The Freeling Family: Home!

Thursday, we spent 30 hours traveling! I know you are saying to yourself, "Dear Teresa there are only 24 hours in a day." Well...not when you are leaving one country and going to another. So, our Thursday in China started at 4 am, getting up to leave for the airport. Mark thought it was unfair that the nicest hotel and the most comfortable bed we got to be in for our entire trip in China, was the room & bed we got to spend the least amount of time at. Once we got checked in and through security, we made our way to our gate. There are the gate, were a group of women that we met when we were at Maria's House of Hope! This group had gone to Maria's to pamper the nannies & nurses and do some sprucing up. It was amazing seeing them at the airport and getting to chat with them again. Of course they were on our flight, so at times during the flight, we got to talk more. I was very nervous about our flight since we did not have seats together. Anastyn & I had two seats in a row of 5 seats and Mark & Beth were sitting in front & back of each other, further up in the plane, each on aisle seats. We got to board early since we had a small child...YES and as people started sitting down, we immediately asked about switching spots. One man was traveling alone, so he was happy to switch and get an aisle seat. Another man, was separated from his family, so we switched with him & he got to sit much closer to them and was also happy. Luckily, we were at the back of our section, so we had nobody sitting behind us either. Ah...we were all together & I was feeling good it was going to be a great flight.

Anastyn really did well. She was such a big girl sitting in her own seat. Yes, she turned 2 the day before, so we had to buy a full price, one way ticket for her. Her ticket was $1800, which was more than our individual round trip tickets. That is so wrong...she like takes up little space, but that's the way the airplane flies! LOL!
We got down to the last two hours and Anna decided she no longer wanted to be in her seat & just wanted to be held by "Mama." The seat belt light was on & I was told she needed to be in her seat. Yes, because the seat belt that was as tight as it would go, that she could still slip out of without even unbuckling it, definitely would save her life if we plummetted 33,000 feet. Bethany was a trooper & really helped Anna stay in her seat with various distractions.

So, we land FINALLY in Chicago and it is now 7 am. So weird that we have already spent a large portion of Thursday traveling & suddenly it was the start of Thursday again. We had 3 levels of customs and immigration that we had to go through. A extremely important packet of Anastyn's Visa paperwork was reviewed & with that, we were cleared to go through. We go walking out the doors of the last immigration area & suddenly I hear cheers & clapping. I look up & the wonderful group of women that returned from Maria's, had waited for us & welcomed the newest U.S. citizen to America! I don't know if they knew how much it meant to us, but it was amazing sharing this experience with them! Many of them had told us how they were so happy to see the full circle and experience caring for the little one's at Maria's, hearing the stories of our little "Martina" as she was called at Maria's, and seeing her adopted & coming home to become a U.S. citizen. I will never forget their generosity and kindness!

So, we are now in America and what is the first meal a new citizen should have...McDonald's of course! I bought Anna some oatmeal, which she liked, but she much preferred our sausage biscuit and egg meals. We are exhausted & definitely feeling the jet leg. Anna fell asleep easily enough, but the rest of us, well, you just can't sleep in an airport. So after an almost 6 hour layover, we finally get to board and head to Dallas. By this time Beth and I are feeling sick and just want to sleep. It worked, because I don't even remember the plane taking off. Before we knew it, we were landing in Dallas. We have family that lives in Dallas, so we left security & went and met up with them. There was Libby to greet us with drinks from Sonic! I am sure we were not the best company, tired & not feeling well, but it was great spending time with Libby & Paul. Time certainly does go faster when you have others to talk to. I also realized in that moment that I definitely wasn't used to drinking that amount of pop anymore. Perhaps I would reconsider my pop consumption. I know...SHOCKING!

So, after our visit with Libby & Paul, we are excited and feeling good & head off to board our 9th & final air plane ride of our trip. Surprisingly there were few people traveling from Dallas to Grand Island at 8:30pm on a Thursday night. Hee Hee. The gate agent was announcing our flight and going through the usual boarding order and no one was moving. She states "I guess no one wants to go to Grand Island" which got a good laugh. She told us "oh just everyone board" and with that, we were on the plane and taking off. It was 10 pm and we land in Grand Island and with that we were home, well sort of! We were greeted by family and it was so good to see them all! My aunt had asked them if they thought I would cry. Please, that is no bet at all! I am emotional anyways, now throw in 30 hours of travel, jet leg, a life changing experience and the tears are guaranteed!

We were home and suddenly, we are now hungry. In China, it was lunch time, so I guess our tummies were still on China time. Once again, we hit McDonald's and then off to our wonderful comfy beds, that are NOT hard! We woke up Friday at 6 am and I found Anna sitting up in her bed, looking a bit concerned. She really adjusted pretty well and was running around the house and checking things out. We got busy unpacking & getting laundry done. Not so long ago, we had been eagerly packing and constantly reviewing our packing list to make sure we didn't forget anything. Some of the things we used, some we never needed. It was also wonderful getting to do laundry...strange but true! We were limited to the amount of clothes we could take with and all the sweating did not allow for a lot of rewearing of clothing. Before we left I had gotten lots of info from others who had traveled before about the cost of laundry. Some said it was inexpensive and others said the cost had increased drastically and it cost them hundreds of dollars to wash clothes. So, we packed things to hand wash clothes. It was not successful. It was so hot & humid that the items didn't dry. When we got to Guangzhou we bit the bullet & took some clothes to a shop for laundry. We found the cost to be inexpensive and quick and wished we hadn't even bothered bringing stuff to wash clothes ourselves.

So, after we had gotten some tasks out of the way and given Anastyn some time to get a feel for her new home, we headed off to get our sweet little Blayten! When we were in China we still only felt like a family of four. The family of five had not hit us yet. So, Mark & I went off to get him. We walk into his babysitter's and out runs this little boy. I thought "Is that Blayten? It must be, he is wearing the shirt we made him about having a new sister." Our "little boy" was HUGE! His face was so much fuller, he looked like he grew a foot & we was much heavier than we remembered. He runs to us as fast as his legs could carry him, saying "Daddy, Mommy!" It was a great moment, hugging & kissing him! We go home and he sees Anna. He says "Nana" his new way of saying Anna. She looked disappointed to see another kid. I think she was enjoying being top dog and getting all the attention. Who could blame her?! Blayten was so sweet. He walks over to her and gently touches her head. He picks up some toys & gives them to her. He says "baby." Yes, baby..6 weeks younger and then kisses her so sweetly. Ah... life was good until nap time.

So, since there was no food in our home and the fridge was bare, Mark & I took the little ones and headed off to the grocery store. I had Anna in one cart & Mark had Blayten in the other. When we were returning home, both kiddos fell asleep. Mark & I decided that while they were napping at home, we would run to my sister's house and get all of Blayten's things. I know you may thinking "was that smart?" The answer is NO, it was NOT smart. However, I was in a nesting mode and just wanted to get my kids settled and have everything in place. We get home & Blayten was awake & upset. Bethany said she couldn't console him & he kept crying for Mommy & Daddy. She tried to feed him and he didn't want to eat. Our sweet little boy was upset and out of sorts. Nothing made him happy. He cried at everything. He was not happy with Anna and didn't want to share. Anna would try giving him toys and Blayten would scream. Oh I knew it went too smoothly when we got him home!

Today has been a bit better. Blayten is still not himself, but is improved from yesterday. We all went out to Eagle Scout Lake this morning & walked around the lake & let the kids play on the play ground equipment. They are interacting more with each other. Anna has a couple of times, reached out & taken Blayten's hand and walked with him to another room. Melts my heart. Blayten on the other hand doesn't know why this girl thinks she needs to hold his hand. He is definitely out of sorts and not himself right now. Hopefully the transition for him will go quickly and we will have our bright, smiling little guy back. We definitely are feeling more like a family of 5. Mark & I might just have to find full time jobs that pay us for not actually working, because these two little ones are keeping us very busy already and we may just not have time to work anymore!

So that's the update. As much as I had hoped to keep on top of the blog after getting home, as you can see, it hasn't happened that way, but little ones take priority.

Thank you all for following our journey and for all of your support! It means the world to us!