Saturday, June 21

Today is the day we head home. We got about half of our stuff packed last night and the rest is almost packed or ready to be packed. I remembered to take pictures of our room and our breakfast buffet that we have looked forward to each morning. Please don't ask what most of the stuff is because I don't know. I usually eat rice, eggs, ham, toast, fruit and coffee. I'm sure the other stuff is very good, but I just haven't tried most of it.

The ladies in the breakfast room loved Myah

After breakfast we went back to the Flower and Jade Markets where we met up with Kerry. I actually bought stuff this time instead of just looking. Once our shopping was done, we headed back to the hotel to finish packing our things. All the suitcases were stuffed! Thank goodness I had packed an extra suitcase inside one of the other ones for the trip over.

At 1:00 our send off crew showed up - Kerry, Toby, Heidi, Evan, Kevin and Ivan. It was great to see them again and a wonderful surprise to have them take us to the airport. I was joking with the boys that they're such great helpers, I might need to take them home with me. Actually, if I pulled out a ticket for them, it wouldn't have surprised me if they took me up on that offer. We will miss them all a lot, but hopefully will see them if they come to the US next year (or whenever we make it back to Taiwan).

Our fantastic helpers

Myah sleeping in her bassinet on the plane

As we were checking in, there was another couple in line in front of us that had just completed an adoption too. Amazingly, they were also using the same agency we were using. It was nice to compare notes, exchange e-mail addresses and commiserate with someone else about how long of a flight this was going to be with a baby.

Myah did really good on the flight. Of course she chose take-off as the opportune time to request a new diaper - thankfully the fasten seatbelt light went off fairly quickly. We had a decent flight, although at the time, it seemed to last forever. After going through customs at LAX (congrats on becoming a citizen Myah) we hiked over to the Southwest terminal and checked-in for our next flight which was three and a half hours away. After arriving in Phoenix, we were surprised with balloons, treats and a sign from Alex, Katie and Leo (friends who recently adopted from Taiwan). Katie also did some grocery shopping for us so we wouldn't go home empty handed - I can't even begin to tell you how thankful we are for that. It was so nice to not have to worry about running to the store first thing next morning.


Myah thought it was funny to be buckled into her carseat (they don't use them in Taiwan) until she realized she had to stay there by herself. Then the tears started, but quickly gave way to sleep. We arrived at our house around 10:30pm exhausted, but thankful to be home.