smokerblog

Home at Last

[ROCHESTER, 1/26 9:00AM]

We arrived home last night only ten minutes delayed--our only travel glitch of the entire trip. We got up at 5AM to get to the airport in Guangzhou yesterday (40 hours ago) and pulled into the driveway last night at 5:30PM for a total travel time of 25.5 hours. Ben was great the whole time. He had a little bit of a rough time on the middle third of the long flight from Hong Kong, but I can't really blame him for that, I was starting to get a clittle cranky myself.

Ben had been told that he would be flying on a plane to America to be with his ma-ma, but I don't think he quite believed me when we landed in Rochester and I told him his ma-ma would be there. Ben was still kind of dazed after sleeping all of the way from Chicago, but Ben was looking around as we took the short walk from the gate to the waiting area. When we got near, I pointed to Kari and his face lit up with a big smile.

The meeting itself was rather subdued as Ben entered bashful mode, but just like in his first meeting with me, he opened right up during his first car ride with ma-ma. We got home and settled right in with dinner, playtime, bathtime, and then bedtime.

At around 1AM, our jet lag caught up with us, so we got up, had a snack, and played for a few more hours. This picture of Ben and his ecstatic ma-ma was taken at around 2AM.

So I did my job. I got Ben home safely to his mother.

Ben is warming up to both of his new parents. He's spent (most of) one night in his new bed. He's a little nervous about the dogs, but they are getting used to each other (he seems especially interested in Buddy). Today we'll continue to settle in. I'm sure our internal clocks will be a little goofy as we adjust to EST, but it feels good to be home. So far, it seems like Ben feels the same way.