Check out time was 12:00. So at 12:00 we went downstairs to check out, but our driver would not arrive for 2 more hours, so we went back to the second floor lounge area to hang out. After checking email and my Facebook, of course (still not addicted!), chillin for a while, it was finally getting close to 2:00, so we headed downstairs to wait for our driver. This picture was in the lobby of the Somerset. Her eyes are an atomic bomb exploding - kind of weird.
At 5 minutes till 2 he arrived. We loaded our bags, got in, and we were off, headed to the airport to go home.
It only took about 45 minutes to get to the airport from our hotel! Yeah, he drove fast! So we got to the airport really early for our 7:15pm flight. So we just chilled out for a while, tried to relax, etc. Aiden was doing really good, he slept on the way to the airport. We checked in and then found our gate. Aiden was in a good mood, playing, smiling, laughing, but boy he was heavy! :)
Here's our big bird that's going to take us home! (at this point I was really dreading the long flight!) I had no idea how Aiden was going to act on the flight, would he sleep, would he cry the whole time, etc?
It finally was time to board the plane, 7 pm. We got on, settled in, and Aiden fell asleep after a little bit of crying. As we were taking off, I became overcome with sadness. Aiden was leaving his birth country, everything he's every known, and everyone who loved him was being left behind. I didn't cry although I teared up. I soon relaxed and was really glad to be going home. Long story short, he slept 12 hours of the 13 hour flight! But Mike and I didn't sleep at all. Aiden was sprawled out across our laps sleeping, practically the whole time. I was so thankful for that, but would have killed for a bed too! At one point Mike and I got up and went to the bathroom, I changed Aiden, which he didn't like at all, but when we got back to our seats, he fell asleep again - thank you lord! :) At one point during the flight there was a little boy, maybe 3 that was having a hard time. He kept saying, "mommy, mommy, mommy!" and with each "mommy" he got louder and louder. His mother was trying her best to make him comfortable, but then the stewardess' came by to see if they could help. I was so thankful Aiden slept most of the way - BIG RELIEF!! :)
Mike and I did okay on the long flight, considering we didn't have any sleep. About an hour outside of Atlanta, I started to feel bad, my sinuses had bugged me the whole flight and then I started to get a sinus headache, bad enough my teeth started to ache. I did remember to pack sinus headache med. Aiden woke up by this point and was fully awake, hands into everything. So the last hour wasn't good for me at all, since I was feeling really bad at this point. Jetlag, sleep deprivation, sick, I felt really bad, Mike was doing okay, but not 100 % by any means.
Mike followed the flight all the way home. Great tail wind!! :)
We arrived in Altanta, very tired, Aiden was still doing good, got him in the carrier, Mike got our bags in hand and we got off the plane in Atlanta!! Yah - US ground never felt so good, or so I thought! Let me just say this - ATLANTA AIRPORT SUX!!!!!!!! We got in line to check in. There must have been 2 or 3 other planes that arrived when ours did, there were at least 500 people standing in the US passport line and Foreign passport line. Aiden soon started crying at this point. He was surrounded by people, something I learned quick he did not like! I got some snacks out of my bag and soon fed him some. That worked for a while, then the crying started again. I felt so bad for him, but that line was so long, it was hot in there, and we'd not had any sleep. It was awful! A lady was checking passports 3 or 4 turns in line before people got to the customs counter. When we finally got to her, she checked our passports and pulled us out of line, got another worker and asked us to follow him. Okay, what the heck? He soon lead us to the front of the line! Okay, bless this woman and man that worked there! They were saviors, everyone else - was not!! When we finally got to the counter, the guy checking us in was a complete jerk. If he'd worked any slower, I would have fallen asleep! He asked where we came from, we told him South Korea, he asked what we were doing there, I pointed to Aiden and said adoption. He then proceeded to ask us, kind of cocky, "so how much does it cost to adopt these days? What? $30,000 $40,000?" Seriously?!?!?! Did I just hear him corrrectly?!? I spoke up quickly," HOW MUCH DOES ANY CHILD COST THESE DAYS!" He didn't say much after that. He told us we needed to go to the immigration room after leaving his counter and pointed to where we needed to go.
Now, we get to this office and the room is full, full of all nationalities. We waited there for 30 minutes, and the 3 people that worked behind that desk were absolutely ridiculous!! They were so rude to these people! They really were insulting, degrading, and abusive to everyone, like we were all stupid or something! Mike about lost it. We were worried about our luggage, would it still be there, did we need to go find it? What were we supposed to do? Aiden was fine. I changed his diaper, his clothes and then changed his diaper again! I felt like smashing his dirty one in one lady's face, she was the worst one of all the 3 workers! They all talked down to everyone. Mike went to ask the lady if we should go check about our luggage. She didn't even acknowledge him at the counter and said something really rude, "if you have a question about luggage, you need to go ask them down there!" I thought Mike was going to lose it, I've never seen him that mad. They finally called us and we got out of there as fast as we could. We went down to baggage claim and a nice lady had already wrote our gate number on our luggage and told us where to go. We went through another line, got to the security check, I had to take Aiden out of his carrier, take my shoes off, check everything and then put it all back on. We finally found our gate, I sat down, and we had 15minutes till boarding our plane bound for Nashville! We actually had a 3 1/2 layover in Atlanta, yes, it took us 3 hours to get to our final gate to board our plane! Never have I ever been so exhausted, mad, frustrated, and sick! I can not begin to tell you how we felt!
We boarded our plane to Nashville, Aiden fell asleep again. It was in the air 30 minutes then down we went. Yes, Nashville! We're home! We found our luggage, walked a little further and there they all were, our family and friends! I lost it at that point, tears flowed like a river! I'd held it back for a week, and then it all came out. We'd been up for over 24 hours with no sleep, got shuffled through Atlanta's mess, then we were home. I don't have all the pictures from family and friends, but here's a few.
Aiden sees his big sister for the first time!
My dad, the biggest supporter of all! :)
