May 20, 2011

One year ago today was amazing! I don't even know when yesterday ended and today began last year. We were just flying westward on and on and on. At some point during the night we landed in Rome (oh how wonderful if we could have gotten off the plane!) for about an hour and a half to refuel. Then on and on we flew. Isaac did not sleep, he would fall asleep, I would settle him in the bassinet and as soon as I would slip to the restroom or get comfortable to sleep myself he would be awake again and it would be hours before he would fall asleep. Now, the blessing was that he was perfectly happy. He never cried at all on the flight. He drank his bottles, ate his food, was happy, just didn't sleep. I was so exhausted. I finally let Jeff switch with me and try to get him to sleep but it didn't last long. We were too close to landing, and since another person had filled a seat that had been empty the entire flight in our row, we now did not have enough oxygen masks for everyone seated, so Jeff showed up in our back seat and I had Isaac again. But we were finally landing so praise the Lord we did survive the 16 hours on the plane!

Isaac when he did sleep in the bassinet:

Our flight landed in Washington DC and it was so fun. Well, first we had to get through customs, there was the juggling of the baby and all the bags we had carried on and getting papers ready. We waited in a long line with our whole flight, to finally step up to the customs officer. This was where we handed over the visa packet we had guarded with our lives, he set it over to the side, asked a few questions and we were on our way. Isaac and Addy were US Citizens at that moment! We collected all our luggage, took it to check for our next flight, submitted our form about what we needed to declare, went through our final security for the trip and we were free.

We headed right for the restrooms and cell phone coverage. We took turns getting freshened up the best we could when we just wanted a shower and calling or texting our kids, parents, siblings and friends to let them know we were back in America and we were reachable again.

Then we knew where we were headed. You see we had discussed this at length in Rwanda, we had dreamed and planned, discussed almost daily the meal we would have. The 6 of us headed to Chipotle. We wanted lettuse and ice! It didn't matter that it was about 7am at this point. We had wonderful food full of lettuse and we had our fill of soda with ice, it was heaven. The kids enjoyed theirs too but I don't think they were as impressed.

We spent the remaining time we had in DC at our gate for our flight to Denver. The Stengels were on the next flight after us so we had this last bit of time to visit and watch the babies together:

The DC to Denver flight was uneventful, our seats were together this time and so it was much more relaxing. Once we reached Denver we realized the Stengels flight had made much better time and was coming in right after us. We met them at the gate to welcome them HOME and we exchanged our goodbyes :( We know they had a wonderful welcoming by their older kids and many family and friends on the other side of security but we didn't have enough time to go through with them. But we will see them in 2 weeks, yippee, one year later!!!! CANNOT WAIT!

Then our final flight to Boise, it was our roomiest plane by far, so comfortable and enjoyable, also the shortest, of course :) During the 2 flights in the US we experienced the first of many questions, asking where Isaac is from, how long the adoption took, how the trip was/how long it was.... the fun questions we still answer each week and we all enjoy retelling the wonderful gift of our youngest child.

Finally, we landed in Boise. We hurried with all our stuff down to security so we could get the the other side. Our 3 older kids didn't know we were coming home early, they were waiting and watching for their Uncle Cory to come for the weekend and then spotted us instead. It was so wonderful to finally hold them again and to introduce Isaac and we were a mess on the floor. We totally forgot about our camera after capturing the kids as we approached, but you can imagine the rest of the scene:

It was 48 hours from when we awoke Thurs morning until we were back in bed at home Friday night, so we topped off our homecoming with a lot of sleep! And now as we celebrate one year home with Isaac we also have just reached the point where he has lived with us longer than he lived without us, I have so looked forward to May 2012!

Thanks for walking with me back through the memories, we hope to one day go back with all the kids to Rwanda, but for now we are unlimited in the joy of living each day together.

Sheri