To USA...

We made it!  I am not going to lie, it is a long journey (made even longer traveling by yourself, with a three year old, and pregnant)!  Our journey took door-to-door, 24 hours, 3 countries, a taxi, MTR, two airplanes, a lot of walking, and a very welcomed car ride home!  We arrived at the airport on our scheduled day only to realize it was delayed 5 hours and we would get stuck in Canada (because of the Typhoon that came through HK the day before).  We ended up changing planes until the next day and had to listen to tears of "I wanna see Grandma and fly on a plane" all the way home.  Poor girl had prepared herself and was SOOO excited to get on a plane.  Overall, Kay is an amazing traveler.  I was stocked with new toys, books, and the iPad and she slept about 4 hours (leaving me only about 2 hours to sleep) on the ENTIRE journey).  When we got off the long leg (HK to Canada- 16 hours) several flight attendants commented about how Kay was one of the best kids they ever had on a flight.  I said "thank you, we are exhausted!".  The flight attendant commented about how she wants to get shirts made for moms flying alone with kids for the long-haul flight that says "We SURVIVED" to hand out when they land.  My thoughts exactly!

As soon as we landed in NC I was welcomed by the sound of a southern accent.  At that moment I realized I no longer had to "tune out" the conversations around me.  You get so used to not understanding what people are saying you start to tune it out without meaning too.  What a welcomed sound!  We were also greeted with auto flushing toilets which were not a welcomed as Kay again was terrified of them (same as Japan) and had issues the entire trip finding toilets she would use.

My favorite memory from the trip was coming up the escalator and seeing my mom.  Every emotion in the book hit me like a ton of bricks.  I was SOOOO exhausted from the trip and was SOOO relieved to have help, happy to be home, so happy for a hug, and the realization of just how far away we are that I broke down in tears.  Even though it was midnight Kay had saved enough energy to give big hugs!

Our next challenge... dealing with a twelve hour time change.  We had a lot of middle of the night wake ups and naps where we had to wake Kay up.  If we kept everyone busy, we did ok.  

Waiting in Canada for our next flight...

Fell asleep during take off.  Notice the socks.  She played with the toiletry bag they give during take off.  She put the socks on like tights.

How did I know I was in the USA and more specifically the south??... It was cute to watch what Kay noticed when we first landed.  She often asked "where are the taxis".  She also asked when we were going to take the MTR.  At lunch one day she said "in North Carolina we have a big microwave and Hong Kong a little one".  She kept asking about tow trucks and why they were pulling cars.  We had a few car seat struggles as she is not used to them now.  I forgot how easy it is to go to the store, push a cart to your car, and unload the groceries in your garage!