We're Home
December 14, 2010  |  March 19, 2011

Tuesday. December 14, 2010 WE ARE FINALLY HOME Today started early in the Branscombe household, 12.30am to be precise! Grace is still on China time and was wide awake and ready to explore her new home. So as I write its 3.00 am and we are all wide awake listening to a cd of nursery rhymes in Chinese and English. But before I get into Grace at home we need to tell you about our journey home. Our journey home was long and interesting, to say the least. We left the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou at about 9.30am Sunday Morning (that’s 8.30pm Saturday Florida time), we made it to the airport in plenty of time to check in and get to the gate. Soon after we checked in and started to clear security Grace began to get upset, she just didn’t understand why we needed to put her in stroller, then take her out, then put here back again. She began to cry and we struggled to calm her down. It all came to a head at the end of a moving walkway when Grace being held by Mama decided to upturn a whole load of Cheerios that Mama was holding. It’s quite a site to see a small mountain of Cheerios gather at the end of a moving walkway. We managed to calm Grace down with the help of lady in the airport lounge. Our flight was due to leave Guangzhou at 12.50 pm for arrival in Seoul, South Korea at 5:00 p.m. but we never made it into the air until 2.15 pm. Grace did OK for the first two hours but became pretty upset for the last hour. I knew we only had 1 hour and 35 minutes for our connection to San Francisco so I was getting a little anxious. Once we landed Grace was not happy about being carried, the stroller was not at the gate and she started to cry. The airline had a cart waiting for us to try and whisk us off to another terminal to make our flight. During the process someone handed Grace a bar of chocolate which she did not eat but held onto fiercely melting the whole thing on Margaret’s jacket. We rushed up and down elevators and onto a train to make it to the next terminal only to find our aircraft there with its door closed and there was no way we were going to be allowed on. To be honest it was something of a relief to not step straight onto a 10 hours flight. The airline who had caused our missed connection, Asiana, were great and provided a hotel room in the transit hotel and gave us vouchers for food. The hotel worked out well as it is inside the terminal after you clear security. We had a reasonable few hours’ sleep and got ourselves to a rebooked flight. This time from Seoul to Atlanta on Korean Air leaving at 10.05 am on Monday 13th. We were not looking forward to the 13 hours of this flight but on the whole Grace did very well. She slept for a few hours and then was entertained by walking around or being carried around by us. At any time she got upset the staff on the plane took great care of her and reassured us. She was in pretty good spirits when we landed in Atlanta at 9.15am the same day! That’s rights - we landed almost an hour before we left, we got back the day we lost on the way out as we crossed the International Time Date line. She did great as we came through immigration and she became a citizen of the USA. She saved her worse meltdown for the security check that followed. She got herself totally wound up when she had to take her shoes off. The tears turned to screaming sobs as we moved through Atlanta airport, nothing would console her and we were very worried about the flight. So worried I apologized in advance to all the passengers around our row. The miracle was she went quiet as soon as we sat her down on the plane and settled to sleep on her chair. She arrived in Tampa in fine form and although quiet when we met Susan and Michele for our ride home, by the time we were home she was ready to entertain her new friends. The most amazing journey of our lives ended as we walked into our house at 3.30 pm on Monday afternoon. Now begins a wonderful journey for the three of us as a family together at home! We are going to lay low for a week or two as Grace needs time to explore her new home and get into a family routine with us. We want to keep things pretty low key at home at first without too many new people for her to meet and greet. We promise that as soon as she is ready we will begin to expand her circle of new friends. We hope everyone will understand that this year we have not managed to send Christmas cards, we have been otherwise engaged. We will write in the new year with pictures and news of Grace settling into Clearwater with us. With love and thanks for the many wonderful comments, Mike, Margaret and Grace Branscombe

Waiting at Guangzhou Airport thinking we are headed to Seoul then San Francisco Some of these airport signs are a little confusing at Guangzhou Seated and ready to fly to Seoul Crashed out in Seoul Airport hotel Travel is so tedious Home at last, meeting Susan and Michelle

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