A Successful Journey Home

We are home, safe and sound!

Our stay in Hanoi was our least favorite of the trip. It seems like everything we did ended up being difficult. When we arrived at our hotel, we were informed that we didn’t have a room. Our original plans and reservations were for arriving on Friday. The booking agent had not informed us that they hadn’t been able to secure us a room for Thursday night. Our “guide” from Dillon abandoned us, so we were left to deal with the mix-up on our own. The hotel was great, though. They secured us a room at a sister hotel across town, arranged for a taxi to take us there, and even sent one of their staff with us to facilitate everything. The biggest problem was that we were traveling with a little boy that didn’t understand why we were having to move AGAIN and was very cranky! Once we got in our (extremely nice) room, he settled in as usual.

Friday morning, our guide was supposed to meet us in the lobby to take us to the US embassy to pick up Nam’s visa and do the interview. We waited in the lobby for about 15 minutes, with Nam getting crankier every minute, and finally received a phone call from the original hotel telling us that he was waiting for us THERE, and we needed to catch a taxi to meet up with him. (We had contacted him the previous evening and made arrangements for him to meet us at the hotel that we ended up staying in.) Sheila’s interview was at 10:00, and if we were more than 20 minutes late, we would lose our spot and have to go back at another time (which might possibly knock us out of our new flight schedule). Thankfully, we were able to make it to the hotel, meet up with him and made it to the embassy at 10:00 on the dot! We got in, turned in the necessary paperwork, and Sheila did her short interview. We were told it would take about 20 minutes to process the visa. An hour later, we were still waiting…and struggling to keep Nam occupied. It is hard to sit in a government office for over an hour with an active (almost) 4 year old boy, and with NOTHING with which to entertain him (our phones had been confiscated at the entrance of the embassy). He is a very sociable little boy, so he visited with the security guards, the cleaning lady, and any one else who happened by. Thankfully, there was a little snack bar just outside the waiting room that sold bananas, so he was able to have a little snack while waiting. (You do NOT want this child to get hungry…he gets very hangry!) Sheila finally got his visa (they were having printer problems), and we headed back to the hotel to pack up and move to our hotel that we were supposed to be in. Of course, check-out time at the first hotel was noon, and check-in time at the second was 3:00 pm, so we had a couple of hours that we had to kill before we could get settled. We ate lunch and found a playroom for Nam to blow off some steam in and then were FINALLY able to get settled in our apartment. We were now through with everything official, so we just camped in our rooms for the next couple of days. We used the hotel restaurant for breakfast and ordered in food to be delivered all weekend, as the area our hotel was located was NOT a good place to be walking around with a rambunctious 4 year old in tow. (It really wasn’t a good place for US to be walking around in!) Those last 36 hours or so were VERY long!

The time to go to the airport finally arrived! We gathered up our luggage, woke Nam up, and got a taxi to the airport. The drive was quite beautiful! The lights of the city were mesmerizing. We had a bridge to cross that had these amazing arches over it with lights that reflected on them in various colors. Nam practiced his English on the drive. He is such a smart little guy. We could hear him whispering to himself, saying a work in Vietnamese first, then saying the English word equivalent:  colors, animals, people’s titles. He obviously knew that we were going to America where he was going to have to speak in English, and he wanted to be prepared.

We had a few difficulties at the Hanoi airport. We didn’t have our e-tickets, since the flights had been changed, and we didn’t know where to go. We were first directed to one check-in, which informed us to go to a different one. We had hoped that flying out at midnight would mean a less crowded airport, but THAT didn’t happened. We finally made it to the correct desk and handed over our passports and Nam’s adoption paperwork. They scrutinized EVERY page very closely and acted like we were criminals or something. It was very unnerving! (We were in a communist country!) Finally, they approved our documentation, checked our luggage and sent us on our way. We made it to the next line we had to navigate, made it to the front and were redirected, because there was an issue with our luggage! Thankfully it just turned out to be the portable battery charger that needed to be moved from my checked luggage to carry-on. We went back to the long line to wait again, but as we got close enough for the security guard to recognize us, he went ahead and let us through. Then we had about an hour to kill before time to board. By this time, Nam was getting a bit cranky. We bought him a snack and tried to amuse him the best we could until we finally boarded our plane. Thankfully, he went right to sleep as soon as we took off and slept pretty much the whole 5 hour flight to Seoul. That was SO helpful, as the airplane we were on for this leg was the worst either of us had ever been on! (I do NOT recommend ever flying on Jin Air!) This was the only part of the whole trip when I was tempted to use my emergency medication for anxiety. Sheila and I both were feeling pretty claustrophobic by the end of the flight, and my back was killing me. Neither of us got any sleep. We finally landed in Seoul and had about 4 hours until our final flight home.

Let me just say that our “layover” in Seoul did not go well.

FINALLY, we boarded our (wonderful Korean Air) plane and started the final 12 hour leg to the good ole US! Any flight that lasts that long is going to be a struggle, and adding a travel-weary little boy to the equation made that struggle even greater. Nam slept some, played some, struggled some, watched Frozen a couple of times (which he loved!), and tried starting up conversations with our fellow travelers. That boy is VERY social! We had “met” a couple of families while waiting in Seoul. Every time he saw them from then on, they would call out and talk to each other. One was a Vietnamese family that lives in Dallas. They were wonderful! They were able to communicate with Nam and help us out some with his frustrations. The other was a Korean born woman, who had been adopted by Americans as a baby, who had returned to Korea with her daughter. She couldn’t communicate with Nam, but they were still able to make friends! Sheila and I enjoyed our visits with her.

After a couple of rough patches on the plane, Nam started getting really excited as we neared the end of our flight. He was SO looking forward to meeting his Grandad! About an hour away from DFW, he couldn’t stand it any more and just started crying and calling out “ông nội!, ông nội!”, (the Vietnamese word for grandfather) over and over again. It was SO sad! We finally got him settled down by showing him the video of Dennis singing and talking to him. Then we landed at DFW!

The process of going through immigration and customs went very smoothly, other than having to wait in the long lines. Then we made it to the receiving party! Dennis, Stephen’s family, Teddy, Leslie and Bellamy, and Gina were all there to welcome us home. Nam was a little shy at first, then when Sheila played the “Grandad video” for him, he recognized Dennis and was ecstatic! He clung to him and hugged on him like his life depended on it! He didn’t have much to do with anyone else. The boys finally “met” each other and sweet Jesse shared one of his matchbox cars with Nam. It will take some time for the three of them to really gel as buddies. There is going to be some major jealousy over Grandad to deal with!

After spending quite some time greeting each other and visiting, the crowd dispersed and we finally loaded up and headed to Sheila’s apartment. I had my concerns about Nam riding in his carseat, but he thought it was pretty cool to have his own special seat that allowed him to see out of the car. When we arrived at the apartment, he settled right in! He has seen pictures of everything, in his book that Sheila had sent him, so he KNEW he was home! He thoroughly explored his bedroom, pointing out all of the elephants (which happens to be his favorite animal). He then started exploring the rest of the apartment. He found our family picture (that was on the cover of his book) in the living room. He got really excited and decided that it belonged in HIS room! It was so heartwarming to see him process that he was finally in his permanent home!

Dennis and I spent Monday night at Sheila’s, to give Nam a little time to process, and also for Dennis to allow Sheila and I to get some sleep (we hadn’t been able to sleep for the previous 40 hours). Sheila put Nam down in his bed and made herself a pallet beside him. Unfortunately that didn’t last very long. Nam was used to sleeping in the same bed with his Momma and kept waking up and reaching out for her. Finally, around 2 am, Sheila decided to blow up the air mattress that Dennis had brought, so they could sleep together. (Dennis and I were sleeping in her bed.) I helped her get them situated. By this time, Nam was awake and wanting Grandad, so he spent the rest of the night entertaining Nam, while Sheila and I tried to get caught up on sleep. That allowed the two of them some great bonding time (as if they needed it!). I woke up around 8 and traded places with Dennis, so he could get a little rest. Nam slept for a couple more hours, which allowed Sheila and Dennis to get some much needed sleep.

After everyone was up, I cooked us a late breakfast, then we went for a walk outside. The walking trail led us through a construction area, which totally fascinated Nam! He got to watch the equipment scoop mud from the channel bank and load it into dump trucks to be hauled off. Every time a truck drove by, we would all wave and they would honk for him. He REALLY got a kick out of that! We finally headed back to the apartment, visited and played, and then had a light lunch. Then it was time for Dennis and I to leave, and for Nam to take a nap. Poor little guy was heartbroken! We left, and Sheila was finally able to calm him down (with Grandad’s video and pictures of me that Nam had taken) and get him to sleep…telling him that they would be coming to visit us “tomorrow”.

It felt WONDERFUL to finally get home! I was terribly jet-lagged, so I didn’t accomplish anything other than unpacking and putting on a load of laundry. We went out to eat supper, and I was able to eat salad for the first time in 2 weeks! (We avoided fresh veggies in Vietnam, because of their poor water quality.) I managed to stay awake (with the help of some coffee) until 9:00, to try to get my circadian rhythm back in sync with our local time. I went right to sleep, but woke up every two hours. I finally had to get up around 5:30, because my old body couldn’t stand being in bed any longer. I feel pretty rested, though, and my jet-lag headache is finally gone. Today I will buy my groceries for Thanksgiving dinner (I picked up my smoked turkey last night), bake a pecan pie and cornbread for my dressing, and clean house. I’m not sure what time Sheila and Nam will be coming over. I’m sure he’ll be wanting to leave as soon as he wakes up! They will spend tonight with us and all day tomorrow. It will be a very special Thanksgiving Day, for sure! (It will just be the 5 of us this year. We didn't think Nam would be up to the whole family quite yet!)

I want to thank all of you who kept us in your prayers and wished us well during our travels. There were SO many times that we felt like God was smoothing our path along the way. Even though we had our difficulties, things went incredibly well! We believe that your prayers definitely played a part in our successful journey!