We're Home!

We made it home!  Our travels home went smoothly, except for the minor bump of our luggage staying in Chicago when we flew to Houston.  We got it back the next day though, so that wasn't too bad.  Kellen was a champ!  I'm beginning to think that boy was made for international travel.  I couldn't have asked for anything more out of him on our trip home.

We landed on American soil a little before 8pm on Thursday evening.  Our next flight(to Houston) left at 9:10pm so we knew that we had to book it make it.  We got our bags and got through customs smoothly.  Then we re-checked them and started on the journey for our gate.  O'Hare is a BIG airport.  Since it was after 8pm at this point, alot of the security checkpoints had closed, so we kept getting delayed trying to get through security so that we could get to our gate.  We were running(and I mean that quite literally) all over the place trying to make our flight.  I consider myself a pretty fit person, but I thought I was going to have a heart attack.  Kellen isn't exactly a lightweight, and neither was mine and his carry on.  I felt like a pack mule that had somehow gotten thrown into the Kentucky Derby.  Whew!  Praise the Lord that our flight ended up being delayed, or else we wouldn't have made it.  We did though.

We arrived in Houston a little after midnight and after filing the lost baggage claim, we were headed to my sister's house.  My brother in law, Stephen, is a saint for picking us up so late when he has work the next day.  When we got to my sister's house I immediately woke the kids up.  I just couldn't resist.  They were really happy to see us, and went right back to sleep, so no harm done.

Even though our bodies were still on Eastern European time, so it should have been day time to us, we were exhausted from travel and were able to go right to bed.  Since it was 3am before we got to bed, we were tired the next day, so it was easy to get back on schedule.

Friday morning, Kellen ended up sleeping the latest.  When he woke up, Luke and Ray ran in to the bedroom, yelling, "KK!!!"  He was so happy to see them!  They all gave each other big hugs.  It was one of the moments with our children that us mom's love to watch.

After picking up our bags at the airport we were headed home.  It was so good to get home!  I am still not fully unpacked and I still have a TON of laundry to do, but I don't care.  It's just great to be home.  Traveling home was very tiring.  It took a day and a half of traveling to get home.  I kept thinking, how hard the trip home was going to be with 4 kids and what a possible disaster it could be.  I started sort of dreading it.  That all changed Saturday morning though.  While I was unpacking and putting up Ray's stuff in her room, I started prepping it for Josslyn's arrival.  I suddenly felt very excited about getting the kids home.  I am VERY ready to head back to EE and BRING THEM HOME.  I know that trip home is going to be long, hard, and tiring.  But even if it is the worst 24 hours of my life, it will all be worth it when I get them home.  What is one bad day compared to having the joy of my three new kiddos for the rest of my life?  And who knows, the trip home might actually go smoothly.

Today I found out when I need to be back to finish up the paperwork and get my kids.  I have an appointment the morning of Tuesday, April 26th.  I will most likely have appointments to do paperwork the rest of that day.  So now I'm trying to figure out my flights and all that good stuff.  It looks like I'll be flying out Easter Sunday.  I'm a little bummed about missing Easter Sunday with my kids and family.  But it helps a little to know that Josh will be with them.  Josh is staying home when I go back for this trip.  My mom is coming with me to help with Kellen....and Daniel, and Parker/Alik, and Josslyn.  I hope to find out tomorrow when our flights will be.

I have to go now because I have a date with my bed in about 15 minutes for some much needed sleep.  I do plan on posting about what our court hearing was like, and about our last visits with the kids.  But for now....sleep.