Home at Last!

I am happy to announce that the de la Rosa family is finally home. Not the de la Rosa couple, the de la Rosa-party of 3-FAMILY. Amelie was an absolute trooper on the long journey home. I think I whined more than she did. Our trip home started with a bus ride to the Guangzhou airport where the 4 families who left on Friday encountered the oh-so-fun immigration counter stops and multiple security checks to get out of China. I swear, the next time I have to flash my passport so many times, it better get some stamps that say "Tahiti" and "Ireland". We boarded a quick flight to Hong Kong which got in past midnight. We got to the hotel at 1 am and our wake up call was at 6 am....yeah, that was a fun call. So up we went back to the Hong Kong airport to board the 16 hour flight back to JFK. Amelie slept almost the entire time. We were amazed. We tried to sleep, but when it's 50 degrees on the plane and people are coughing and sneezing all around you (oh, and I was one of them), it's kind of hard to dooze off in the upright position holding a sack of Chinese potatoes. I did get to watch The Hangover again though so there is a plus. Bradley Cooper, you fine! We touched down at JFK airport around 2 pm, or maybe am depending on which time zone your body is still on. Went through immigration again, where they super-friendly officers (eye roll) announced that baby girl is a US Citizen. We got some soup and a turkey sub (was craving those since in China they don't really do sandwiches or ministrone soup) and went to the gate for our flight to WPB and all three of us passed right out for a good hour. The three hour flight home was a breeze. We sat next to a fresh faced Delta Gamma sorority gal who entertained Amelie the entire time. Amelie sat on my lap and played with her new friend Molly and never once cried.

We had probably 30 people greet us at the airport, which we were pleasantly surprised to see. Amelie loved the attention, she is very curious about other people and had on a big grin. It was so wonderful to finally be home. Our amazing friends stuffed our freezer and fridge with delicious foods and Amy put a ton of welcome home signs all over. The three of us passed out around 11:30 and McStinky slept til almost 6 am, even though she did nothing but sleep on the plane ride back to the US. We all took a 5 hour nap on Sunday, which was probably dumb, but the three of us had no problems sleeping through the night that night either.

I did want to mention that my biggest concern was our giant dogs, and if they would like each other. We found out the next day when they were licking her that she loves them. She giggles when they kiss on her and she is always reaching out to grab them. Somehow, knock on wood, things are great so far.

Thank you once again to all who have supported us on this journey!