Our journey home...

We are praising God for a safe journey home! After a 42 hour journey, we are very tired but so thankful to be reunited with our family of 8.
Our journey began on Friday, August 1 (US time was Thursday, July 31 in the afternoon at 4:30) when we put the luggage outside the door at 4:30AM. We loaded the bus headed to the airport at 5:30AM. 5 of our 6 families were flying together to Tokyo, Japan. Benjamin saying goodbye to China wearing his jammies. He loved looking out the window during the flight.
Sharla, Abby's mom looking mighty pretty so early in the morning.
Amazing view out the window.
And we landed in Tokyo 4 hours later. We said goodbye to Claire's family as they got on a different plane.
Ben was such a trooper and a good boy. He slept in the floor under my feet many hours of the flight. I tried to pick him up to hold him and he wanted to sleep on the floor. It was cozy and dark with his blankies and "bubba"/rag.

12 hours later, we landed in Detroit.

Considering such a long flight, our Benjamin was very happy. As soon as we got off the plane, little guy, Noah Benjamin Hui became a US Citizen!!!

We picked up our luggage and checked it back in for the connecting flight home. We checked in for the flight so all we had to do was walk on the plane in 8 hours.

We decided to stay at the Westin Hotel INSIDE the airport. It was very nice and we needed sleep quickly. One reason we chose to stay there instead of leaving the airport, was because we were right there near our gate, right out the front door of the hotel. We had already been through security (taking off our shoes, jackets, emptying our backpacks of liquids and gels, GameBoys, DVD player, laptop computer,....anything that would set off the alarm....which took awhile...waiting in line behind lots of people...ugh) so this, we thought would make it simple to leave on our flight after our 8 hour layover.

We slept 4 hours of the 8 and gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the gate for our connecting flight home. We got up, got dressed, and went to the front of the hotel expecting to leave with no problems. To our surprise, the front door of the hotel was closed and we were not permitted to use that door..ugh. So now we had to LEAVE the hotel out the back door and guess what..go through security again...stand in line and go through the whole thing again. There was a lady in front of us that had (ironically) tons of jewelry on so when she walked through, the alarm sounded. She took forever to take off all her jewelry. Then the security staff checked us all out..which took much longer than it should have.

At this point, we realized that they had moved our gate..to guess where...on the other side, the very end, the very, very end of the airport. We ran and ran and ran and it took us 20 minutes running with our carry on luggage and a baby to the other end of the airport. It was not supposed to be so challenging...

When we arrived at the gate,....the door was closed!!!! We were in shock as they had closed the gate early. It was the last flight out of this airport and obviously the Northwest staff wanted to go home. We begged but the hard hearted Northwest staff was not compassionate. We told her we had been flying for 30 hours, no sleep with a new baby...no compassion. We stood there at least another 10 to 15 minutes seeing our plane outside the window and sadly watched it leave without us.

As we were standing there, another couple was there. The same thing happened to them. They were getting on a different plane and their gate was actually open when they arrived. They would not allow them on. I felt so bad for them, too, as the lady had just had surgery.

We told the whole story to the Northwest staff at a different location in the airport and thankfully she didn't charge us to change our flight to the next day. We were devastated to say the least. I was almost in tears, Joel B was crying as we walked back to the hotel, hoping they would give us our room back. We ate at the hotel restaurant and went to bed.

The next day, we were at the gate...LOL...two hours early....even though we easily and quickly went out the front door of the hotel. I sat, for fun and watched several flights go out. I looked at my watch and saw many people miss their flights, ...same thing that happened to us. I will never use Northwest again and will never encourage anyone to use them. Joel and I have flown many, many times and never have we experienced this.

As we waited our two hours before we got on the plane, we had McDonalds breakfast and little Benjamin had fun climbing on our carry on luggage. He is so strong and such a climber.

The flight was peaceful and as I sat looking out the window, I thought of why didn't God want us on that flight. If we flew the night before, we would not have seen God's creation out the window. As we flew lower and closer to home, I thanked God for our home and where we live and how beautiful it is. Amazing!! It was so green! The sky was heavenly. I imagined what it might be like as Jesus comes again some day soon...out of the beautiful blue sky. As disappointed as we were, His timing is best and He loves us. We landed 42 hours later from the time we left China.

This is our first site off the plane....
My parents, Alexis, Alaina, Hudson, Chris, Jennifer, Lydia and Isabella were waiting. Hudson hugged each of us...and squealed with delight.

My two baby boys....felt so good. Aren't they cute in their matching shirts? Hudson tilted his head and so sweetly talked to Benjamin as he caressed his back. Alaina was so sweet,too....and loved on her little brother. Alexis grabbed him quickly as she has so been dreaming of this special moment. Ben didn't want to leave his mama's arms so she sadly gave him back.

Then...Renee, Kayla, Jessie and Emily came to greet us.
Benjamin loved his balloon from Deb....his first smile for everybody to see.
Regina, Bobby, Josh, Allie and Emma came to welcome us home.
Scott and Greyson came to help us drive everybody home. Our van holds 8 people....my parents made 10..so we needed help getting home.

Ben's first carseat ride. He didn't like leaving my arms and being strapped in a carseat at all. After we were driving, he was fine and sat there so peaceful. He loves looking out the windows.

As we pulled into the drive way, we saw the balloons and a baby boy sign on the front door. Jennifer and family decorated for our return. Such a sweet welcoming home.
Lisa, Scott's wife, met us at the house to meet our little guy.
The little people hit if off right away. Aren't they cute sucking on their finger (Hudson), thumb (Alaina), and bubba rag (Benjamin)? What bonding...

They played and played outside. Ben didn't want to touch the grass as I'm sure this was the first time seeing grass. Hudson was so cute being so gentle with Benjamin and giving him toys.

Back in the house, Benny was introduced to our play room, "Toy Land Central". I sat in the PlayYard with them for awhile and they so enjoyed playing together.

Benny wanted to feed himself like Hudson. We ate greenbeans, rice, muffins and Ms. Jennifer's homemade bread..yum!
Our first dinner together. We are still figuring out seating arrangements.
My mom swinging with Hudson while Benny and I took a nap.

My parents said goodbye and we all got ready for bed. Ben loves the standing bath and actually laughs when I put water over his head.
He was so tired that smiling was not going to happen at this point...so we settled for this. He is so cute no matter what expression.
We had a great night's sleep. I rocked him to sleep in the rocker and then slowly put him in the pack n play beside my bed. He woke up at 4AM wanting in the bed with me and slept the rest of the night with us. He got about 12 hours sleep and woke up such a happy boy!