Home Sweet Home

A true trip highlight came as we transfered from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal at SFO. And not just because we knew we were on American soil (although that was pretty dang exciting), or because we were no longer on a plane (also exciting), or because we were finished with the ridiculous wait in the line for foreigners and Hannah was now really and truly an American citizen (seriously exciting) or even because we had managed to shlep our 4 checked and 4 carryon bags without losing or dropping a single one and I knew I personally did not have to hoist the checked ones again (beyond exciting). I think we were just kinda lost in a fog of exhaustion and could not even register a real hint of excitement until we saw the MOST exciting of all - a cluster of cousins with signs and gifts and most importantly Cheerios! We were so awed and impressed that Mitz and Beth made the trek to SFO with Kate, Sam, Lindsay, Noah & Aaron for those brief moments and we were on a high from that the rest of the trip. Thanks guys. We were sprawled out all over the airport floor when two other families from our group landed from Beijing and stumbled upon us and so they even got to meet our San Fran family. The entire experience was just surreal.

It hit us then that this little girl is already so loved by so many and I think I can speak for Sue when I say that moment in SFO we felt the hearts of our entire family with us (huge, both literally and figuratively). I flashed back to the family trip four years ago when Sue first announced she was adopting and I felt we had truly come full circle.

Denver racheted up the excitement even further as we met our friends Karen and Angelina and were able to fly with them for the last leg of the trip and share in all our joy. I'm sorry to say that I have zero pictures from the teary-eyed moments at the Gunny Airport, where we were met by more signs from Mom (aka Grandma), Jen, Sim, Soli, Gabe and our friend Heather. In some way it's fitting that I slacked off entirely at the end as I now rightfully turn the blog back over to Sue. Thank you all for the many comments and emails and for sharing my insane posts and litany of observations throughout this journey. I can't wait for you all to get to meet this amazing little girl and share in Sue's joy firsthand. And if any of you are adopting from China, we also have a few suggestions we could share :)

xoxo
ABG