One month spent in Colombia, and now we are HOME! It feels so good to be back under our roof, at our table, in our beds. The trip home was, well, trying. (At least, for us grown ups. The girls were fantastic.) We left for the airport in Bogota at 10:30 am on Friday. Our flight was delayed by two hours, so we were pretty sure we would not make it through immigration in time to make our connection home. We had three seats together and one 10 rows up, so the girls sat with me and Philip had some nice alone time sandwiched between two strangers.
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| Leaning on me to the left |
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| Leaning on me to the right |
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We were in immigration at the Miami airport about 2 hours. We made it out at 9:30 pm. We headed to the American Airlines desk to rebook our flights for the next day. The girls are usually in bed by 8:00, so we were hoping to stay at an airport hotel and be in bed soon. Unfortunately, 3 hours later, our van finally made it to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. We would be at the wonderful Harbor Marriot Resort for 6 hours before making the 45 minute drive back to the airport. (There were reportedly 40-something flights cancelled that day due to equipment problems, so everywhere was booked.)
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| With Aunt Joy at Miami airport |
The upside was that we got to spend about 15 minutes with Philip's brother, Daniel, his lovely wife, Joy, and our nephew, Danilo. This was the first family Luisa got to meet, and they happened to speak Spanish (Joy is Colombian).
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| Doesn't everyone play ring-around-the-rosie while checking in for their flight? |
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| Cutie Danilo |
We had an easy 2 hour flight back to Birmingham. The kids were tired (so were we), but we were so glad to be almost HOME! My parents were picking us up, and we had a few friend greet us there as well. It was so sweet to see smiling, familiar faces who have waited and prayed for so long for our daughter to come home.
Luisa loved riding in her car seat, which was a relief. We drove up to signs welcoming us home, and walked in to find our house cleaned and decorated with all my fall decor, which a fabulous friend had apparently crawled up in our attic to retrieve. It is my favorite time of year! The weather has been so nice and COOL this weekend.
The girls have been playing so well together. Caroline takes her role as big sister seriously. I get reports on ANYTHING Luisa is doing that may be questionable. Luisa has been a rock star. She has taken good naps and slept all night in her crib. She (of course) eats well; she had her first Ryle-typical GF lunch (hummus, veggies, olives, and cheese) today and loved it. She is a bit scared of the dogs, but she did voluntarily touch Ellie tonight, so we are making strides.
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| Dressing up |
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| With Pop |
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| and Mimi |
We had an easy 2 hour flight back to Birmingham. The kids were tired (so were we), but we were so glad to be almost HOME! My parents were picking us up, and we had a few friend greet us there as well. It was so sweet to see smiling, familiar faces who have waited and prayed for so long for our daughter to come home.
Luisa loved riding in her car seat, which was a relief. We drove up to signs welcoming us home, and walked in to find our house cleaned and decorated with all my fall decor, which a fabulous friend had apparently crawled up in our attic to retrieve. It is my favorite time of year! The weather has been so nice and COOL this weekend.
The girls have been playing so well together. Caroline takes her role as big sister seriously. I get reports on ANYTHING Luisa is doing that may be questionable. Luisa has been a rock star. She has taken good naps and slept all night in her crib. She (of course) eats well; she had her first Ryle-typical GF lunch (hummus, veggies, olives, and cheese) today and loved it. She is a bit scared of the dogs, but she did voluntarily touch Ellie tonight, so we are making strides.
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