Flying across the world!

 The day had finally come. (I say finally, but it really came a lot faster than I was originally planning. We got really cheap tickets and bought them about a week before I flew out. Yikes!) I was nervous about flying across the world by myself with 2 little girls, and a LOT of luggage. By a lot, I mean 4 large suitcases, a carry-on suitcase, a pack and play, a carseat, a backpack, a diaper bag, Claire's princess suit case, and the extremely necessary double stroller. How did I manage to fit that into a car, speak nothing of manage all that? My dad is famous for his awesome packing abilities. See?

Don't mind Claire crying. She thought I was the meanest mommy ever because I didn't allow her to sit in the pink carseat on the floor as we drove to the airport.

It was a crazy amount of stuff. A very helpful porter helped us once we got to the Rochester airport and loaded everything up on a cart for us. Phew! My mom and dad were a great help as well. It was sad to say goodbye to my parents, but I went longer than a year this last time we were apart, so a year doesn't seem as long, even if I am across the world instead of part way across the country. Here's a not so good, but significant picture of Claire and Maddie on the first flight from Rochester. It was the start to Claire's first international trip, and Maddie's first time on a plane.

The amazing ticket price we got was partly because we got a multi-city ticket meaning we flew to San Francisco one day, and left the next day for Korea. Ironically, that was how many of the flights looked anyway. The only catch was that I had to pick up that crazy amount of luggage and take it back to the airport the following day. It was worth the $500 savings per ticket though. I purposely went through San Fran so that I could see my aunt and uncle who live in San Jose. They were so sad that we moved from California before I had Maddie, so I wanted to be sure to see them on my way over. My Aunt Bev was of course very excited to hold sweet baby Maddie. They of course also missed Claire as they also had a special bond. Claire even mailed them a picture while we lived in Texas. So sweet.

Originally, I scheduled the flight to meet them in the afternoon, go to their house, have dinner, relax, then get some good sleep before the long trip across the ocean the next day. Well, when I got my luggage, I discovered one suitcase needed replacing. (I bought 2 new suitcases the night before I left Albion already!) One of my larger suitcases had a tiny hole in it before I left. Well apparently, between that little hole, and me stuffing the suitcase really full, the hole expanded to the whole bottom of the suitcase. The good news is that I don't think I lost anything because everything was so tightly packed. It took a little hunting in a couple of stores, but I found a big suitcase that fit everything from the ripped one. Seeing as how the ripped suitcase was from a set I bought for my mission over 10 years ago for only $99 for the whole set, I guess I got my money out of that. I was also grateful that our finances weren't tight, so I didn't have to worry about the costs of buying three new suitcases in 2 days. 

If you remember from my last post, you'll know that Claire also needed to get her stitches taken out. Since I of course didn't have a doctor in San Jose, I needed to take her to urgent care or the ER. Since the closest urgent care that tricare (our health insurance) allowed was over an hour away, we went to an ER about 10 minutes away. Uncle Ken drove Claire and I as Aunt Bev watched Maddie who had already gone to bed. Claire sat on Uncle Ken's lap to help her be brave when she got her stitches taken out. At first they wanted to give me the kit to take them out myself the next day instead. I really didn't want to have to worry about that while flying across the world, so they had pity on me and took them out that night. They were worried about them opening back up though, so they put a couple sterrie strips on her chin. Even though the ER was kind of busy, they got us in and out of there really quickly. We drove to the ER, got the stitches out, did all the paperwork, and were back home in less than an hour. I was pretty happy about that. I got Claire home, and in bed. Since we had switched from Eastern to Pacific time that day, and Claire went to bed late, she ended up being up for about 20 hours and she was surprisingly happy and well behaved. Thank goodness!

Claire in her p.j.s with Uncle Ken

 What a day! It wasn't the relaxing visit I had hoped for, but we did have some time to relax and visit, and I was grateful they helped me with my suitcase buying and stitch removal endeavors.

The morning we left to go back to San Fran to fly to Korea. Aunt Bev is enjoying holding a sleeping baby, and Claire is all ready in her "I <3 br="br" daddy="daddy" shirt.="shirt.">

So then the time came to head to Korea. This of course first meant packing up my monstrous amount of luggage back in the car, manage to get them in the airport (on our own since there was no porter to be found) and wait in line forever. We ended up going to the front of the line because they gave a last call for our flight. Since I purchased my tickets online, I hadn't paid the taxes for Maddie since she didn't have a ticket. They weren't very happy about me doing it there, but I couldn't help it really. After we got all my bags rechecked, we headed for security where we said good-bye to Aunt Bev and Uncle Ken. They are such lovely people, and I am so glad I am related to them. I loved our visit. :)

So we finally get to the gate (after having to completely take apart all my carry-on items for them to inspect and have to put it all together again.) They were already boarding first class, and I had to hurry and get there because Claire and I didn't have seats together...for a 12 hour flight. They quickly fixed that and I switched with a very kind man who had a couple kids of his own. He sat in the seat in front of us and offered to take Maddie if I ever needed. Well, right after we got on the plane, I needed him to take Maddie so I could take Claire to the bathroom. Thank goodness for kind people out there like him. It was so helpful on the long flight. The screens weren't working on the whole plane so I was especially grateful I brought Claire's dvd player. Claire slept quite a bit though. Every time Maddie fell asleep, and thereby I could fall asleep, food would come, so I woke up; therefore I didn't get a lot of sleep, but we finally made it to Tokyo, Japan.

We had a couple hour layover there before we left for Seoul. For some stupid reason, we had to go through the whole security rigamaroll even though we never left the security area. Then while we waited, we started to experience the love Asian people have for cute little American kids. Claire got a bunch of Asian cookies and treats from one person. Maddie had about 5 or 6 Korean ladies huddled around her oohing and ahhing. The one who could speak minimal English was asking me all sorts of questions, including how old I was. Many pictures were taken of the girls as well. It was kind of fun, and Claire and Maddie liked the attention.

By the time we got on our flight to Seoul (on Asiana Airlines) I was so tired. Apparently it's one of the nicest airlines out there, so I tried to take notice, but all I wanted to do was sleep. While I was sleeping before they served us a meal (which I was impressed with since it was a little under a 3 hour flight), they doted on Claire and gave her puzzles, candy, and toys. I was actually going to turn down the food because I was so tired, but Claire wanted her's. Of course, she ate two bites, and I ended up eating the rest. It was very good. My favorite part was dessert which was a white custard with a thin passion fruit (I think?) drizzle on top. Oh my. So amazing. I asked for another!

We finally made it to Seoul. I had a little hang up with my passport since I didn't have my visa yet, and I told them I was planning on staying for longer than 90 days. I showed them Chris's orders, but our names weren't actually on the orders, so that didn't help. I went into a little room, they made a few calls, and things got all cleared up. Then I got to my luggage. That blasted luggage. It was the first time I had no one to help me with it. I asked for a large cart, but no luck. I had to pile it on two tiny airport carts and drag the rest. I couldn't do this on my own with the stroller. After I clearly pointed that out to an airport worker who was just going to leave me stranded with no help, he ended up helping me. He helped me get through customs and then I finally got to see Chris! Ahh, I love that man.

Claire was asleep in the stroller, but when she woke up and realized her daddy's face was in front of her, she suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. It was a precious moment. She was his little hip attachment for the next many days. We finally made it to our hotel room to rest for the night. Ahhh, a bed. It felt so good. The next day, we went back to the airport to catch a bus that drove us up to Camp Casey. It was so nice to be back together as a family again. I was also so glad to have that crazy long flight with 2 kids over with! They were really wonderful and I had no problems with them. I really have great kids. :)