Maria Li is home!!!!

Maria Li has finally made it home!!!!  It was a long journey home.  Yesterday was the longest day ever for us, literally.  We gained 13 hours so, it was a 37 hour day.  It actually started Friday night.  3 out of our 4 planes were delayed.  We were suppose to leave Guangzhou at 10:40pm Friday night.  That plane was an hour late and we only had a 50 minute connection in Hong Kong to catch our plane to San Francisco.  We landed at 12:30am in HK which was the time our plane was suppose to leave to SFO.   We weren't sure if they'd hold the plane for us or not, but when we got there an agent was waiting for us and about 20 others to take us to the gate.  He walked so fast we could barely keep up.  When we finally got to the gate, we found out that plane was delayed until 1:30am., then 2:30 am, them 3:15, then 4:15.  Andrew and Lili fell asleep on some chairs.  Finally at 4:15 am they announced that the flight was cancelled and was rebooked at 1:00pm the next day and they would put us up at the airport hotel for the rest of the night.  We were thinking about just staying and sleeping at the airport so, we wouldn't disturb Lili and Andrew, but we really wanted a few hours in a real bed.

We had to go back through immigration and then walk through the airport, across a walkway to then finally to the hotel.  By the time we got there, my back and arms were aching from carrying Lili.  We were about the last to get to the hotel and there was a line so long, we weren't sure we'd actually get a room before we had to leave.  I mentioned to Kraig that they should let the older people and families with young kids get the rooms first.  So, he went up and asked a manager and they were able to get us right in a room.  Thank you Kraig!!!!  We got to sleep after 5:30 and and got a wake up call at 9:30.

The plane from HK to SFO then actually left at 2:00pm on Saturday. The boys and Maria were so great on the airplane.  The boys sat by each other and didn't even fight!  There were screens on the back of each chair that had movies and video games that kept the boys pretty busy.  Lili and Andrew slept quite a bit on the plane, but Jakob didn't sleep at all.

 I was a little nervous about the connection in SFO because we only had 1 1/2 hours to get all our luggage, go through immigration and customs, find the Delta terminal, recheck our bags, go through security and get to the gate.  When we got to immigration, I asked the officer if we could get sped through since we were trying to catch another flight.  He originally told me that we had to go through the Us immigration then got to the "new immigrants" window, but after I pleaded with him, he let us all go to the 'new immigrants' window.  Once we got through there, Maria Li became a US citizen!!!!

The next flight from SFO to Salt Lake City was the only flight that was on time.  We got on board the plane with 10 minutes to spare.

Our flight from SLC to KCI was delayed over an hour.  It was a very small plane so, when we got on, they made us gate check some carry ons.  I didn't think about it at the time, but the bag they made us check had Lili's diapers in them.  Then of course about an hour into the flight she had  blowout in her diaper.  I was sitting there trying to figure out what to do.  She was crying and there was another hour left so,  had to change her.  I asked Kraig to see if there were any other little kids on board and maybe we could use one of their diapers or maybe the flight attendants had one, but no such luck.  I just decided to take her to the bathroom , take off the diaper and clean her and her pants.  Luckily I had wipes.  Then I just just put some Kleenex in her pants and prayed she wouldn't pee. Yeah, it's fun changing a dirty, stinky diaper in the little airplane bathroom.  I sat her on my lap with the changing pad under her in case she peed.  and of course, when we were landing I noticed that her pants were wet.  I was able to just carry her out on her changing pad.

We met Grandma and Grandpa J at the gate.  The boys were so happy to see them!!  Maria met them and then Grandma & I took her to the bathroom to change her.

We got home around 11 and went to bed around midnight.  Lili woke up crying a couple times in the night.  She rarely cries and this was the hardest she'd ever cried.  We couldn't calm her for a while, but then I went down and got her a bottle and she calmed down and went to sleep on Kraig until he trie`d to lay her on the bed and then she cried again.  I finally laid her and me and she went to sleep.  I didn't get much sleep with her on me, but I wanted to make sure she got some good sleep.  I was finally able to lay her beside me at about 7:30 then we both slept until about 10:30.  The boys slept until after 12:00.

Lili seems to like her new home, but is still checking everything out.  Jakob and Andrew are such great big brothers and love their little sister so much.  They are so excited to introduce her to everyone.  We probably won't get out much for a while.

Kraig will post some pictures and add more later (and probably fix any errors I have on this post.)

Trish