Today is a bittersweet moment for all of us. It’s hard to imagine that we are leaving China today with our beautiful little girl! But, is so wonderful to see Alex in her new surroundings and have her home with her family.
The day started when we woke around 4:00am this morning to leave the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China to catch a flight back to Hong Kong. Our bus left the hotel at 5:00am sharp and headed in route for the Guangzhou Airport where we were to catch our flight at 8:30am. Alex was so cute. As our group was walking to the baggage checkout, she was waving and saying bye, bye to everyone. It’s almost as if she had a good idea that she was finally going home… That moment brought tears to both Fred and I. You couldn’t help but feel your heart fill with so much love for this child. She is just such an amazing person. I felt that the moment we received her referral pictures and I looked into her eyes. You could she that this child had such an old soul.
Our flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong took a little over an hour and was very smooth. We had some time once we arrived in Hong Kong to relax and wait for the flight back to Chicago. This was nice since there wasn’t time this morning to wake up, never mind eat breakfast. Our flight was to leave around 11:15am. This leg of our journey was to take about 15hours.
We arrived in Chicago about an hour late. Thank goodness Alex slept most of the way. But the negative side of this was neither one of us slept because we had to hold her the entire time. I held her for the majority of the flights, which so far, totaled 21 hours at this point. As I’m writing this, I can’t believe I had the strength to accomplish this task. I guess the excitement of coming home and the lack of sleep helped. Once we got through Immigration and we got our luggage, we missed our connecting flight back home. At this point, Fred and I have been up for 27 hours. Hard to believe… So, luckily there was another flight home in 4hrs.
As we arrived back home, with the wheels of the plane touching the ground, I started to cry. Alex was in my arms and we were all finally HOME!!! Mandy and Dad meet us at the gate at 11:30pm. Presents in hand, cameras flashing and lots of hugs and kisses. Mandy immediately grabbed Alex. I was very thankful.
By the time we arrived at the house, it was 1:30am and everyone was awake. Alex screamed and shook when we saw the dogs. Guess this will take some time. We tried to put Alex in her crib around 4:30am and she screamed. So needless to say, what we always said we would never do, we put her in our bed and all tried to get some sleep. I think we managed to get about an hour. Guess this was what it was like being a parent.
We took Alex over to see my side of the family. My grandmother immediately grabbed her and that was that… Everyone just loved her. We feel so blessed to have her home and as part of our family. God has given us the most precious gift imaginable!
Fred’s dad was in the hospital when we arrived home, so we took Alex over to see him for the first time. I think this is another memorable experience we will never forget. Grandpa Fred took one look at Alex and started to cry. In the 21 years that I have known this man, I have never seen him cry. Luckily, I captured this moment in a photo for the two of them to remember forever… Alex immediately went to him and placed her little hand in his and curled up on his chest and feel asleep. Tears of joy and happiness were felt from everyone in the room at this moment. He waited two years for this moment to happen. Here was his only granddaughter and he thought she was such a precious little angel. He told everybody that she had her grandpa’s eyes (his eyes were blue). Little did we know how precious that moment would become, he passed away two months later. I want Alex to always remember the love he felt for her. I have never seen such love and devotion form between the two of them. It was as if two long lost souls finally came together and were reunited for the last time…
