Back Home - Friday, December 16, 2011.

Friday morning was a blur of events. Maybe because it's the fact the kids went to bed at 8pm and we stayed up packing till 10:30. We had hoped to sleep in till a bit. Didn't happen. I think both babies new something was up and so woke up around 5:00am - taxi didn't pick us up till 6:45am. Sigh. Oh well. It was good that we were somewhat calm and tired in the morning.

Even though we were pretty much packed, for some reason we were frantically running around just before we left. Kinda feel bad, we left that apartment in bad shape. I didn't have a chance to tidy things up.  Sigh. Anyways..we got into the taxi cab. Olivia excited because it was a very cool limo taxivan with a 32 inch flat screen TV and very cool "Christmas lights" around the ceiling.  :0)  William on the other hand, had no clue what was going on. He had no clue that we were on our way home, leaving his birth country to fly across the world to his new home.  He was nice and cozy in his fuzzy coat, he fell asleep for the entire trip to the airport.  Miss O fell asleep 15 minutes before we got to the airport. Figures.

We got to the airport and walked to the checkout line.  Good lord, the line was a mile long, weaving left and right. There was no way the kids would last.  It would be very tight too, leaving little time to relax and get a coffee on the other side.  A Korean Air attendent asked us if we needed help. Martin explained that we just needed to check in and she looked at all our gear PLUS the 2 babies in our arms.  She pointed us to the FAMILY line.  It was on the other side, and there was NO ONE!  WOOHOO!!!!!  We got checked in immediately, passed through the screening and got to the other side within 30 minutes.  It was great.  Time for coffee.

We remembered that the  Incheon airport was very kid -friendly.  So we asked where the Kid Zone was and they pointed us the right direction on route to Starbucks. Thank goodness, because we needed a double dose of caffeine.  We got our snacks, and headed up to the KidZone.  This place was amazing!!!!! If only all airports had this area for parents and kids.  Fortunately, there was noone there and we let the kids lose.  We burned up so much energy.  We gave them a good snack, changed diapers, we went to the washroom, and then walked to our gate.  When we arrived we saw a huge line already waiting to board!  We went to the front and asked if they were boarding families yet, and they told us to go ahead and board.  Yikes!  That was fast.  We checked in.  There we saw Jeanne and Andy and Baby Dawson.  SOOO cute!!!!  Both families eager to get home and get our life started with our newest memebers.

13 hours. Sigh. All I can say, it was a very long trip.  Let's just say as well, GRAVOL for kids didn't not help.  4 hours left on the flight and I was done.  Tired and done with the travelling. If I felt this, everyone did. William was awesome.  Yes, he wanted to be carried all the time, but he wasn't screaming. Well..not until the end.  Poor thing. With a fever, runny nose, and new people - he was not happy for the last hour of the trip.  We were both ready to jump off that plane. He was sooo not happy.  I felt the landing was never going to happen.  What happened if we had to circle around for another hour?  What would happen if they weren't ready for us at the gate?  But they were and we finally landed.  We were the pretty much the last to get off the plane.  We trekked to Immigration and got the stamp of approval from Customs. YAY!  Permanent resident card will be in the mail 4-6 weeks.

We our luggage and thankfully just transferred the luggage.  Because we were in Terminal 3, we had to transfer to T1. So exhausted we hauled ourselves to the monorail to transfer. At the first stop we got out and breathed a breathe of relief that we were almost home, only to find out we were at the wrong stop - AND - we had to wait to 7 minutes for the train to come back!  UGH!  If were we somewhat conscious we would have realized that we were at a VISCOUNT parking is not the same at TERMINAL 1.

Anyways, we got to the right terminal finally and met Lola, Lolo, and Tita Melissa. Our first family visit (at the airport) hahahhaha.  Since, everything ran smoothly with the check in and the lines were pretty quiet, we were able to have a nice lunch before we had to check in.  Tita Melissa got to help William and the grandparents were busy chasing Miss O around. Martin and I got to have a decent lunch (with at Starbucks coffee).  I felt kind of weird taking off again. They were home to me too. But it was it was good to know that they were coming soon for Christmas and William's birthday. Then it was time to check in.  We were on our way home - to start our life as a family of 4 in Ottawa.

As soon as we passed through security, it was lights out for William (all the way to Ottawa). We were a bit worried because of the last flight, but he slept through take off, turbulence, and landing.  Thank goodness.  Another great thing...Olivia fell fast asleep too for the entire trip to Ottawa.  We landed in Ottawa and looked at the two monkeys and  had to think about what to do with the sleeping kids and all the gear.  Decision - wake them up. LOL.  At least they were in somewhat good spirits.

When we got down to get our luggage, a familiar and beautiful face approached us.  It was a super suprise to see Maria greet us at the bottom.  I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to see such a great friend to meet us there after this 24 hour journey.  Not that she could do much with our kiddos, but it was great just knowing there was someone who knew what we were going through at that very moment.  She helped us with our luggage. We took our first Ottawa pictures, and then Maria left to pick up her kids.  Just like that. It was only about 15 minutes of her time, but it gave us the energy and courage to go home and start this wonderful life with our 2 kids.  She was the boost that we needed to keep it together and get home quickly. Thank you Maria!

We got home.  I cant' believe within 10 days we got the call, made travel arrangements, left for Korea, and now we are back with William.  Craziness.  We walked into the home, and William was silent.  This was not the small 2 bedroom apartment he was used to.  We stayed in the hallway a bit to let him settle and take it all in.  Miss Olivia made it to the family room and started playing with all the toys she had missed.  William, as to be expected, was not too sure.  Then we started showing him all these toys - gave him room and time to explore the family room.  I have to say it was a bit overwhelming. He went from 2 or 3 toys that made sound to 20 toys that were making sound and blinking with lights.  Totally "a deer in headlights" moment.

Exhausted everyone did very well. We made some dinner (instead of ordering out again). A huge thank you goes to Alison who came the night before we left with some homemade prepared dinners for when we got back. She knew that we would be totally exhaused to think about food. She was right. Ali, you're awesome! All I had to do was boil the pasta and defrost the spaghetti sauce.  Our first meal together. William was great.  He did pretty well with the spaghetti - he gagged at first because he didnt' know how to eat it. It took us aback for a bit, because Olivia at the age was eating everything in sight properly. It was one of those learning moments as a parent - Don't compare your kids. Each child is different. We definitely learned a lot of things that night about his eating habits and temperament.

After dinner, we took both kids in the bathtub.  I am happy to report, we have 2 WATERBABIES.  William loves the water!  Phew what a relief for Papa.  We got them dressed for bed. I took Miss O down to sleep, and Papa took William down. They were down in 5 minutes.  Yay!  We decided to go down and watch the final episode of Biggest Loser. Why?  I have no idea we needed to watch it then and there. I argued with Martin that there was tons of stuff to do, but he insisted that we take time for ourselves. So I agreed.  We were in the show for 10 minutes and all I hear is Martin snoring.  That went well. I guess tomorrow is another day.  As we were getting ready to go up and sleep, William started crying.  He went to his room, and I went to Olivia's to make sure she didn't wake up from the crying.

This is our reality now. We were dead tired but we pulled through.  We have 2 perfect little ones. Our family is now complete.  I don't know why they call it the "million dollar family", but feeling like I have a million dollars doesn't even compare to what I am feeling now.  It goes beyond anything I could ever imagine. Life is wonderful.  Did I mention, that I saw a rainbow on the drive back home. There wasn't any rain, there was hardly any clouds out. It was 3pm.  I guess we found the pot of gold at the and of the rainbow.  They were both sleeping in the car.  How lucky are we?!