yes" and asked John, if he thought we should go with this guy. He knew we had a baby and were with Holt and by this time--even if the Holt driver was still coming--we needed to get to the airport.
So, we let this Cabbie load our things and we headed for the airport, Still unsure if we were with the correct driver. His Cab said he took Visa, so we figured even if we needed to pay, we could and we would be at the airport. Sooner than later. When we got to the airport, he didn't ask us to pay, so we assume that the Holt driver could not come and that this man and his cab was Plan B.
We got into the airport and the line for Korean Air flights was HUGE. Like mega HUGE and we were only 2 hours from our departure time. About the time I started to get concerned (read panic) that we wouldn't even get to the front of the line before our flight left for Dallas, A nice young woman said "Family Line?" And pointed us to a very very short line for families with children or grandparents. WHEW. That line took 45 minutes to get to the front but we finally got to the desk. We asked the kind woman if we could perhaps be seated in the front of coach with the bulkhead or if there may at least be an extra seat (which is typical for Korean Air), She punched a ton of buttons and said she was sorry but the flight was completely full and the bulkhead areas were full (of other families with small children). BOO, BOO. She did manage to get us one aisle seat which was helpful because we were gonna be getting up A.LOT.
We had about 45 Minutes to get through security before our flight boarded. We stopped at a bookstore and bought Alyvia a Hangul Bible; We went through security, grabbed a bite to eat and we were on our way. We were seated next to a young woman from China. When she saw us with our toddler, she appeared to ask the flight attendant if she could be moved. Of course, that was not possible. The flight was full. She was not extremely happy and I was nervous. =/
The flight was slated to be 13 hours. O BOY. Many of our AP friends had had flights from Sheol on the trip home and others have had not too bad of flights. Who knew how ours would go? God did.
To sum it up, it was better than it could have been.
Alyvia did not cry very much.
But she was so very busy. Always squirming. . . Always moving. She really doesn't like TV, so Pororo on the Ipad was not so much of a help. She did enjoy the occasional viewing of the 3 bears song on the Ipad. That bought us about 20 minutes of tranquility on our 13 hour flight.
I titled this post "Walking home . . . From Korea?" for a good reason. We walked most of the way across the ocean. Moving was what kept Lyv somewhat peaceful. I had her in the carrier for her 2 hour and a half naps (3 hours of stillness) but I had to keep walking to help her stay asleep. I would guess, one of us was out of our seat with her for at least 10 of the 13 hour flight. Crazy. But it worked for us, for Lyv. Our flight was totally full and loaded with little ones. I don't really remember a time when someone's baby was not crying. =(
We encountered plenty of turbulence (sp?). And let me say, whenever the "fasten seatbelt" sign lit up, my heart would start to race. We needed to be able to move around. Lyv needed to be moving. And our seat mate (who had bubble sticky and baby snacks slopped her way a few too many times)
needed us to be up and moving. =)
I sang to Lyv a.lot while she was sleeping. . . Trying to keep myself awake and trying to cover the LOUD sounds by the wing where we stood for our sleep dance. Songs like Great Is Thy Faithfulness, God of the Ages, Meant to Be, When Love Takes You In and Holy, Holy, Holy poured from my lips into the heart of my daughter and the ears of my God. These moments were somewhat emotional for me. This was a big ole parenting mission God had us on and I was grateful to be coming home but also nervous about the immediate future transition with our new girl.
John and I took turns pacing the aisles. We added in 20 minutes of playing in the water in the Lav. And 20 minutes of bubbles in the Lav. Hey, you do what you have to do.
God sent a Brother to encourage us on our flight home. He was a Korean Biochemist (i think) who had just finished his PHD in the US. He was excited to tie up some loose ends in America and get home permanently to his wife and two daughters in Korea. He had attended a sister church of ours on the East coast and knew of another smaller set of like-minded believers, too. It was crazy to meet him. It was God, showing Himself to be in the details of our journey. This kind man gave us his encouragement and blessing on our family and on our adoption of our beautiful, Korean daughter.
I will never forget how God crossed our path on that flight through our new friend.
We counted down the minutes (not even kidding) until the flight would touch down in Dallas. We could not wait.
AHHH DALLAS!! You were so good to us!!! We were pretty much the last ones from our flight in the immigration line. The "new immigrant" line wasn't open on this Saturday, so we hopped into the long line of citizens. It really only took about 30 minutes to plow through the line to the friendly man at the counter. He said he'd go home and talk to his wife about adopting. He was caucasian and his wife was Asian. He said, he'd love to adopt an orphan from China. We told him there were unfortunately thousands (actually more) of children in China who could use a loving family. I would love to think he was serious and talked with his wife about this huge need.
The acutal immigration guys were super nice. We were second in their line. They barely gave our stuff a look and sent us on our way. . . To get our luggage.
We had to get our luggage . . . claim our purchases . . . have it searched . . . then reship it to Omaha. Lovely.
Acutally, it all went so smoothly. They were careful and thorough but kind and relatively quick. If ya'll ever need to travel internationally, I highly recommend the Dallas airport.
We noticed our boarding passes had us sitting in different rows so we went to the AA desk and the nice lady put us together and with an extra seat for spreading out a bit. Thank You, God.
WE WERE EXHAUSTED. By the time we got to Omaha, we had been awake for 24 hours. That was so hard. Both John and me had a couple of 20 minute naps on our flight from Seoul, but nothing to consider sleep. We were so very very tired. Our flight ended up delayed 3 or 4 times backing us up about an hour. It felt like a lot longer because we were just done. Exhausted and done.
The AA flight was also full and they boarded several standby passengers, but somehow with every other seat full, they left our extra seat empty. Bless God. We were in the back of this smaller plane, right by the engines so it was really loud. But we had an extra seat so we could spread out a bit for our last leg home.
The flight attendants were inquisitive about our adoption. They asked some good questions and basically talked John's ear off while I dozed with Lyv for most of this hour and 15 minute flight.
As we left the plane and headed toward our beautiful family and beloved friends who awaited us, our hearts were pounding. John said, "I think I'm just gonna cry." We were so tired and happy and overwhelmed in this moment.
Then we saw them . . . our other kids. We missed them so much. Never had we been gone from them this long. Never.
They embraced us
We hugged them
We hugged and held and were just so relieved to be home.
As we looked around we saw the faces of our other loved ones--friends from our church who are like family to us. They came to welcome us
to welome Alyvia to the USA and to her new home
We felt so loved
We were so grateful they came.
An adoptive friend and her daughter also came that day. Having Katie and Zinny at our Airport homecoming just made it that much more special. Katie and I had met on an online adoption support board and I was pleased to finally lay eyes and arms on her and her beautiful Korean American daughter.
After an exchange of kindnesses and simple stories of God's activity on our behalf the past week,
we located all of our luggage and headed for home.
Home--A small word that meant so much more that day than it had just one week before.
Welcome home Alyvia Huimang!!! Welcome home!
Simply grateful . . . that our 15 months of waiting to bring you home was finally over!
Hoping to add pics to this post soon. None from the flights of course, why??? But some from our airport homecoming. It was a very special time.
