Sweet Home Alabama

After 28 hours of traveling, we finally arrived at the Birmingham airport at 11:20 pm. It was a challenging journey given that I only slept one hour total during our travel, and we were so frustrated when we got skipped over in customs at the Chicago airport which led us to miss our connecting flight home. Then our re-booked flight was over an hour delayed in departure. Thankfully, the kids did pretty well. But I could tell that Caroline wasn't sure about this whole America thing. This is how the kids looked on our last flight home...

Carter would tell everyone he saw that we were going home to Alabama. When we were just 30 minutes into our van ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, he asked, "Are we on the other side of the world yet?"

The long flight went pretty well. Grace and Caroline had a few clashes along the way, mainly because Grace is very hot and cold with her big sister. And Caroline finally told me on the translator, "I don't like her right now." I told her that I understood and was so glad she was honest with me. I also let her know that I appreciated how patient and persistent she had been in playing with Grace despite the little princess' diva attitude.

Carter, on the other hand, absolutely adores his big sister. When we got through customs and then reached the luggage recheck point and were told we didn't have time to make our flight, I was practically begging the airline employees to let us on whether our bags made it or not. Carter burst into tears, and we didn't know the reason until later when he explained that he thought the "police officers" weren't letting Caroline through. The poor boy thought his sister wouldn't be allowed to fly to Birmingham with us, and he said, "I want her to live with us!!" For ten minutes afterward, she carried him and he kept hugging her neck, looking at her face, and hugging her tightly some more. So sweet!

The moment finally arrived to greet family and friends who had headed to the airport very late to welcome home our new daughter!

Meeting her cousins, Tate, Alex, and Mary Katherine (my cousins' kids).

Mary Katherine has been so excited to meet Caroline! They will be in the same grade together.

Caroline and Scott's mom

Caroline and Scott's dad

Caroline immediately recognized my sister, Courtney (who goes by Aunt Coco)

With my family (minus Court's husband, Ivan)

With Scott's parents. Julie was there but I don't have any pictures with her in them...sneaky Aunt JuJu! :)

So thankful to be home with out any meltdowns from the kids! They were troopers.

Caroline and Aunt Coco

I will post more pics that other people are sending me. Thanks for all your prayers for our journey home. More updated info to come tomorrow when I've had enough sleep to create coherent sentences. :)