coming home

So our sweet Gabe continued to worsen with his cough and congestion day by day and by 2:30am the night before we left, I was up online finding where we could take him for treatment before our flight was to leave 10 hours later. I knew there was a clinic near our hotel in the same complex and sure enough, it was a 24 hour one.

I got myself dressed and headed out to find it. I also happened to find crews redecorating the Garden's hotel lobby at that time of night too. It was amazing. Liken it to Disney World and how you can visit a park one day and then come back the very next and everything has changed. That's what this reminded me of.

Anyway, I found the clinic and managed to wake up the people who were working there. At least that's how it seemed. They were nice enough and had decent English but said that since Gabe was a child, they couldn't treat him. They required a pediatrician to do that. And so it also required an appointment for a pedi to come in after they get off of their shift at the local hospital.

Grrrr.

I went back to the room defeated and was pleasantly surprised to find that Gabe was still sleeping soundly and had not started coughing while I was away. I went to bed and tried to sleep but kept worrying about our sweet boy who had had so much congestion, he was choking and vomiting with it at times. He wasn't in distress to the point where we were worried that he couldn't breathe. He was pink and lively during the day but had struggled the night before and during the night before we were to leave.

We woke up later that morning and went to the concierge to find another clinic we could take him to before we were scheduled to leave the hotel at 10:10. He was adamant that the one I went to in the middle of the night would treat him now that it was morning. So off we went again and wasted 30-45 minutes waiting for an answer. And again, were told no. Not only would they not treat him, they wouldn't help us get any new meds either.

We prayed and knew others were praying too. We gave Gabe the same meds again that we had been giving him and hoped for the best with our 24 hour travel day home.

Everything was fine at the airport in Guangzhou. We flew to Seoul, South Korea {3.5 hour flight} with little trouble. Gabe did cry before we took off because he just wanted to be down and walking around. But we had the bassinet for him and he slept half of the time and woke up happy during the rest of it. Score one for us.

Our layover in Seoul was only one hour and so we knew we would be pushing it if our flight was delayed at all. We landed about half hour early {yay} and breezed through security again, took advantage of modern plumbing {woohoo!} and made it to our gate just as they began to board for our next looooong flight home.

We were dreading this flight. We've done it four times now...going and coming to Thailand we flew to Seoul and we had a layover there on our way to China as well. Fourteen hours on a flight is misery. And with a sick 18 month old? Whew, we were holding our breaths to say the least.

But you know what? He did so very well. Considering how sick he was {that we would later find out once we were home}. We had the bassinet again which is so great...if there is little to no turbulence and they actually allow you to KEEP your child in it. Goodness. Every bump and they would ask us to again pick up our perfectly sleeping sick little prince out of the bassinet and place him in our laps.

Where is the logic in this?

If the plane goes down with turbulence, and our son who has no seat...no seat belt...etc goes down with it, what difference does it make if he was sleeping in a bassinet or in Jase's arms? And really, if we were going down, don't you think we'd pick him up just because? Studies have shown over and over that parents are unable to hold their children in car accidents...that the force of even 20-25 miles an hour is enough to propel them out of your arms no matter how hard you try to hold them. So why in the hockey do we wake sleeping babies in cribs when the plane has the tiniest bit of turbulence?

Can you tell this annoyed us to no end?

Four times.

Four times in fifteen minutes we had to pick him up. He was exhausted. And it continued on and on throughout the flight. It got to the point that we couldn't lay him down anymore or he would scream. And he only wanted Jason. Poor boys. They were both miserable. Gabe slept so much but it was not restful. He twisted and turned and just killed Jase! Sweet boy. He was trying so hard and my hubs was as patient as any man can be. He just went with it and let him be. I only held Gabe for about 2-3 hours in total on the flight home. The bassinet maybe held him for an hour and a half. The rest was all Jase....who is still so sore from it.

But all in all, we couldn't have asked for more. It was so hard and we were all exhausted but we made it and the Lord was so good to help sweet Gabe make it through. We landed at just before 7pm and it was after 8:00 before we were through immigration. We were so ready to see our babies and hug our family's necks...but it took forever! It seemed to anyway but we were just so grateful to be off of the plane at that point!

We had quite a welcoming committee! What a blessing! My parents and siblings {minus Kev and Deanna} were there along with our great friends, the Tims and the Cunninghams and all their kiddos and my sweet friend Elizabeth. There were signs and flowers and even a balloon that said little prince on it. Perfect, I tell you. The perfect homecoming. Joel was struggling a good bit and very overstimulated by it all. But we spoke to him on the phone while we were stuck in immigration and knew to expect it once upstairs.

Gabe went straight to the kids! And everyone else pretty much...which is wonderful and not so at the same time. We need him to know that we are his mama and daddy and so we want him to not be so comfortable with everyone else! lol. But really, part of it was that we were able to Facetime with our family so much while we were gone. And so he was familiar with them to a large degree considering.

And like I said before, the boy is brilliant! He saw Keith and began making the exact face that they would do to each other on Facetime! It was a riot! And Gabe won everyone over immediately with love and hugs and kisses. There are tons of pictures...and I haven't even seen them all! But wanted to share the ones we have...thanks so much mom and Karen for snagging these! What a fantastic homecoming!