We're BAAAACK!

Yeah! We made it home. It was a long trip. About 30 hours from start to finish, but it went way better than it could have (as did most of the trip.) We started at our hotel with a wake up call at 0500 China time. Our porter came at 0615 to get our luggage and our van came at 0630. We had an interesting boxed breakfast in the van on the way to the airport. Thankfully our guide helped us check in. They had Ellie's name spelled wrong on her itinerary and we hadn't been able to confirm Max's seat on the flight, but it all worked out fine. Our travel scale had broken mid suitcase weighing, but they were all under limit. We then traveled through security with 8 carry-ons and two kids, took the train to our terminal and got there just a few minutes before boarding. Mom was the lucky one and got to sit by herself on the three hour flight to Beijing. Well, it was supposed to be three hours, but we sat on the runway for an hour prior to departing so it ended up as 4 hours. They sat Jason, Ellie, Max and I in the bulkhead row. They thought this was a gift with more leg room space, but I HATE the bulkhead row with kids. There is no under seat storage for your carry-ons so every time a kids wants something (every 5 minutes) you have to get up and get into the overhead bins. It went okay though. Both kids slept some and played happily the rest of the time. What more can you ask for. Beijing was difficult. We got off of our flight and had to recollect our bags (this means 13 total with carry-ons) and take these on a bus to a new terminal. You wouldn't believe how much luggage and people could fit on this bus. It was a definite clown car. We all piled off at Terminal C and found a lovely porter to cart our luggage and get us checked in. We tried to rearrange seats since not only were the ones we had crappy, but they had at least one of the kids sitting by himself. We got the kids with parents, but the seats were still crappy. We were all stuffed in the middle somewhere and Jason and I were separated by about 15 rows each with a kids (mom didn't get a kid, but she got the deepest sleeping person sitting in her aisle that made bathroom breaks a chore. It probably reminded her of waking me up as a teenager.) Because Jason and I were apart with the kids we had to rearrange 4 of our backpacks so that we each had what we needed. Also, both kids wanted to be with daddy which was a bit of an issue. Once we got settled in it was a good flight though. Max slept a good part of it (probably 8 hours). Ellie didn't fall asleep until 1 hour before we landed (she had been up for 24 hours at this point). Sleep was good, trying to get her through customs was not. She screamed at the top of her lungs, hit and bit. Thankfully, we were expedited through customs and immigration. I was a bit worried as my parenting skills were minimal that they might not let us bring Max home with us since we were clearly deficient in parenting Ellie, but they whisked us through and Max is now an American Citizen. This moment should have been met with cheers, but I think there were tears - at least on my part at how awful that hour had been. Thankfully, it was only 1 hour out of 30 and how much can you expect from a 4 year old. Ellie was SO GREAT for 95 % of this trip. I need to cut her more slack for a melt down after 24 hours of traveling on no sleep after meeting her new brother in a new country and desperately wanting to be home. She is an amazing, imaginative, strong-willed, loving, and tolerant kid. After customs and immigration we thought we only had a short while to get to our flight, but it ended up being about 3 hours delayed. We were all very ready to get home at this point (especially mom - I think she and dad were missing each other big time), but it was so nice to be in America. We had popcorn and cold drinks which lifted our spirits considerably. Max played in the airport and Ellie finally got her nap, then Max slept on the flight home and Ellie played. Both were so happy to see grandparents and Aunt Leigh at the airport (even though it was midnight.) We didn't have much time to visit, so we loaded up luggage and headed home. My awesome husband got us all Taco Bell (my favorite crave) which I enjoyed immensely and we played and showed Max his new house and new cat. He oohed and ahed over his new room, played with some of his new toys, tortured the cat a little (the love there is definitely one-sided thus far). I was worried they wouldn't sleep since they had slept so much on the plane, but with the help of melatonin they both went down about 3am. I took an Ambien and the four of slept until 2pm today. Yes, that's right 2pm. And, all in our own beds. I never would have thought it. We actually had to wake the kids up. Our awesome house sitter left us a breakfast casserole that we devoured, we unpacked a bit, then Grandma Ne, Grandpa Joe, and Aunt Leigh came over for a visit. We then took a two hour trip to the park (Max loves the slide and the sand) and came home filthy for our first double bath. We ate a simple dinner of sandwiches, fruit, and edamame that hit the spot and both kids were in bed by 11pm (progress). Ellie has a meet and greet at school at 10am so I'll try and get them up about 8am tomorrow with a goal of getting them back on there 8/8:30 to bed schedule within the next 48 hours. I'm hopefully. It was a great day. Home is wonderful. I'm so glad that Max seems to like it and feel comfortable here. It's hard to imagine that two and a half weeks ago he wasn't and now he's such an integral part of our lives. This is fun. Putting him to bed with his bottle in his own room with my family in the other room was one of the best moments in my life. I felt so calm and like everything was as it should be.