The trip home

So, I'm a little behind on my posts. But I'm sure you understand!

I left off after we were united with Little Man. The next morning was our big trip home. This was the part of the whole process that The Man and I were pretty freaked out about. I was just so worried that it would be hard on the baby. And that we wouldn't know how to comfort him or help him get through it.

Little Man woke up with a smile even though we got him up at 5 a.m. He ate well and we packed all our luggage and hopped a taxi to the airport. The Man and I were pretty emotional on that drive. Knowing that it was the last time that Little Man would see Seoul for a long time was hard for us. It's such a wonderful city! And the people there are truly the kindest we've met while traveling abroad. It's hard knowing that there is so much to offer him in the United States, but he's still losing a huge part of his culture that we can't give to him. If we could pack Seoul into our bag, we would. But short of that, all we can do is encourage him to learn about his birth country, and help foster a pride of his Korean heritage.

So after a teary taxi ride, we got to the airport, a record 3+ hours early! We checked in easily and then spent time walking around the airport and playing in the children's area. Little Man loves to watch other kids, and he happily joined other toddlers at play.

All the while, The Man and I were getting a bit more nervous about the flight. Finally, we boarded and started the adventure.

I'm happy to say that it was head and shoulders above what we expected. He's such a great traveler! No tears on take-off or landing, and a pretty uneventful trip in between. He only slept about 4 hours, so the remaining 11.5 hours we were walking up and down the aisles of the plane. As long as we kept moving, he was pretty happy. The flight attendants lavished him with attention, and he flashed quick smiles at the passengers while we walked.

The hardest part about the whole trip was when he needed a diaper change. We aren't the fastest at the changings yet, and he likes to roll over and around which makes the whole thing more of an acrobatic feat. So it takes both of us to get him changed. Each time he needed a clean diaper, all three of us crammed into the airport bathroom that had a changing table in it. There wasn't much room to move around and it got really hot in there! My first time getting The Man into an airport potty at 36,000-feet, and all I got out of the deal was a poopy diaper! Ha!

We hit Chicago finally and were pretty beat. One last leg of our trip home to go. Little Man had never been in a car seat before so that was sort of tough on him. The only time he's really screamed in the few days we had had him. But it only lasted a few minutes and he happily started snacking on Cheerios, and then crashed 20 minutes into the trip.

Since then, we've been trying to settle in. It's so amazing to see Little Man here in our house! He loves his room and we play in there a lot. Our sleep schedules are off quite a bit, so the past two days have mostly been sleeping and eating, all at strange hours. We can't wait to get on a normal schedule, and hopefully it's sometime soon.