A much belated update

Hi again!

We have been home with Allie now for 10 weeks and there is so much to tell!
I'll start with the trip home which was, well, the longest Saturday in recorded history. We left Guangzhou in the morning on the train to Hong Kong. Riding through the countryside was amazing. Once we left the city the views changed to rural survival. We saw people out working in fields, large empty buildings and lots of working cattle pulling plows. We arrived in Hong Kong and our poor sick-with-a-cold Allie was pulled out of line and tagged for Bird Flu. Agh! Yes, can you tell that this 16 month old was a poultry farmer? They wanted her to wear a mask...ha ha...and tagged her passport so she could only be 'in transit' through Hong Kong and not stay. We then moved all of us and our 4 bazillion pieces of luggage onto a private bus and drove to the airport. Where we waited for 8 hours for our flight. Hong Kong is a 'modern' Asian country and we had a feast of potato chips and baked potatoes. While we were at the gate for our flight Blair found a Burger King and the girl spoke English! He was so excited he almost crawled over the counter. Allie was so good at the airport. She walked around trying to grab cell phones from everyone and crawled around under the seats. then we boarded for our midnight flight to Seoul. She did great until I placed her in the plane seat and then it was a meltdown of biblical proportions. She was having none of this plane stuff and tried to crawl over the back of the seats, all the while screaming at the top of her lungs. The Asiana Airlines staff where wonderful. They let us stand in the galley until takeoff and then rushed us to our seats as the plane was taking off. Allie fell asleep more out of exhaustion than anything else and slept for the 5 hours. In Seoul we had a 13 hour layover so we were given a day room which is a hotel room used for people like us with long layovers. We were great until we turned off the lights to sleep. Thats when Allie started crying again. Agh!! Eventually we all got a couple of hours of shut eye and then back again to the airport for the 11 hours to Seattle. Yeah!!! I have to admit that I am not at all patriotic but I was crying on the way to the gate I was so happy to be heading home. Again the Asiana Airlines staff went out of their was to accommodate us and make our flight as smooth as possible. One thing we did learn was that of all the international airports we were in, Seattle is by far the worst. No where else did we have this level of frustration trying to get through customs, immigration and baggage claim. And we even could read the signs and understand the language!!

We have been busy bonding with Allie and she is such a joy. She is picking up the language bit by bit and loves to play play play. So far her favorites have been little wading pools, riding behind mom's bike, riding anyplace in the stroller, and using Max as a bouncing toy. Poor Max the dog, he loves the food dropping from heaven as he sits under her chair but he is starting to wonder about the bouncing on him as if he was a horse!!

We will try to post more as we get back to work and daily routines.

Thanks to all who followed us in China!
Tami