Friday, May 25, 2007

JULY 2nd...WE ARE HOME!!!!


We got to the airport and told Simon farewell. He helped us get to the luggage check-in. The funny thing is we had to go through a process where they banded your luggage (for a small fee). Then you could take your luggage and check in for your flight!

We left around 7:30 am and we were happy to be on a plane headed home! The flights were good except for the long layover in Tokyo, Japan. They had a guard that wouldn't let people on the bus to go over to the next terminal...he kept saying it was the wrong bus! We waited for 1 1/2 hours to get to the correct terminal. Once we got there, the lady that worked with American Airlines was wonderful!!! She said that she had some better seats in the bulkhead that would give us more room for the flight home! She said that she would also make sure that Hope would have a bed for the flight! Well the bed was a little cardboard tote with a little cushion in it. Hope slept in that for just a little bit, but she was a little long for the box so her legs hung over the side.

The next leg of our flight took us to Chicago where Hope became a US citizen!!! We went through immigration and the processed us very quickly! I heard the one worker tell the other to please hurry, that they had a small child with them. I was forever grateful, because we were sitting on a bench with a LONG line of people trying to come into the US! They had us to the luggage claim area in about 10 minutes! We then went and grabbed our luggage and made the transfer from international flights to domestic flights! They guy laughed when he saw the bright yellow banding and didn't even want to search our luggage. He said no one would have been able to mess with it anyway, so he took our luggage and sent us through! By this time, we were hungry and had spent most of our extra money on the two extra days in China, so we found a hot dog stand, got one hot dog and 2 cokes with ice!!!! It was I do believe the best coke that I had ever had!!!! We then headed down to our gate and waited for our flight back to Springfield!!!!

The best part was seeing everyone once we landed and made our way around the corner at the airport!!! It was awesome to see their faces with big smiles on them! This group was the group that prayed us through and encouraged us the entire way!!!!

God has truly been faithful to us through it all! He has provided in many ways that we can never imagine! The most treasured thing to me is my friends and family!!! That's what makes my life complete....everything else is an added bonus!!!!!

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