We're Home!

We made it home to snowy Wisconsin about 11:30pm tonight. We left Seoul today, Wed, Dec. 5th at 3:15pm, so we made good time (if you call a 9.5 hour flight to LA, followed by a 7 hour layover and a 3.5 hour flight home and then a 1.5 hour drive "good time"). The whole time zone/international date line thing intrigues me, but our body clocks will be messed up for several days to come.

This morning (Wed) we went to Ben's foster mother's restaurant. It was a little further away than we thought so we got there a little later than we had hoped. It's a nice little place serving a salad bar and deep fried foods. She gave us a sampling of the food -- very good. It definitely more western than Korean. We also got to meet her sister who is her partner in the business. We may have been the first customers as no one was there when we arrived. We hope she does well.

We left a little before noon and headed back to the hotel. We missed our intended airport shuttle so we grabbed a cab and rushed to the airport. We made it to the gate with a few minutes to spare. There was a later flight, but it didn't connect with the Midwest flight coming home from LA, so we rushed to save us an extra night on the road. At that point, we were ready to get home and have Ian start adjusting to his new home.


Ian had an ok flight. He slept on and off but pretty much only in Dana's arms. He has this fussy, sad cry when he is upset. It is heartbreaking because you just feel sad for him. To this point, he doesn't seem to be a screamer like Cami so that's a big plus. Ben and Cami did wonderful on the flight again. Watching their videos and sleeping for a good portion of the flight. Ben intrigues me - we basically gave the kids free reign over the in flight entertainment "kids" section and he chose to watch two documentaries before watching a cartoon. Cami on the other had was watching Garfield shortly after takeoff!

We arrived in LA and made it through customs/immigration without incident. Our sister-in-law Alison brought her kids Austin and Kylie up from Irvine (about an hour south) and we got to have lunch with them. So they were the first to officially meet Ian besides our travel party.

Upon check-in, we found out the flight from LA to Milwaukee was delayed 2-3 hours because of bad weather in Wisconsin. So we took a leisurely lunch and the kids enjoyed the extra time with their cousins. Around 3:10pm, we left LA and made it back to Milwaukee around 9pm. After the requisite potty stops, luggage loading, and a stop for food because it was mid-day in Korea, we made it home at 11:30pm. Cami and Ian slept and woke up. Ben stayed awake. Ben and Cami were excited to be home and were wired for a good hour, but fell fast asleep once we actually got them into bed.

So we're home. We are thankful for our safe travels and for having Ian in our arms even if he's not so sure about us yet.