We knew ChallieJayne's flight was scheduled to land at 3:40PM on Saturday June 12th in Newark, NJ, and that she was being escorted by Ivy, who works for our agency in Ethiopia. We knew she was in good hands. All of the immigration paperwork was done (and done correctly), the POA's were in place to have her escorted to the USA. We left the hotel and took the shuttle to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport at 1:45PM. It should go off without a hitch, right? Sure, if it was another family's life!
We had time to have a quick, last lunch as a family of 3 before heading down to the International Arrivals Terminal to wait for our baby to arrive. We got to the waiting area at 3:00PM, and received an e-mail notice that the flight had landed early a 3:20PM. So we waited, camera ready, AlinaJayne waiting with the stuffed elephant she had for her new sister. At 3:45PM, a rush of travelers came out of U.S. Customs. Nope,she was not in the group. At 4PM, another group came rushing out. We knew we'd be meeting our newest child now! Nope, not in this group. Matt checked the monitor again-yep, the flight had landed. At 4:15PM, another group, this time we even saw the flight crew from Lufthansa. She MUST be coming!
5:00PM came and went, as did another group of travelers through customs. No ChallieJayne. We started to wonder, at what point should we be worried? Who do we call? What can we do on a Saturday anyway? We decided to move to some chairs and figure out what to do next. AlinaJayne had been so good and patient waiting through all of this, way better than we were!
Finally at 5:20PM, we saw what looked like Ivy (we had seen pictures) and a little girl being pushed in a stroller-it WAS ChallieJayne!
She was very shy at first (we had heard from many families who had traveled to get their children how sweet and loving she was...........but she seemed very, very shy and unsure). She really wanted to stay with Ivy. Then Ivy told her "Chaltu, you need to go with them, they are your Mommy & Daddy & Sister." Finally she allowed AlinaJayne to talk to her, then she approached me and felt my face. I allowed her to come to me, and she motioned for me to hold her, so I did. Then, without warning, she kissed me on the cheek. This was a very different experience than it was with AlinaJayne!
Ivy said her goodbye's and it was then that ChallieJayne started to cry for her. She continued to cry as we waited for our shuttle back to the hotel, all the way back to the hotel (in China, people expected this, they knew the Americans were there adopting babies, so they were understanding-here, nobody had a clue, thought we had a misbehaving child), and up until we got into our room. Once she was there, she did stop crying, played with the toys (although she did not immediately take to AlinaJayne), ate a snack and had some juice, and allowed me to give her a bath. The poor baby fell asleep sitting on a suitcase after supper, so Matt put her in bed with him!
We made a 12 hour trip back home on Sunday, stopping briefly so Matt's Mom and my Dad could at least see her (although she never woke up once)! Both of the girls traveled extremely well, even if ChallieJayne never woke up-even when I got her ready for bed after midnight! During the trip back, she decided that AlinaJayne was pretty cool. She even allowed her to play "rock, paper, scissors" with her, AND put her shoes on her! The night before, she wanted NOTHING to do with her!
The entire family slept until 10AM, then headed out to run errands (and to have ChallieJayne's first of two bloodwork appointments). She is settling in nicely, and learning her way around the house. She calls me Mama or Mommy (has NO trouble yelling for me), calls Matt "Ababa" which is Amharic for Dad, calls AlinaJayne "seesy" for sissy, and is absolutely terrified of our youngest cat. Not sure how she will do when the older, grouchy cat and German Shepherd are home on Tuesday! She also randomly tells us "Mommy! I love you!" or "Ababa, I love you." She counts to 10 in English (started doing this by herself, but AlinaJayne has been helping her). She sings songs and speaks in Amharic all day, but mixes in some English when she sings "B I N G O" and "Old McDonald."
Lots of new things around this house. We are so blessed. Enjoy the pics and check back soon.
***Click on the pics to make them bigger*****
(Forever Family Day)
("Almost" and Back Home)
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