The LONG trek home.....

Saturday 3/1

We told the hotel the night before that we would need a limo taxi the next morning at 7:30- they told us it wld be waiting and would be around 100,000 won.  We were up (one of us WAY before the others- leave that to BBob!), got all of our luggage down and waited just a couple of minutes for the taxi. Thankfully there was plenty of room for all of us and our luggage and the taxi/ride were very nice and even included some Tom and Jerry!

The line to check in at the airport was very long (much longer than our first trip!) but we were plenty early so we had an ample amount of time.  We got all of our luggage checked in and got boarding passes then headed to the McDonalds to fill up before we got on the plane.  Once we ate and got to our gate we had about a hour to kill before we boarded.  Lucky for us, our gate was very close to a little play area and let me tell you, we took advantage! 

 

Of course Parker has to have a picture with the 'big blue plane'!

 

So onto the airplane we go..... We had 7 seats straight across.  Kendon, Parker and I on one side.  YaYa, Ian and Kinzlee in the middle and BBob in the next seat across the other aisle.  We talked a long time about which way to request our seats to be most helpful, in the end, I think this was probably the best choice.  The flight was pretty good for the most part.  Ian and Kinzlee did better on this one than going as far as entertaining themselves.  Parker wasn't entertained for very long with anything that I brought for him except for food.  Overall though, he did great.  Honestly, he probably did better than I could have expected ANY two year old to do for 12.5 hours in a little bitty seat!  When he got fussy, Kendon would walk the aisle with him.  He went to sleep after the first meal and slept for about a hour and a  half then was awake again for a long time.  Much like our return flight the first trip, the seatbelt light was on quite a bit.  At one point for a little over a hour there was so much turbulence that it was very uncomfortable.  For three whole flights and up to this point on this one, I had not felt nauseous one time, during this turbulence, I was fanning and put on my pressure bracelets for motion sickness... it was rough!  When it first started, BBob had just taken Ian to the bathroom and was standing outside the door.  The flight attendant made him come sit back down and stood at the door with Ian telling him through the door that it was ok.  As soon as he came out she very quickly escorted him to his seat and got his seatbelt on.  He did have a little deer in the headlight look but was fine.  Him and Kinzlee were both watching a movie and never even looked up during the turbulence.  At some point, Parker had gotten pretty restless so BBob walked with him for a little bit. He stopped at the front of the plane and was talking to a lady for a while and then motioned for me to come up there and talk to her.  God put that lady on that plane that day for us!  She was Korean and lives in Dallas and was offering to me anything that I needed.  She gave me her phone number and took down my address and number.  She made herself available if I need someone to speak to Parker in Korean for comfort or to figure out what he was saying or to send us anything from the Asian market.  She said if she lived a little bit closer she would just come see us.  We talked for a long time and it was such a blessing to have someone I could quickly text for an answer.  We went and sat down and eventually ended back up there again with a fussy Parker.  She talked to him in Korean and helped calm him down.  She asked him questions and he answered and she quickly figured out that he understood very well what she was saying.  She asked him if he liked his mommy and daddy and he told her yes.  She asked him if he was scared and he told her no.  It brought me to tears there in the front of the airplane (and again as I write this!) to hear those answers.  It brought such peace to Kendon and I and a reassurance that 'we were gonna be alright'.  So thankful for her on that very stressful day!

Here are some random pictures from the airplane. 

All three kids slept for about the last two hours of the flight which was a relief!  I actually got to shut my eyes for a little bit as well!  Here is Ian after waking him up to get his shoes on because we were fixing to land..... He obviously didn't stay awake!

The process of customs was of course more extensive than our previous trip.  We had to stand in the international line instead of just the domestic line.  Mom, dad, and the kids all went through domestic so they wouldn't have to stand in the line.  After checking in his passport we had to go to a separate room for them to open the paperwork that said 'DO NOT OPEN' that we obtained at his visa interview.  This whole process took about a hour in which everyone else it took about 10 minutes.  They already had our luggage and were camped out in a corner when we got there.  We rechecked our luggage for it to be on our flight to Abilene and then checked in for our boarding passes.  At this time it is between 9:30 and 10.  Our flight was scheduled for 12:40.  We were meeting Kendon's sister Kendi and some dear friends of ours that we started the adoption process with, the Tollers.  We ended up in two different places but it didn't take long for us to find each other and we had a great visit for about 20 minutes.

These boys have been prayed for for a long time, they are both finally home!

We then had to go back through security to get to our gate which was a bit of a stressful 20 minutes!  We were gonna get to our gate and then get something to eat so we took the tram to where our gate was.

When we got to where our gate was, it was all under construction and there was ONE quick little place that you could get some barbeque.  There wasn't even a place to get a coke on ice unless you wanted to stand in the long line there!  So we got a coke out of a machine and sat down with our snacks.  We sat down beside a very sweet couple from Clyde who was supposed to be on the 10:30 flight but ended up canceled, so they were scheduled for our 12:40 flight.  It wasn't long before we learned that our flight was being postponed until 3:30!  We decided to walk a while and try to find something to eat-which we did- Pizza Hut!  We had a messy little lunch then hiked back to our gate where we learned that our gate had changed.  So we loaded up our stuff and headed back towards where we were eating and made a new nest. 

Eventually we learned that our flight had also been canceled. I will admit, the tears flowed!  We were all exhausted and we had some very special friends at home giving up their afternoon at home to welcome us home.  We went to figure out what we needed to do and they ended up giving us seats for the 7:30 flight and putting us on standby for the 4:15 flight but not really giving us much hope.  There was not a car to rent in order to drive home and besides that, we had three kids with no car seats!  We had decided that if we could get on the plane, Kendon and I would go on to Abilene with the kids and mom and dad would get on whichever next flight they could get on.  There was one person in front of us on standby who wasn't present and they had three seats.  That would mean we would have to leave one kid with mom and dad.  The choice would be Ian and he would be heart broken- of course we couldn't do that!  This brought tears again (maybe a slightly emotional and hormonal momma???), but it also brought tears to Ian's eyes this time.  This poor boy was heartbroken!  He said, 'but momma, what about Parkers welcome home party at the airport!?'.  I have to admit it broke my heart a little bit too.  I had envisioned that moment of coming home at the airport and meeting friends and family for two years.  It was a little disappointing to know at this point that wasn't going to happen. 

So we waited and were on standby on the 5:30 flight in which we still didn't have much hope for.  So, we gathered all our stuff AGAIN and headed to the next gate.  Praise the Lord, we ended up getting all 7 of us on that flight and we were on our way home! 

We had asked everyone earlier to go on home since we had no idea when we would be able to get home.  I had asked a friend of ours from church who is a photographer to come to the airport and take some pictures but told her to go on home also.  Much to our surprise, she was there when we got there, along with Kendon's family, my sweet uncle (who kept our car all week) and another sweet friend from church.  Thank you guys SO much for helping make that day special!

Seeing NaNa and Pop Pop for the first time

 

Excited to see some familiar faces of friends

Everyone was starving so we went through Chick Fil A.  Ian and Kinzlee pigged out and Parker very quickly fell asleep in YaYa's lap and slept the whole way home.  We came into town to some very sweet signs!  There was a sign at the bank where Kendon works along with Joe, JoAnn, and Gary Ford waiting for us to come through!

 A sign on the marque where 'everyone is famous in Hamlin'!

One on the corner of our street that was absolutely precious!  We still haven't figured out who put this one up- someone admit to it!!!

And one on our house going into the front door from our sweet twins next door- We love you girls!

We were told of some extravagant and amazing plans waiting for us when we arrived home.  It was very disappointing to not be able to see the hard work but please know that we appreciate from the bottom of our hearts your commitment, love, and support for our family. 

EDIT: I can not believe I left this part out!  There were some very precious friends that brought food to our house knowing we most likely would not eat it that night or that it could be 3 AM before it was eaten.  Even when our arriving time was way later- they still prepared the food and brought it over for whenever we were hungry.  It was such a relief to know there was a meal in the fridge when we were all ready to eat (even if it was the middle of the night!) Thank You! 

 

The night was very different than we imagined.  We all went sleep somewhere between 9-10 and we all slept until 1 PM the next day!  Parker did wake up a couple of different times, but I was able to quickly and easily get him back to sleep.  I can't imagine how we would have gotten through the next couple of days without those 16 hours of sleep!