The longest day ever!

Literally, Nov 5th was the longest day of my life. I am pretty sure that it lasted about 38 hours with the time changes (counting from mid-night to mid-night). But it is our son's Gotcha Day and that is a good day to have a few extra hours in! Here is the detail of that day:

Jason and I woke up in Korea at 6 am Wednesday Nov. 5th, which was 3 pm Tuesday Nov 4th back here in MN. We got ready, finished packing our things and at 8:30 We went down to the lobby to meet with the foster mom, social worker, and Dr. Kim (the founder of Eastern Adoption agency) to have the prayer ceremony before taking custody of our son. After the prayer they quickly ushered us and all of our luggage into a van. Jason and I were in the van and once they were ready to close the doors, the foster mom handed over our son to us. Up to this point (basically all morning) I was so nervous. I was worried about how our son would attach to us, I was worried about the flight, I was worried if I would make a good mom. As some of you know, my body handles stress by making me feel nauseous, so that morning I was feeling a bit queasy. But, as soon as the foster mom placed Kyan in my arms, I knew that everything was alright. I did not feel sick (even driving in the back seat of a van). I did not feel worried, because all was well. Kyan just sat there taking in all the new sights. He did not fuss at all. Of course the whole ride I was kissing and hugging him and he tolerated me doing so. In the van with us was another couple from Chicago that adopted a son as well.

Once we got to the airport we got in line to get our boarding passes. We bought an extra seat to give us some extra space on the way back. It ended up being cheaper buying 3 round trip tickets as opposed to 2 round trip and 1 one way. This "extra seat" caused us problems at every stop on the way. Every time, the ticketing agent had to figure out what to do and each one ended up talk to a supervisor. This was understandable on the way TO Korea, but we thought that with Kyan it would be no problem. Not the case. They had to check with the supervisor, and they finally gave us our tickets, but as Jason was walking away a lady came up and told him that those tickets would not work and we needed different ones. So we had to take a seat and wait. There was only an hour and half before our flight took off and we still had not gone through security. Finally, they got the tickets figured out and we were off to the security checkpoint. Once we got through the checkpoint they sent us to the Immigration office to get cleared to leave the country, which meant more waiting... they cleared us and we were off to find our gate and some water for Ky's bottle. We got to our gate with a 1/2 hour to spare. We found a drinking fountain and I was able to feed Ky a bit of "cow milk powder" (formula) before boarding the plane. Since this is our first child I did not know how much attention one gets when walking through the airport with a baby. Everyone asking us how old he is, telling us how cute he is, and making funny faces.

The nice thing about have a baby with is you get to board the plane first. No waiting in line, worrying if there will be room for your carry-on. I have to put in a plug also for Korean Air. It is by far the best airline that I have been on. The stewardesses were WONDERFUL, the plane was clean and big. Each seat had it own touch screen where you could play computer games, watch the latest movies and tv shows, and keep track of the flight pattern. The seats were very roomy and had a good amount of leg room. We had a 12.5 hour flight ahead of us. We were armed with toys, food, and blankets. When we got in our seats we found that we were sitting right behind the couple from the agency who rode to the airport with us. That was so great! We were able to talk and support each other through this long trip.

When we were settled into our seats we found that Kyan had on a couple layers of clothes. Korean mamas think that babies need to be kept warm at all times. So, Ky had on 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts (all long sleeve) so we stripped him down to just one layer of clothes. The long flight consisted of Jason and I feeding Ky, holding Ky, or walking up and down the isles with Ky. I made a few diaper changes as well... Jason claimed that he was not good enough at the diaper changes to try on the airplane! The very first time I changed Ky, he peed all over me (a little hazing from the baby I guess)! While I was in line for the airplane's lavatory with the changing table, some of the stewardesses were asking about our baby and told me that they thought it was cool that we brought our baby to Korea. I then told her that we went to Korea to adopt him and she told us that we were the nicest people ever, and that our baby was really lucky. I told her that I was the lucky one! Throughout the fight the stewardesses would stop by to see, talk and play with the baby. It was nice to have a fresh face for Kyan to see. Jason held Ky on the descent, because it was really bumpy. I ended up throwing up once we were on the ground. Once that happened I did feel a bit better.

Now, we were in Chicago, USA, which means CUSTOMS! We had our travel papers (the ones that you don't lose or open) We get up to the customs agent and he sends us and our paperwork to the customs office. The funny thing is the couple that was with us did not have to go to the office. They got to go right on through, and their papers looked just like ours. We only had to wait a couple of minutes and we were cleared to enter the country. We had to claim our luggage and get off to our connecting flight.

We had to get boarding passes for our last flight from Northwest and of course, the 3rd seat was a problem. Finally they figured it out and it was through security again. Security is not fun by yourself but it is really hard with a baby (as many of you know!) We left Korea at 11:40 AM Wednesday and after traveling for 12.5 hours we arrived in Chicago at 9:17 AM Wednesday We had to ask the customs agent who the new president was, since we were on the plane when it was announced, and we could not get the news while we were in the air. We made it to our gate with a little over a half an hour before boarding. We got on the plane and it was pretty much empty. there were probably only 15-20 people on the plane including us. This plane ride was SO bumpy. I could not even sit up for it, it made me so sick. Jason had Ky the whole ride -bless his heart! While the plane was bumping up and down, I was sure that I was going to lose my stomach again, and Ky was laughing the whole time. Once we landed I did end up getting sick again, but that was fine because I felt better after that too. We went down to get our luggage and we found the carousel that it was on and all three of our suitcases were just sitting there waiting for us. There was no one else from our flight with any luggage. It was nice that we did not have to wait.

Our dear friends- the Sorensen's- drove our car to the parking ramp for us so we would only have to pay for 1 night stay instead of 7 nights stay. So we were able to walk out to our car and load it up. We put Ky in his car seat for the first time. Jason rode in back with him since I get sick in the back of a car, and I drove home. We arrived at our house around 3:00 PM Wednesday.

The Norman family is home!!

Jason figured that we were doing some sort of traveling for 21 hours. So here is the break down of the time for the day!

Wake up and pre-travel - 2.5 hours
Travel from Agency in Korea to Norman house- 21 hours
Home at 3:00 and go to bed at 11:30 -8.5 hours

Total awake time= 32 hours.

Three words: TOTALLY WORTH IT!
And yes, I would do all over again!