Going Home

First, I want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Just knowing I had an army out there behind us was enough to motivate me to keep going. Some days I wanted to just give up....and some days I was determined enough to get past a certain immigration worker haha! I appreciate all of your wonderful comments and encouragement. You may never know how much it truly means to me!

So, we were there at the Embassy at 1:30 on Wednesday. We had to go first to Home Land Secuity to pick up the Visa approval at 9:30 or 10 so we were way early getting to the Embassy. We sat and watched the various people coming and going. We saw an older couple (an American man and Thai woman) who looked as if they had been married for years and years. They were so cute together. Then we met a nice young family there. The man was an American and the woman was Thai and their baby was just so cute! Naturally, there was your garden variety pedofile and pervert hovering in the area. We waited forever it seemed and finally the Embassy windows closed. I double checked to make sure we had the right day and time and it was correct. Wednesday the 18th at 3pm. Pretty soon it was 3 and the windows still didn't open. 3:30 rolled around and I started to worry. Then a nice guy came out and called Nok and we collected her Visa. He smiled and said very sweetly "Congratulations!" We were happy parents!

That night we moved to a really nice hotel out by the airport. It took some doing to actually find it but it was awesome and the ride the next day was about 20-30 minutes to the airport. The hotel was called Avana (pronounced Awanna). Swimming pool, sauna, breakfast included! We loved it!


The flight out of Bangkok was a no brainer and Nok can sleep anywhere anytime! In Taipei she was being stalked by some guy headed to California from Vietnam but fortunately we weren't seated in the same area on the plane. From Taipei to L.A. was a real killer although it was 2 hours shorter than when we went to Thailand. Must have something to do w/ headwinds and tailwinds. I was happy about it though. We napped a bit and Nok slept like the dead! We loved the in flight movies and the service on EVA rocks! Nok had a rough time w/ the hamburger they served her and wasn't interested in having me show her how to eat it. Instead, she used her fork and knife and ate the bottom bun in little triangles then the burger then the top bun. It was really fun watching her expression when she tasted yogurt. I thought she was going to loose her lunch but she choked down the first swallow and shook her head and handed the container back to me.

When we got to L.A. we headed straight for a bathroom the didn't float and then went through customs. There was one family there before us so we only had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes. Then they told us to collect our bags. We were confused. They had told us in Bangkok that our bags would go on through to Denver but the customs agent said they tell everyone that but at the first customs stop you have to pick up your bags and then you can go on to your next flight. Talk about strange, but it was good that we did. Tommy's bag had been destroyed in the International flight and we were very surprised he didn't lose anything. They rushed out a brand new bag and he transferred it over. We started running for terminal 7, Nok was even running, but when we made it to the baggage check line we knew we wouldn't make our flight out. We had 20 minutes to make it and stood in line for an hour and a half. When we made it to the counter we told the lady what happened. They were all very rude and told us they would put us on stand by but the last flight out was in an hour a half and was overbooked. They told us to take some things out of our bags to stay the night at LAX and our luggage would go on through to Denver.....but it was very unlikely that we would be on the plane. I began sobbing and told the lady my 7 year old was waiting for me. She instantly softened and said she had done all she could, to go wait and good luck.

We sat down in the gate waiting area and ate McDonald's cheeseburgers and barely tasted what we were eating. We had so craved those burgers but our disappointment was too great. I began praying like crazy. I called my mother-n-law to tell her to let my sister-n-law and Cody know we didn't make our flight and she said "you're kidding!? Darlene and Cody headed to the airport early and they're there waiting!" I began crying again and whispered something back in response. She said she would pray for a miracle. Apparently she got off the phone and called some of my family and asked them to pray for a miracle as well. About 20 minutes later they began boarding the plane and we waited, barely breathing. Finally, they called Tommy and myself to the counter and she said "I don't have three seats together, I'm very sorry" and we said "We don't care! Just get us home!" We boarded the plane feeling like a great burden had been lifted and another had replaced it. Nok seemed very upset. When we had first arrived in L.A. she was looking for Cody and asking me where she was. I explained to her that we weren't quite home yet and she was disappointed but when I began crying at the baggage check-in counter that's when she knew something was wrong. She cried on the way to Denver and then fell asleep.

When we got to Denver I nearly wanted to kiss the floor in the airport! LAX is just such a nasty airport! We felt so dirty and filmy. But we had never been happier to see Denver (I didn't care for Denver much before). I told Nok that Cody was there. She looked at me w/ these great big watery brown eyes and looked like she didn't believe me. I repeated it w/ enthusiasm and she hurried and started looking. And then we saw them. I cupped my hand over my mouth, trying to hold back the tears but Cody was coming closer and I just couldn't stop crying. I took her in my arms and sobbed. Then, I introduced the girls and they were instantly attached! Tommy stayed in the sidelines the whole time, but I was certain that if he had bent down to take Cody in his arms right away he would've broken down right there in the airport. But he recovered better than I did! We collected our bags and started out across the parking lot. I looked back at the girls and Nok had her arm on Cody's back, ushering her across the parking lot just like we had been doing for Nok for the last 3 weeks. They were conversing in two different languages and smiling like crazy! Nok was speaking Thai as fast as she could and Cody was jabbering English right back to her! It was the sweetest moment ever!