The trip home – the day I was dreading… February 12, 2011

I’ll admit it…I was dreading the flight home with a wiggly and possibly grieving infant. The flight to Korea was 13 hours and 50 minutes flying time. And it went well. Surprisingly well. The flight home was shorter – around 12 hours 40 minutes flying time. OK, there’s one up side! But this time, we’ll have an infant with us who will likely be grieving. Yup, still dreading it!

We were instructed to meet the agency people at the airport nursery at 9:30 am. Our flight left at 11:40 am. We finished our packing in the morning (I was miraculously able to get everything packed and all bags were under 50 pounds!) and had our last breakfast at Fraser Place. It was kind of sad. We’ve had such a good time in Seoul on this trip. But, I was tired and ready to sleep on a bed that isn’t rock hard. And of course, to get our baby boy! After we finished breakfast we went back to our room and got our bags and headed downstairs. We checked out and had about 15 minutes before our bus arrived. We stood outside and waited. Then we hopped our bus and headed to the airport. It takes about an hour and 25 minutes to get to the airport on the bus. A taxi would have been faster, but Adam kept pointing out that our bags probably would not fit in a trunk. What, we’re a family of 4 traveling internationally? How many bags would be normal? We had 2 giant suitcases, 1 medium suitcase, 2 rolling carry ons, 2 kids’ backpacks, a laptop bag, a diaper bag, and one other shopping bag. OK, maybe slightly excessive LOL.

We got to the airport and found the nursery. They handed us our boy! He was smiling and happy, just like always. We gathered everyone (there were 3 agency people there I believe, us, and the two escorts for the other two babies) and headed to check in for our flights. That took a while, but we all got checked in and everyone had bulkhead seating. Important with an infant – it gives you extra room and a bassinette (if you request one ahead of time, which we did). We then headed back to the nursery. All the babies got a bottle and a diaper change. And then we headed to security. Trying to juggle all our carry ons and the baby and the big kids was fun…or not. We couldn’t wait to get on the plane and put our bags away. They did let us board early and get settled, yay!

So, we sat on the plane while everyone else boarded. Finn is such a sweet guy, but he is BUSY. Brett was a busy baby, but I think Finn tops even him! Wowzers…they told me Mira was super active too, but not compared to her brothers! I guess it’s just one more sign her was supposed to be ours. The sweet little boy fell asleep upon take off! Once we were in the air, they set up the bassinette. Since the boy was sleeping I put him in it. He slept in there for 2 hours – after all, it was his regular nap time! I settled in and watched Secretariat on the video screen. There are a couple downsides to having the bassinette though. First, between the bassinette and the video screen that pops up from under the armrest, it’s very difficult to get out of the seat during your flight. I was able to do it, but you essentially have to step over the arm rest which isn’t exactly easy. The other downside is that if the baby is in the bassinette, whenever the fasten seat belt sign comes on, you have to take the baby out. That’s a bummer if your baby is a light sleeper. During Finn’s second nap on the plane, which he normally would sleep for another 2 hours, I had to take him out at the 1.5 hour mark and it woke him up. Ah well…

Like I said earlier, Finn is active. Very active. So, while he slept for almost 4 hours of the flight, he was awake and active for the other 8.5 hours. The bassinette was in front of me, so when I held him, he would want in the bassinette, then out of it, then back in it, then out of it…and struggling against a squirmy baby really tires out your arms! So, Adam and I generally traded off who was holding him every other hour or so. Sometimes we would take him for a walk which he seemed more content with – likely because at least he was moving. But really, it was so much easier than I feared it would be. He was happy, pleasant, and didn’t cry even once. He just wanted to get down and move around, and frankly, who could blame him? We had also ordered the infant meal. They brought two huge jars of baby food and a jar of juice two different times. He drank the juice, but wouldn’t touch the baby food. Oh well, it’s messy anyway, and have you smelled that stuff? I don’t blame him one bit. The only bad thing that happened the whole flight? As we were standing up to deplane in Chicago, Finn spit up all over me. Well, thanks for waiting buddy, at least I can change my clothes in a regular bathroom!

We arrived in Chicago on time. We weren’t looking forward to this part of the trip either. We had to pick up our luggage, go through customs and immigration, and then recheck our luggage. Yippee. We made it through customs and immigration just fine (with no luggage searches, yay!) and rechecked our luggage. We then had to catch the train to another terminal to catch our United flight to Detroit. We only had 2 hours to do all this, and we got to our next gate about 40 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave. It was so hot in that airport. Seriously hot. I was dripping with sweat. Yuck! But at least we had time to get some drinks and a quick snack before boarding our next flight.

The flight from Chicago to Detroit is short – about 45 minutes flying time. We sat down, and Finn fell asleep on my chest. Awww….so sweet. We landed in Detroit about 10 minutes early and headed to find our luggage. My parents, my grandmother, and two friends, Bonnie & Jenny were waiting for us just outside the security entrance. It was really sweet! They brought balloons and a big cookie from Mrs. Fields that said Welcome Home. Good, I’m starving! The last meal on the flight didn’t have anything I liked so I didn’t eat much of it. Jenny took some photos and then we headed down to get our luggage.

We stood there talking while everyone got their luggage. After a while, I realized no more luggage was coming out and ours wasn’t there. Oh joy. A couple thousand dollars worth of stuff I purchased and the luggage is lost. Really???? So, I head to the United luggage office and tell the lady my luggage didn’t come out. Her response? “Well, you have to file a claim”. That was it. No apology, no, don’t worry I’m sure it will be here soon, let me help you file a claim. Yup, welcome back to the US, which is completely lacking in customer service. Maybe it’s good to be home? She was completely unhelpful in every question I asked and said it may take days to find my luggage but she can’t look it up because it was a Korean Air flight. Grrr….at least I know it made it to Chicago.

We headed home and were exhausted. My parents and grandma stayed for a little while and then headed home. We were so hungry but exhaustion won out. Me and all the kids were in bed by 6 PM I think! Adam stayed up later. Sometime later, we got a phone call about our luggage. Adam said it arrived on our doorstep around 10 PM. I wouldn’t know…I was sleeping. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ……………………………

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