Home Sweet Home!!

After a long and very stressful trip, we made it home Thursday night around 10:30 pm. We have been so busy the last few days that I have barely had a chance to check my email much less update the blog but now Sam is happily playing with his Cheerios in his highchair so hopefully I can finish this post before he gets bored and starts throwing them on the floor.

Jaime picked us up at 4:00 am on Thursday morning to take us to the airport. Obviously there was no traffic so it only took about 20 or 30 minutes to get to there. He pulled up to the door and asked one of the airport employees to take us to the American Airlines desk while he parked the van. He told us to tip him 10,000 pesos (approx. $5 USD) and that was the best $5 we spent all day because there was a long line of people waiting to check in and he took us past them all to the front of the line. It took a good 30 minutes at the AA desk... they checked over some of our adoption documents and then had to change our seat assignments. After that Jaime took us to the security line where we said goodbye to him. We didn't have any issues getting through security so I was thankful for that. Then we stopped at the Immigration desk to give them a copy of Sam's birth certificate and our Sentencia. It took them about 15 minutes to look over everything then they stamped our passports and we were on our way. We still had about 2 hours so we got a couple bottles of water and some yogurt and sat down in the food court area. Then we decided to head to our gate and it was a good thing we did because I forgot they have an additional security check when you go to the gate area. The line was pretty long but they told us we could go to the front of the line since we had small children. Nice! They looked through our carry-on luggage and actually let me bring in a bottle of water once I explained it was for Sam's bottle. Otherwise, you are not able to bring any liquids into the gate area (even if they are purchased in the secure area). Our plane took off a few minutes late but otherwise we couldn't have asked for a better experience in the Bogota airport. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about Miami...

We arrived in Miami a few minutes late and quickly went to Immigration. We had been warned that it sometimes takes up to 2 hours to get through immigration so we made sure to schedule what we thought would be a long enough layover (a little over 3 hours). We went into a small room which was packed with people... no bathroom or water fountain... and there were TWO immigration officers working. Right away we knew we were in trouble but tried to remain hopeful that we would be out of there in 2 hours so we could make our connecting flight. 2 hours passed and are file still hadn't moved... both kids were hungry, thirsty, tired and not happy. But that didn't seem to matter to the immigration officers as they continued to work at a snails pace. Finally 3 hours later they called our name... we left the office at 3:55 pm which was the time our flight to Chicago took off. We went to collect our luggage and then to the AA desk to see when the next flight was. The guy told us we would not be able to get home until Friday so we would need to stay overnight in Chicago... we were so upset!! We took our checked bags to security, then through yet another security line. By then both kids were crying so we were trying to calm them down as we were taking our shoes off, getting our laptops out of our bag, folding up the stroller... do you think even 1 of the 20 TSA agents standing around offered to help? No such luck... they just watched me fold up the stroller and put it up on the conveyor belt while holding a crying baby. Then we got to our gate about 15 minutes before our flight took off so we grabbed whatever food and drinks we could and ate on the plane. We heard that Chicago was having some bad weather and that a lot of the flights were delayed so our only hope was that our original flight to Fargo was delayed and they would still have our seats available.

We got off our plane in Chicago at 8:00 pm and checked to see if the other plane was still there and luckily it was but it was scheduled to leave at 8:25 pm. So Josh ran to the gate and Joey, Sam and I walked as quickly as we could. Josh explained the situation to the gate agent and thankfully he had a heart and gave us the last 3 seats and held the plane for us. We were so incredibly relieved to finally be on our last leg of the trip and couldn't wait to land in Fargo. Once we began our decent into Fargo you can't imagine how happy I was... we were finally home with our son and it felt so good to be home.

Both of the boys slept the whole way from Chicago to Fargo so they were wide awake when we got home. Joey was anxious to show Sam all of his toys but Sam was more interested in our carpet. We put Sam to bed around midnight and he slept through the night until about 7:00 am. I think we were all just happy to be able to sleep in our own beds.

Sam is adjusting so much better than we expected... I think he knows he's home. He's been sleeping through the night and taking great naps. He's also been eating pretty good so we've been able to cut down on the formula a little. I don't think he's really that impressed with all the toys... he's much more interested in looking in all of our drawers, cabinets, under the couch... he's definitely a little explorer.

Joey is also doing so much better. He's really taking on the role of big brother and likes to help out. I think he's beginning to see some of the benefits of being the big kid... like getting to stay up later than his little brother.

Yesterday, my dad and grandpa brought Bruizer to Fargo. Sam was able to meet his Papa and Great Papa and we were so happy to see our little pup (we were happy to see my dad and grandpa too)!! I missed him so much while we were gone and Joey must have noticed because he said "Mommy look! It's your little Bruizer... do you want to give him a big hug and kiss?" Sam loves Bruizer... or maybe I should say he loves his tail. I'm not sure what Bruizer thinks of Sam yet but he seemed to be happy to see Joey. I think it will just take some time for Bruizer to get used to yet another little boy who wants to terrorize him.