Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Steve, Allison, Sean, Megan, Ryan and Katelyn!
July 2, 2008
An invisible red thread connects those who are destined
to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
-An Ancient Chinese Belief
With a box breakfast in the van from the hotel, we were off to the airport at 5:45am for our 3 hour flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo and then the 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Detroit, arriving at 3:00pm. Both flights were on schedule and without incident or lost luggage (even though they were not able to give us our umbrella stroller in Tokyo at the gate since the hatch on the plane would not open..but the stroller did show up at the gate in Detroit).
Katie handled the long flights fairly well for a three year old on a confusing adoption journey. She had difficulty on the descent to Tokyo with ear popping, but slept well on the longer flight to Detroit, especially during the descent and landing. While on the 2 hour lay-over in Tokyo we feasted on McDonald's cheeseburgers, chicken tenders, and french fries (Katie loved the french fries with her left-over hard boiled egg from breakfast...mmmm). We pre-ordered Kids Meals for both flights, but much to Sean's displeasure they were essentially Asian Kids Meals...or in other words food he would not eat. We gave his kids meal to an adjacent Chinese toddler girl who was overjoyed by the meal, and walked off the plane smiling and clutching the kitty cat shaped plate from the meal (this qualifies Sean as a good international ambassador).
After three different U.S. Customs lines in Detroit, Katelyn Hua Farrelly was unceremoniously declared a United States Citizen by the "click-clack, curchunk" of the U.S. Customs stamp on her Visa (cameras were not permitted...we could be deemed a threat).
We arrived home around 4:30pm to see a large lawn banner saying "Welcome Home Katelyn Hua", and were welcomed by Megan, Ryan, 4 grandparents, an aunt, and 2 nieces. Katie was slow and a bit scared, but after less than two hours she was laughing, playing, and relaxed (we kept the 2 dogs in a separate room for the night). It seems she will fit in just fine, and make the family whole as we had hoped.
Thank you to all that have called and emailed well wishes as well as those following this journey. Many say Katie is lucky to have us....we feel just the opposite, we are the lucky ones!
Sean Says:
I'm so glad we packed extra snacks for the flights....the food $#$%@ed!! On the way to Tokyo I was able to shoot a photo of the top of Mount Fuji from the window...it looked like it was floating on clouds! Its great to be home, but I am tired alot. Katie gave me my first KISS and HUG today at home!!! I'm happy to see Megan and Ryan again (editors note: during more than a few nights, Sean yelled at Megan in his sleep, and we were told Megan did the same...true loving siblings).
Our next and final entry will be Monday morning, July 7th...have a Great July 4th Holiday Weekend...we have one more reason to celebrate the Holiday.
