Home at last

We are home and happy in Hastings!

After a long trip that included several plane flights, security lines and customs hoops we arrived in Minneapolis around 11:00 on Saturday morning.  We were welcomed by Grandma and Grandpa Vesterby and two wonderful big brothers.  Liam and Rowan made welcome signs for their new little brother who was doing his best to take in and understand the whole experience.  Eli was such a trooper the entire trip and the trip home was no exception.

We had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to make our 7:30 am flight in Beijing.  Eli was ready to take the big plane to America as we had been talking about it for a few days.  We were met at the Beijing airport by a few of Eli’s loving caregivers.  While Mike and I are incredibly grateful that our son was so well cared for and loved the past two years, it was emotional to have to go through the goodbyes again…for everyone.  The three women came bearing many gifts and supplies they thought we might need to help us care for Eli—over the counter meds, a nebulizer they’d purchased, boots, treats, Chinese lanterns and a HUGE teddy bear that had been Eli’s in the foster home.  We had to ditch some of it since we didn’t have room in our carry-ons, but we lugged the enormous bear through every checkpoint between Beijing and Minneapolis and received many wild looks and a few comments about it along the way.  Both his tears and his mom’s were dry by the time we boarded our longest flight, thirteen hours from Beijing to Chicago.

Eli slept about half of this flight; Mike and I didn’t sleep at all.  In light of this, it was a small miracle that we survived with no major meltdowns from any of us.  Our flight was late arriving to Chicago and we were faced with a challenge in making our connecting flight to Minneapolis.  The customs line.   At this point in the journey, Mike and I were both convinced that we were not going to make our flight and had surrendered to the fact that we’d have another hurdle to overcome before arriving home.  However, with the help of a few speedy processers and airline workers who were evidently influenced by our bedraggled state, we ran to our gate as they were boarding the plane.  Mike and I sighed with relief as we sat among the plane load full of Bears fans.

When we finally made it home to Hastings we enjoyed a lot of laughter and smiles as we all watched Eli explore his new home.  He was so excited about all of the trucks and cars that he fought through his need to sleep in order to play.  Grandma made a great meal for us and he wouldn’t hardly take time to look at it because he didn’t want to leave the toys.  This morning we were welcomed backed to Minnesota with this amazing snow fall and we’ve had a great but tired day of nesting as a family.  We haven’t yet convinced Eli to put on winter gear and brave the snow, but it’s early yet.  We are so glad to be home.

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes and we’ll post a few more entries and video as we settle in to “normal” life.  And thanks to my great mom for posting all of our writing and pictures while we were in China.