Home is Where My Stuff Is

We are finally home! We landed in our city yesterday about 5:15 pm; KB met us there with a waiting taxi and a hot thermos of tea. He was beyond excited to see us. This was the longest he has gone without seeing AB since she was born. While we were flying I saw that every body of water below us was completely frozen. The harbors are also frozen but the ice had been broken up in a few places so that the ships can make it out to sea. So needless to say, it is cold. I am still glad to be home.

In case you did not know, AB got deported when we tried to reenter our country after spending Christmas in the US, and we spent the last 5 days in Hong Kong.

On Monday we dropped off AB's passport at a visa service center with the promise to have it back to us no later than 4pm on Tuesday. However on Tuesday morning I decided since AB had been suffering through a cold for 3 weeks and I cannot take her to the doctor in our hometown, that I should take her to see her pediatrician in Hong Kong just in case. He said she had an ear infection and recommended we not fly until Thursday in order to allow her antibiotics to take away the majority of her ear pain. I felt terrible that she had an ear ache, but she could not have been suffering with it for too long. She had a check-up on Monday last week in the US. I just hate to think her crying on our trans-Pacific flight could have been because she was in pain.

Anyways, on Tuesday we picked up her passport with her spanking new visa nicely stuck inside.

The next day I was amazingly busy for not having much to do. Hong Kong is very easy to get around but it was exhausting because I was on my feet most of the time and AB was strapped to me. It would have been more practical to wear tennis shoes with all the walking we did, but Hong Kong is like New York City. It seemed everyone was willing to sacrifice comfort for fashion. Besides, my new tennis shoes were in another suitcase, in another country with KB. We went to Starbucks a couple times each day just because I needed a place to either rest my feet, feed AB, or go to the restroom. Also compared to the prices of most of the restaurants in HK, Starbucks is quite a bargain.

Thursday morning I made my way to the curb with our large Samsonite hard suitcase, our carry-on roller suitcase, AB's stroller, AB's baby bag, our laptop and laptop bag, and AB strapped to me. If someone wanted a perfect picture of a frantic mother loaded down with junk while trying to wave down a taxi, this was their perfect chance. Thankfully a good Samaritan taxi driver stopped for me relatively quickly and were off to the airport.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. They served Hagan Daz (I have no idea if that is how it is spelled) ice cream on the flight - in economy. It was awesome, but I could not believe the locals were eating something cold during the winter. I was on a great airline, and it looked as if the plane was brand new. If anyone ever plans to travel over here I can give you my list of airlines I recommend and the ones that I would rather take a bus than fly on (i.e. Air Asia).

So right now I am in my PJ's, sitting on AB's sofa, while watching her chew on shoes she has outgrown. Today I have plans to finish taking down Christmas stuff, and maybe go to the grocery store since we are out of chicken. Other than that I plan to do a mix of nothing for the rest of the day and maybe the weekend.