Welcome Home Nathan Wei! March 8, 2011

          "We survived." Greg said. Then, simultaneously, we both said, "BARELY!" 
          Our travel day home to the states was certainly a test of our patience and parenting skills. We woke at 5:00 am before Nathan to get ready and head to the airport.  It took some time to get checked in and we made it to the gate with plenty of time. So far, so good. Until a gate agent approached Greg and asked if he lost a cell phone. Sure enough, it had fallen out of his pants pocket. Jacko, our great cab driver from our zoo trip was so kind, he actually drove it back to the airport. We made our flight to Tokyo just fine. Nathan even slept most of the way.
           Then came our flight from Tokyo to Detroit.  The trip through security alone should have been a clue. I had Nathan strapped to me in the carrier.  They made Greg unload every single electronic from the computer bag and then wanted to check the diaper bag. Of course, they can see all the contents in the x ray machines, but needed to see the baby food jars. Soooo,  unloading a bag that was packed to last for
at least 24 hours was not fun to unpack.  We loaded the plane and were ready to go when a flight attendant gave us a heads up that we would have to de-plane due to a chipped wing. Soooo, we all unloaded, realizing we were going to miss our connecting flight from Detroit to Cincy.
        After an hour and a half we boarded for our 12 hour flight to Detroit. Nathan hardly slept, and I'm convinced that the next Minute to Win It Challenge should be to put a diaper on a baby within the space of an airplane restroom. 3 diaper changes, 4 movies, and many walks around the plane later, we arrived in Detroit. And Nathan, once again, decided to sleep. (If only he had done this about 10 hours earlier).
       Nathan had to be emmigrated to the U.S. and receive his Green card, so it was off to customs and immigration. And Nathan continued to sleep. He missed his big moment! Then I noticed something was missing.  Our new camera was nowhere in sight. I would have cried major tears, and almost did, but I think exhaustion prevented it. Instead, I will admit, nastiness took over. I would have been devastated to lose all those pictures, except, thankfully we were downloading our images every night due to posting on this blog.
Here we are loaded down with all our luggage, and Nathan, bickering in the airport about where our camera could be.
         Our reception at the airport and at our house wiped away most of the bitterness.  My mom and Greg's family - his mom, dad, grandma,  brother Brad and sister-in-law Angie along with their children-David, Rose, Sam and Michelle stood at the window with my friend Michelle and  her daughters, Shayne and Hailey. They had cameras ready and balloons and gifts for Nathan. To see them so excited just warmed our hearts.  When we arrived home our friends Matt and Anne and our neighbors Mike and Sharon and Denise and Jeff had made signs and put up balloons. As we turned the corner, we both knew losing our camera wasn't so bad for what we had gained. Nathan Wei was finally home.