Home At Last

There's just nothing that compares to being home and in your own bed. We're all home and trying to get settled in. Maya slept pretty well last night in her crib. I stayed with her in her room until she fell asleep and then snuck out. I needed some sleep so badly and my bed was calling me. Before I left, I set up some pillows and threw a blanket over it to make it look like I was still in there. I was desperate at that point. Something worked because she didn't wake up until about 7:30am this morning.

Julia was so happy to be home. Dave got the biggest kick out of her because when he put her in her car seat at the airport she giggled and grinned. She knew she was home! Julia hit her crib at about 9pm and didn't wake up until 10:30 this morning. Poor girl was exhausted.

Thailand was really great. The people are just incredible; so nice and willing to do anything for you. Dave keeps saying that he wants to move there. He absolutely loved it. The love that the Thai's have for children is palpable. It's this love for children that saved us from missing our return flight home.

I think the last post left off on Thursday so that's where I will follow up.

While we were waiting for Maya's visa on Thursday we sat at a cafeteria and just hung out with the girls. We had a sandwich bag filled with Goldfish for Maya. Let me tell you, this girl can eat some Goldfish. We just handed her the bag and let her go. Big mistake!! One by one, she started shoving the Goldfish into her mouth. Literally, stuffing them in until she was gagging. We had to take them away from her and only give her a few at a time. She would point at the bag for more. We kept telling her to finish what was in her mouth and then she would get more. Between gestures and repeating the same words, she finally understood. She would eat the Goldfish that we set down in front of her, open her mouth to show us she was done and then point for more. Of course, there were times when she hadn't swallowed them yet. That's become a regular thing now. I don't know if she's hoarding food or what, but she loves to keep stuffing food into her mouth until she gags. Now, we repeatedly have to ask her to show us her mouth. Nothing like seeing chewed up food on a regular basis.













After we got Maya's visa on Thursday, we went back to the hotel and the girls got some much needed naps. We went out to dinner and did some shopping. Maya is becoming so great at eating out and just being in public period. She's also showing us daily just how smart she is. We were playing around in the room when Maya started pointing at things. Everything she pointed to we would say what it was like 3 or 4 times, at one point she started to say the things. It was awesome. The highlight of it all was when she grabbed this little pig. I said, Pig, Pig, Pig. Within seconds, she looks up at me and says PIG. Dave was in the bedroom and heard her clear as day. It was just amazing. I know I'm like a broken record but she's very, very smart. She's just absorbing everything like a sponge.

Friday we got the girls all suited up and ventured down to the pool. Julia loved it, Maya not so much. This is as far as we got with her:


After the pool and some naps for the girls, we went souvenir shopping. We took the double stroller but once again, Maya wanted no part of it. Dave said to me that we really needed her to get used to the stroller because it would make things easier on us at all the airports. Every time we had tried to put her in it before, she screamed her head off. I knew Dave was right so I just did it. I picked her up, put her in and strapped her in. She wailed but the instant we started moving, she stopped. She loved it! One small victory for us!

Friday night we packed up and hit the road at about 9pm to catch our midnight flight out. We got to the airport at about 10pm to find it absolutely packed with people. The airport was so busy. Dave and I are both stressed out and kept watching the clock. We had not checked in and still needed to go through Immigration and security in 1.5 hours.

We stood in line at the Thai Airways check in panicking. After about 20 minutes, a Thai Airways rep spotted us and called us to the side. He said, Baby? (as he was pointing to Julia) Come with me. He pulled us out of line and brought us to the front. As we're checking in, the counter agent asks us for papers for Maya. Um, what papers?!? The only papers we had was a sealed envelope that was to be opened by Immigration States-side. Another small panic here for us as we started rummaging through all of our luggage trying to find something, anything that would get us out of the country with Maya. We finally come across a piece of paper from the board meeting that was just what we needed. We were able to check in and get all of our seats. Thank God.

Next stop was the Immigration line. Another huge line. We try to find a spot in the sea of lines while maneuvering the double stroller through. Once again, we get spotted by an airport agent. She doesn't speak any English but motions for us to follow her. You betcha! She points us in the direction of a really short line designated for delegates. Got to love it. At this point, it was 45 minutes until take off and still the security line. Definitely stressed but ok, we can do this. We finally get called up by the Immigration officer, hand him our passports and Maya's Visa. He asks us for our departure sheets. Departure sheets? Um, what departure sheets. He proceeds to hand us 4 slips of paper that need to be filled out with everybody's identifying information including passport numbers. Oh jeez.

Dave and I hurriedly scribble the much needed information and hand them over. He then tells us that he needs to take individual photos of Dave, Julia and I. Tick, tock, clock is ticking. He takes the pictures and tells us we can proceed but I must take Maya to this other window. I take Maya over to the Thai citizen/visa desk. The agent was working with another woman and we had to wait. The stroller was kind of in the way so I maneuvered it a bit to where the stroller was almost directly in front of the desk. The woman glances over, sees Julia (who was sleeping at this point) and Maya in the stroller and mouths "baby". She stops what she is doing with the woman she was helping and grabs Maya's Thai passport out my hands. She proceeds to stamp and mark the necessary paperwork and sends me on my way. Woohoo.

Dave is carrying 2 carry on bags and Julia's car seat and I'm pushing the girls in the stroller as fast as I can. Off to our gate with 25 minutes and counting. Figures that our gate is on the far end of the airport. As we're trying to find our gate, we realize that each section has it's own security. Perfect. How busy can it be? We're huffing and puffing to our gate when we spot, Section D on the signs. Sweet! Almost there. As we start to get closer, we begin to see a crowd in the distance. Oh, we think, they must be getting ready to board their plane and just gathering. As we inch closer, we realize we are dead wrong. Section D security was packed and I mean packed! Oh no! 20 minutes to go and we are seriously panicking. We talk about whether we should approach one of the officers and let them know our situation or asking the people in front of us if we can cut them in line. We decide to just wait it out and see what happens as the time gets closer. You want to talk about adrenaline.

Surprisingly, the line is moving. 10 minutes to go to take off and we're making progress. We finally get to the head of the line and start putting our stuff on the belt for the x-ray machine. At this point, we were going to use all we could to save time. Julia was still sleeping in the stroller so I kind of turned it a bit so they can see her. I point to her and ask if I have to take her out and collapse the stroller to put through the x-ray machine. She looks at Julia and makes the "aww" face and starts looking around for a spot for me to squeeze through. We weren't going to have to deal with taking the girls out and collapsing the stroller. I ended up pushing the stroller, the girls and all through the metal detector. I swear only in Thailand. You got to love it though. The actual gate was about 30 feet away. Would you believe we all got on the plane at 12:00am for our 12:05 am flight? I can not even describe how relieved we were.

We find our seats and get the girls situated. We bit the bullet and bought seats for the girls as well. It wasn't cheap but it was the best decision we ever made. We had the four seats in the center row to ourselves. We out Maya in an aisle seat, me next to her, then Julia and then Dave in the other aisle seat. We weren't sure how Maya was going to do being belted in and not being in my lap, but she did great! She was just so interested in all the stuff going on, the tv in front of her and the people around her that I don't even think she noticed that she was belted in. I gave her a bottle so she would have a way to 'pop her ears' during the ascent.




















I have to mention that this girl can sleep and I mean sleep. I swear she must have slept 15 out of the 17 hour flight, no exaggeration either. One couple stopped me to tell me how good Maya was being. I guess being at an orphanage with all those children, you learn to sleep through anything. She did get to eat though. I don't know if I mentioned this before but they feed you very well on Thai Airways. The menu consists of a choice of two options for each meal. There was normally an Asian option and another option. One meal we had was Salmon Souffle, that was followed by a Thai chicken curry. The food was pretty good too considering it was airplane food. They always came around with wine, drinks and then Cognac after dinner. The meals included fruit, crackers & cheese, rolls or croissants, an entree and a dessert followed by coffee or tea.

On the flight home, Maya ate fresh mozzarella and grape tomatoes in a basil vinaigrette, pork noodle stirfry, steamed carrots, broccoli, vegetable fritatta, sausage, fruit salad, cheese & crackers, yogurt with fruit, chicken thighs in a hoisin sauce and creme brulee. We are so proud of her that she is so willing to try all of these new things even more proud that she eats it! You should have seen her eat the creme brulee. I would give her a spoonful, she hadn't even close her mouth before she was pointing for more. Speaking of more, I had been teaching her the sign for more. Would you believe that she actually signed it?? I about fell out of my chair. We haven't seen her do it again but hey, we'll take it!

I did want to add this little story. Maya was sitting awkwardly in her seat. Her leg was sticking out in the aisle. I didn't realize this until people tried to walk by and had to move to the other side to get by. When I noticed, I picked up Maya's leg and moved it back to the front. As soon as I did that the little bugger moved her leg right back to the aisle. I once again picked up her leg and moved it, this time followed by a "No". Well, the little stinker did it again. Once again, picked up her leg, moved it and followed with several firm, "No's". Well, our little toddler Maya, while looking straight at me with a smirk on her face, proceeds to inch her leg back out slowly. What a punk!!

The flight itself went great. Both girls were just so exhausted that they slept the majority of the time. Perfect. We got into NY at about 7 am. We had do go through Immigration for Maya. This time all of our documents were accounted for. They processed her Visa and Maya was allowed to enter the country! Yeah Maya! My Dad and brother picked us up from the airport and took us to my Dad's house while we waited for our next flight at 3pm. Dave and I were worried about how she would take being strapped into the carseat. Well, let's just say she's predictable! She screamed her head off for about 5minutes. She finally gave up and just looked around.

We had a great visit with my family. It was a nice break from our traveling. Maya got to meet her Grandpa, Great Aunt Karen, Uncle John, Aunt Kelly and cousin Leah. Our almost 4 year old niece Leah just loved being with Maya and Maya adored Leah. It was very sweet to see the two of them together. Leah was very motherly to Maya and Maya couldn't get enough of it. Very sweet. Dad cooked us up a great meal and we got to fill our bellies before leaving.

We headed to the airport around 1pm. This time we got there with plenty of time to spend. We had both girls in the stroller so it was easy to get around. Unfortunately, we had a layover in DC. The layover was pretty uneventful. There was a slight delay but we got on okay. We gate checked our stroller like we had done the entire trip so we can use the stroller right up until the we board. It worked out great until now. When we got off the plane at our home airport it was pouring rain. The plane was one of those commuter planes that let you out on the tarmac and you have to walk up the steps into the terminal. Because it was pouring rain, they made an announcement that all gate checked luggage would be placed inside at the baggage claim so we wouldn't have to get wet waiting for our bags on the tarmac. We head over to the baggage claim and within minutes spot all of our bags. Hmmm. No stroller. We wait and wait, still no stroller. Wait more, no stroller. After an hour of waiting and dealing with the baggage department, yes, they lost our stroller. Can you believe we go halfway around the world with this stroller and they lose it at our home airport?!?

We called this morning and still nothing. Sigh. They are still looking for it but we don't have much faith. Because it was gate checked, it doesn't have our flight info tag on it. I did put one of those little paper tags that you put your info on that the airport hands out. So, maybe. We loved that stroller too. Hopefully, they can find it but we're not holding our breath. We were just so glad to finally be home. To think we left at 9am on Friday Eastern Time and got home at 9pm Saturday night. 36 long hours.

Maya is doing really great. She's doing much better with Dave. She pretty much will let him do things for her: anything and everything but no affection and hugs. Dave is taking it really well. I feel so bad for him, I know all he wants to do is hold his little girl but he's being very patient and giving her her space. She will come around. She's doing so well already considering the short time period. I doubt it will take much longer for her to open up to Dave.

Maya is a little freaked out by our 100lb dog. They haven't officially met and probably won't for a couple of days. We do notice her getting more curious about him so that's a good thing. Maya is adjusting to her new home nicely. She's loving all of the toys and random things around. She seems to also be getting comfortable with her crib. I just put her in it for nap and she didn't cry when I set her down in it. I was shocked. Of course, I did stay in there until she fell asleep (the room, not the crib, heh).

We want to thank our wonderful friends for decorating the house, surprising us with gifts and by straightening up our house for us. It was so sweet of you guys. We also want to thank you for stocking the fridge with all of the wonderful goodies. You guys are the greatest! What a sweet surprise it was to walk into Maya's room and see those beautiful butterflies! We absolutely love them but not as much as Maya. She keeps pointing to them. Karen- Maya loves her new pajamas & shirts! They are so pretty! The snacks came in handy too!

We want to send huge thank you's to our terrific neighbors for taking care of our dog while we were away. We appreciate so much! Thank you, thank you and Mr. Cody Brown thanks you!

We are so happy to be home and can not wait for each and everyone to meet our little addition. I know Maya is just going to love you all as much as Dave and I do.

Thanks again for everybody's support. We could not have done this without you.