We are home!

We arrived home Wednesday afternoon after nearly 28 hours of travel. We left our hotel at 8:30pm Tuesday (Hanoi time) for one last taxi ride to the airport. Our first flight was 4 hours (from Hanoi to Seoul). Linh cried almost the entire first hour of the flight. Thankfully flight was not full and we were able to spread out in to a couple of row. We were finally able to get Linh to sleep and placed her on a couple of seats. She was still sleeping when the plane landed. During our 5 hour layover in Korea, Linh slept another 2 1/2 hours at the gate. John and I tried to rest because we knew we were in for a 12 1/2 hour flight with a sleepy 17 month old. Overall she did good on the flight. We sat in the bulkhead seats with a bassinet. We did not have a seat for Linh - after a lot of debating we decided against the extra seat. Since she was under 2 we were not required to buy a seat for her. As it turned out, the bassinet was a better way to go for us. The first flight Linh was sprawled out over 2 seats, so even if we had purchased one for the long flight she would have been squished. She was able to stretch out somewhat in the bassinet and sleep. Only her little feet were hanging over the sides. It was adorable. She was awake the first 3 hours and played and ate a lot of Cheerios. Then she fell asleep and we placed her into bassinet. John and I quietly clapped our hands. The sweet woman across the aisle also clapped her hands. Linh slept 3 hours during which time we tried to sleep. Then she was up another 3 hours, then she slept the last 3 1/2 hours of the flight. She barely cried- we worked to keep her occupied with toys, bottles, walking around, books, crayons - anything we could think of for her. We were so relieved to hear the captain announce we were preparing to land in Chicago. Once in Chicago, we went thru the immigration process. We submitted the paperwork that we had guarded since receiving at the US Embassy in Vietnam. The immigration officer looked it over then congratulated us and indicated that Linh's Certificate of Citizenship would arrive in the mail. She is now a U.S. citizen. We then picked up our luggage and went thru customs. We rechecked luggage and then went to gate to wait for the 45 minute flight to Detroit. We met a couple at the gate that had been on our flight from Korea. They told us that Linh did very good on the long flight. It was nice to hear that other passengers noticed. We finally boarded our final flight. Linh was immediately taken by the man next to me. He was very friendly and entertained Linh. He has 3 young grandchildren and was perfectly happy to sit next to a squirmy child. He was full of questions about Linh and Vietnam in 2009. He served in the airforce during the Vietnam War and was stationed for 7 months in Saigon (nka Ho Chi Minh). He helped to get her to sleep the last 20 minutes of flight. Thank you kind man!


After 28 hours of travel, then sitting in a car seat for the first time in her life during rush hour traffic through downtown Detroit, touring her new home, being greeted with hugs and kisses by family, what else could a 17 month little girl do but fall asleep on mommy's lap while sitting at the table?