Long overdue ... We are Home !!!

We did make it home Friday Dec 16. We were so jetlagged and tired. On Sunday, Austin broke out in a rash. By Monday, Austin was covered in the rash. Mama knew it was chicken pox, but hoped it was not. We went to the doctor to confirm. So our first week home was covered in pox. Austin has been very fussy and you can tell he is miserable. We are glad his sisters had the vaccine so hopefully they do not get sick.

So back to the journey home. We left Guangzhou on the train to Hong Kong. The train ride was with 11 other families we met on the trip. We had a 45 minute bus ride to our hotel after we got off the train. We spent one night at the hotel in the airport. We are glad it was for one night. The Regal hotel was overpriced and very basic. No luxury at all. We were so excited to be on the way home. We boarded the flight from Hong Kong to Chicago. We were dreading the 15 hour flight. Austin had already not done well on a flight. Austin fussed half the flight home. He would fall asleep then Daddy would move him and wake him up. We had bad turbulence so the plane shaking woke him also. Austin was so sleepy and could not stay asleep. There were several other families on the plane with small kids. When one kid started to cry, the others would join them. We were so ready to be in Chicago. At least the passenger seated next to us was from Malaysa and very friendly. He was nice about all the crying and moving around. Once we landed in Chicago, we had to go through customs and immigration. We had to turn in the famous brown envelope containing Austin's USA citizenship papers. We have heard horror stories about this process. We were lucky in Chicago. It did not take us very long and the people were very helpful and nice to us. We went through so fast we had a 2 hour layover remaining to board our Nashville flight. We sat in the terminal feeding Austin snacks to pass the time. He made several friends sitting there at the gate. Lots of people were interested in our story. We finally boarded our homebound flight. Austin slept the whole hour long flight. We got off the plane hoping to see our family waiting. We did not see anyone. Christy called to find out the traffic at the airport was bad and they were late. As we walked into baggage claim. our girls came running in to meet us. We were so glad to be home and see them. We rode home from the airport and got home to see the house decorated with Welcome Home signs. Christy's mom had cooked a nice hot meal and had it ready to eat. We were so blessed to be home. We were so blessed to have such wonderful family to help us through this journey. We appreciate all the prayers we have received.