Home at Last!

We are home with Noelle in time to celebrate "The First Noel"! We did not plan Noelle's name in correlation with the holiday so its a fun tie-in!

The plane flights back had us up for about 28 hours but we were so thankful to the Lord because Noelle slept for 10 hours straight on our longest flight, from Tokyo to DFW and overall gave us no problems. We had bought her a seat so we made devised a way to make an acceptable "pallet" style bed for her.

The plane rides themselves were rough. We had a 3:42 minute flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo and then a 7-hour layover in Tokyo. The only challenge on the flight to Tokyo was some drunk Japanese guy was threatening passengers so a couple of us guys had to throw down on him-alright I'm kidding.

We actually paid $75 to get all of us into the American Airlines Admirals Club so that we had comfortable time of free drinks, leather seats, and some peace and quiet. It was amazing and we felt pretty much human for the layover. Noelle did great.

We really felt everyone's prayers throughout the trip. There were so many beauracratic processes that could have broken down, so many worse health issues we could have had, and so many unknown issues we could have encountered but the Lord was with us and your prayers made a big difference. Many thanks!!

The ride in coach was tough. You can't blame them but the people in front of us put their chairs in our laps by the time we reached cruising altitude. I was so close to the woman in front of me with her seat down for so long I felt like I owed her alimony when we landed.

When we got to the airport we first went through customs which is what you do when you enter any country. The line was probably 45 minutes long for regular citizens but short for the "Immigrant Visas" which is the line we got to stand in. We delivered to the officer a bunch of paperwork the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou had prepared for us, we showed him our U.S. passports, and Noelle's Chinese passport that had the Immigrant Visa stapled into it by the U.S. Consulate. He took all the paperwork, stamped it, and kept it. Then, he stamped her Chinese passport on top of the Immigrant Visa. There were no other papers that he gave us for her concerning citizenship or anything which bugged me. I would like to have had a certificate or something. He explained that in one year we would receive a green card for Noelle which would be mailed to the address we had given on all the paperwork we turned in. After all this was done he processed our entrance into the country as well. From what we were told in Guangzhou she is now a U.S. citizen. Praise the Lord!

The last process we will do is "re-adopt" Noelle. From what I hear this can be done for ~$1,000 or so. There are lawyers in Texas who specialize in this process. Most families who adopt internationally do this so their children will get a Texas birth certificate and will be adopted in Texas. This basically gives her some legal protections and makes things easier for her when entering school and various other things. This isn't something we have rush to get done but I hope to get it done in 2006.

When we arrived out of the baggage claim area into a very large reception area near the exit doors we were greeted by a TON of people. It was so awesome and overwhelming. Maddie screamed out and ran toward us. Seeing everyone cheering for us, waving signs, waving balloons, and seeing Maddie run toward us was too much for Jamie and I and we both had some happy tears and some deep sighs. I picked up Maddie and showed her Noelle. Maddie was so happy she just laughed and laughed and looked closely at her new baby sister. It was overwhelming for her to get her new sister as well as see her parents she had not seen for 16 days! Thanks so much to everyone who was able to meet us at the airport! We then had a few family members come back to the house because Uncle Jon and Aunt Lisa had cooked ribs- wow, awesome!

Maddie was giddy with excited smiles all night. She slept with Noelle and mom in bed and in the morning she woke up at 5:45 and interlocked hands with Noelle and said, "Mommy, I'm just so happy I can't stop smiling." Precious.

I took some pics of them playing together. Noelle LOVES Maddie and loves everyone. She's been great and has been performing for everyone, pretty funny.