We're Back

We rolled into town Thursday pm after a long, loong flight from Hong Kong, 15.5 hours to be exact. Donna Haggerty met us at the airport, bless her and hung with me and the girls while Jamie retrieved the car from long term parking.
The flight was about what you would expect, 15 hours crammed into a tin can in tiny seats with two children and a variety of food stuff smeared or crumbled artistically about. Our travel agent's strategy (David Tam, Tam Travel in Chinatown) of booking seats A C D F payed off - we had two rows and could stretch out, at least the girls could - they both got nice naps on the plane. Jamie and I managed a few scattered minutes of snoozing.
A word of warning about the Hong Kong airport. After we had cleared inspection, I went and bought juice and water - and it was confiscated at the door of the airplane. You can take on a baby bottle so at least Lian had her nuby cup, but Lela was very thirsty.
Continental has a weird idea of child friendly meals. Their dinner was a spicy chicken patty with mashed potatoes, the snack a ham and tomato sandwich, served mouth scalding hot. Breakfast was closer to the mark with french toast. Luckily we were still toting 10 pounds of snacks, so they had cheese crackers and dried fruit as back up.
Off we flew into yesterday, backwards in time. We flew into the night over the Pacific, saw the mountains of Alaska bathed in the light of the still almost full moon and welcomed the sun somewhere over Canada. Then plunging down to New Jersey. We had to go through the new immigrant line with three other families that had adopted. Unlike our experience at JFK with Lela, they made an attempt to get us into quick lines and out smoothly. Baggage all showed up promptly and we shelled out the $3 for a cart to push it 500 feet - all through China, baggage carts are free. There was Donna waiting with a big welcome sign and camera, so we have an official photo of Lian becoming a citizen. The drive from NJ to LI was mercifully short, since it can be a 3+ hour epic depending on traffic. Lian wasn't crazy about the car seat but tolerated it.
They were both asleep when we pulled in to the driveway. I went in to calm down the dog and greet the cats since we'd been told Lian was afraid of animals. Sure enough, her first glimpse of them she screamed bloody murder. She seems less scared of the cats - who are totally uninterested in her, but the poor dog keeps trying to be friendly and getting locked in the kitchen for her efforts. It also seems better if one of us is holding her too. Hopefully this will pass quickly. It's going to be immersion shock therapy.