Home Sweet Home!

We left the hotel at 11:00 am and were on our way to the airport. Everything went smoothy there except that our flight was delayed for two hours. Samara still wasn't feeling well - she definitely wasn't herself. When we boarded the plane she threw up about five or six times . . . before we were even in the air - off to a great start! Another couple from our group gave me Gravol suppository for Samara (thanks Deb) and it definitely settled her stomach and calmed her down a bit. It didn't put her to sleep like we had hoped but at least she wasn't throwing up anymore. One of the flight attendants had asked a kind man beside us if he would be willing to move to a different vacant seat so that we could have an extra seat for Samara. What a nice gesture and it really helped. She spent a lot of time laying on that seat with her eyes closed tossing and turning - you can't really classify it as sleeping. 13.5 long hours later, we landed in Toronto. What an awesome feeling - the end of one journey and the beginning of another. We were sitting fairly close to the front of the plane so we got off pretty quick. We had to go through Customs obviously but also had to go through Immigration for Samara. It was kind of funny because were standing in line at Immigration and Samara was actually screaming pretty loudly (still dealing with some constipation). We saw some of the officials talking amongst themselves and pointing at us. As it turns out, they felt sorry for us with our screaming baby (or perhaps felt sorry for themselves having to listen to that) and they put us to the front of the line! So all of you who still have to go through this process, pinch your babies to get them to cry and you'll get out of there much sooner! :)

It was fun to come through the doors and see familiar faces. Thank you to family and friends who were there to welcome Samara to Canada. I had the opportunity to meet one of my blogger friends Michelle and her husband Mark. She took a picture of us so if you'd like to see it, click here. Notice the white spot on my brown shirt (right arm) - yep, that's crusted baby puke! I must've smelled lovely - not the greatest for a first time meeting eh Michelle? Next time maybe we'll reverse roles - how does that sound?

We got Samara into the car seat and were on our way home. She wasn't impressed - not sure if it was the car seat or just the fact that she wasn't feeling well - or a combination of the two - but she screamed on and off the whole way home (sorry about that Uncle Bryan). We arrived home to Samara's two very excited siblings. It was a little hard because Samara wasn't feeling well and also felt very overwhelmed with the new environment. The kids were really good with her though and they even got a few smiles out of her. We had a rough night - Samara tossed and turned and complained all night. (we didn't sleep either). Being on China time, it really was the daytime for her and now all she wants to do is sleep all day. We've been trying to keep her awake but it's really tough especially because she's not feeling well. Mike went and got her Ontario Health Card this morning and we already have a doctor's appointment for her late this afternoon. We'll let you know how that goes.

I'll also try in the next day or two to post some pictures of Samara with her proud siblings, Victoria and Austin.