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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Originally posted on Saturday, November 19, 2005
Saturday, November 19, 2005 12:27 AM EST
Hello All! We made it to the Fort Wayne Airport last night about 6:00 pm. What a joy it was to give Emilie a big hug and a kiss and see family and friends waiting to welcome Nikole home. It was also cool to see another Fort Wayne family coming home from China on the same flight.
Now a little about how our day went. We got up 3:30 am Thursday morning (2:30 pm Wednesday Indiana time) to get ready for our day and finish packing our suitcases. We left the White Swan Hotel at 5:40 am and made the 40 minute drive to the Guangzhou airport. After checking in our bags, we said goodbye to our guide Helen who
was headed back to her home in Beijing and also Mei from CWA, who was heading back to her hometown there in China to visit family. We boarded our flight with the remaining 4 families from our group, about 8:00 am and our flight left around 8:30 am for Hong Kong. We arrived in Hong Kong at 9:00 am local time. There we said goodbye to another family who was spending the night in Hong Kong.
After spending an hour and a half at the transfer desk and getting through security we finally boarded our flight at around 10:40 am. Although before boarding, Steve, Lisa and Nikole got pulled aside at the gate for another security check. They even made us take off Nikole's shoes and ran a wand over her. So that insured that we got
to board our plane with a tired and now scared and screaming child. Needless to say, she didn't like strangers poking and proading at her.
Once seated and a little soothing from mom and dad, not to mention her favorite towel, she stuck her thumb in her mouth and went to sleep for the next three hours. When Nikole woke up, she was a happy camper. She then played with everything, and I do mean everything, in and around our seats for the next 4 to 5 hours. She
then went back to sleep and we finally woke her just before landing in Chicago. The flight took about 13 1/2 hours, was very turbulent and as Steve and one of the other adoptive dad's called it, as close to torture as you can get. After landing, we made it through customs, and then had to clear security once again before we could
make our way to our next flight to Fort Wayne. And of course, we once again had a scared, screaming child. We found our gate and put her in a better mood, by getting her a happy meal from McDonald's. She is a true American girl who loves french fries.
At our gate, we were able to say goodbye to the Pace family, who were leaving out of the same gate as ourselves, only and hour and a half earlier. We then found out about a half hour before our flight that they changed our gate. We found our new gate and Nikole picked that time to fall asleep in Steve's arms. She woke up just in time to board the plane, but was too tired to walk, so we had to carry two backpacks, a stroller two goody bags, and a child onto the plane. Once seated on the plane, Nikole was happy and loved sitting next to the window where she could see everything. She watched out the window and talked and sang to herself the entire 30 minute flight to Fort Wayne. The flight to Fort Wayne ended up being the least turbulent flight of our entire trip.
After we arrived, we proceded toward baggage claim and as we decended the escalator we could see a Welcome home Hammell Family sign waiting for us. As we walked through the doorway, Emilie came running over to greet us and about knocked Steve down as she grabbed hold of his leg. She gave us both a huge hug and kiss and was then introduced to her little sister Nikole. Nikole then got to meet her Grandma and Grandpa and several of our wonderful friends who were there to greet us. We then collected our bags, which all arrived fairly safely. And Lisa's mom and dad then took us to the Olive Garden for a welcome home dinner. We then arrived home about 10:00 pm with two very tired little girls.
This morning when we woke up, Nikole and Emilie both woke up happy and have been playing fairly nicely all day. Emilie is being a great big sister so far. She has been very kind and considerate of her little sister and loves helping her with things, sharing her toys with her, etc. Nikole on the other hand is going to need a
little work on the sharing front. She seems to really like her big sister, but throws a fit whenever things don't go exactly how she thinks they should. She has even tried to hit Emilie once, when Emilie was trying to hug her. So needless to say, Nikole has been introduced to time out in a corner of our home. All in all, the transition seems to be going fairly well, and the jealousy/behavior we have gotten from the girls was expected. Once they have a little more time to get used to each other and Nikole learns a little more English and some manners, I think they will be great friends and playmates as well as sisters. We would however, appreciate your continued prayers for our entire family as we learn how to live and get along as a family of four.
This our last official post of our journey to China for Nikole. We appreciate everyone coming along on our journey with us through this yahoo group. We also appreciate all the prayers and support we have gottern along the way from all our family, friends and our church family. You all mean so much to us. This is the end of our trip to Nikole, but not the end of this yahoo group. We will try to post more pictures from our trip as well as updates about the girls and our family periodically and include pictures so you all can see how the girls are growing. And with God's grace, you may eventually hear about a third trip to China. Emilie is already telling us she wants another sister, but she wants a baby sister this time. :)
We do serve an awesome God! It is only through Him that this amazing blessing of two little girls has become a reality for our family! We could sit for hours and tell you about ways we have seen Him working our lives to bring us our two little angels. God is good!
And finaly, if there is anyone out there who is considering adoption for their family, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions that we may be able to answer for you.
God Bless,
Steve, Lisa, Emilie and Nikole!!
hammell925@hotmail.com
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