We Are Home

Day 22 & 23 Aug 5th – 6th Sunday & Monday
Written Aug 10th

Homecoming

This was the day we had been waiting for. We are finally going home as a family. This was probably the longest day we experienced here because we were so excited to leave. We weren’t scheduled to leave the hotel until 4:00pm so we tried to occupy our day with a trip to the tourist center for one last look at the comments on our blog. Between breakfast and running to the tourist center we still had about six hours to go before our departure. The rest of the afternoon we past the time by finishing our packing and watched the clock, played with Gracie and watched the clock, and watched TV and watched the clock. Needless to say the afternoon was a long one.

About 3:30pm, Logan and I started moving our luggage down to the lobby. Gracie was just finishing her bottle after her afternoon nap. She was in a good mood and ready to travel. Logan was in a very good mood. Although he finally got used to the cultural change in Hanoi, he was more than ready to get back home. The four of us headed to the lobby a couple of minutes early to say goodbye to the staff. I can’t say enough about the staff at the Hong Ngoc hotel. They provided a service that can’t be found in the States. We especially wanted to personally thank Mr. Tong for everything he had done to make our stay enjoyable. When we arrived at the lobby, the staff was busy with new guests but we were able to have a short conversation with Mr. Tong, who had his son with him, and took some photos with Mr. Tong and the boys. We said our goodbyes and told him we would see him in about 18 years. Then we exited to the car waiting for us on the street.

As we drove to the airport I told Becky I felt a little sad about leaving Vietnam since this is Gracie’s home in which Becky agreed. Becky and I will make sure Gracie knows where she came from and what proud heritage she is apart of.

On the ride to the airport we were pretty quiet. We had gotten used to the traffic during our stay so we just sat and took in our last views of this beautiful country. This is in sharp contrast to the ride to Hanoi when we first arrived and were very chatty with the driver and amazed at everything we saw. Gracie was very content in the backseat in Becky’s arms. As we approached the airport, the terminal building looked more modern than when we arrived in Hanoi several weeks earlier. The departures must be in a different location than the arrivals because this terminal was completely up-to-date.

Hanoi Airport

The driver unloaded our bags and I gave him the last of the Vietnam currency in my pockets since I couldn’t convert them back in the states, but we were able to save a few coins and some paper money as souvenirs. We entered the terminal and was immediately confused on where to go. We walked from one side of the terminal back to the other finally someone looked at our tickets and pointed us to the side where we initially entered the terminal. There was a long line to the ticket counter but since I was carrying Gracie, the airline staff took us to the counter ahead of everyone else. Strike one up for Gracie; she’s already paying dividends. We finished getting checked in and headed for the gates to wait for our flight. As we left the main terminal and headed for the gates, we had to pass through immigration. Becky and Logan went to one booth and Gracie and I went to another booth beside them. Becky and Logan were quickly approved to leave but for some reason the agent took Gracie’s passport and left the booth. I could see Becky’s expression from the other side and we both looked at each other like “what the heck now”. The gentleman returned a couple of minutes later with Gracie’s passport in hand and gave me back all my papers and waved Gracie and I through. That was probably the longest two minutes of the entire trip. The four of us proceeded through security and made our way to our gate. We couldn’t believe this was the same airport we flew into. This part of the airport was very modern with many shops and lounges for the business class flyers similar to the airports back home. I kept thinking why would Vietnam want your first impression of this place to be that it’s run down since the arrival terminal looks something out of the 1950’s while the departure terminal is much more appealing.

We found our gate and unloaded our carry on baggage and got ready for the hour and a half wait. Gracie was doing great but we did have to take her for a walk from time to time because she got bored of just sitting. Logan loved the open space in this part of the terminal and he would run short distances whenever he could. I told him not to run too much because I didn’t want security to get too nervous. When we had about 30 minutes before we were to start boarding, they announced our flight would be delayed for 30 minutes. We weren’t happy to hear this since we only had a 2 hour layover at Hong Kong. Gracie was also starting to get tired and hungry. We were trying to plan her feeding during takeoff so it would help to depressurize her little ears but because of the delay this would not be the case. We went ahead and fed Gracie and changed her into her sleeper because we figured the aircraft could be a little cool. The one place we hoped the Vietnamese would have air conditioning would be on the aircraft. The plane wasn’t delayed any further so we boarded the plane and took our seats. I scouted out the plane before takeoff and noticed a row completely empty just a few rows up so I asked the attendant if we could use that row to lay Gracie down when we get to cruising altitude. She said that wouldn’t be a problem. Gracie cried during takeoff because she was getting very tired and she was required to be belted to the front of Becky during this time. Once the fasten safety belt sign was turned off, Becky and Gracie headed for the empty row were Gracie slept for the first leg of our trip. The attendants served a hot meal with two choices on this two hour flight. This is something you don’t get on domestic flights back home. The attendant asked me what my choice was but I couldn’t understand a word she said so by this time I was tired of trying to piece sentences together and simply shook my head and said I don’t understand. She gave me one of each of the choices and I gave Logan the one I thought he would like. Logan liked what he got so it all worked out. The flight went by pretty quick but Becky and I were very concerned about making our next flight from Hong Kong to L.A. because of the delay.

We landed at Hong Kong airport with only about 50 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave. By the time we exited the plane and they bused us to the main terminal, Becky and I were starting to worry we wouldn’t make our connection. As we entered the bottom level of the terminal, there was a representative from Cathay Pacific Airlines waiting with a sign that had several flight numbers listed on it; one of which was our flight to L.A. They pulled us, and several others, aside and checked our tickets and put small round stickers on the front of us so they could identify us. The leader had a 2-way radio and was in communication with a person at the gate. Our guide took us up escalators, down elevators, on a tram, and back up another elevator, rushed us through security and checked us through to our plane and made sure we boarded the plane. Logan loved the run through the airport and Gracie had woke up since the flight and seemed to marvel at the large building we were running through. Becky and I would have never made the fight if it wasn’t for the persons at Cathay Pacific and this made a huge impression on us. The 747 was already loaded and ready to go so it didn’t take long before we were taxing down the runway. Becky and I hoped that only our luggage got the same treatment as we did in finding the flight.

Flight from Hong Kong to L.A.

We took our seats and the flight attendants assured us we would have the bassinet we had reserved weeks ago, but they couldn’t set it up until after we were in the air. Because we had the bassinet, we had to sit with the bulkhead (wall) in front of us. Logan expressed his concern that we didn’t have TV screens at our seats because he didn’t see them on the bulkhead in front of him. He was quickly relived to find they were under the front of his seat and all he had to do was pull it up and lock it into place.

It was my turn to hold Gracie during takeoff. She sat quietly buckled in my lap but she was tired. Since we sat in the middle of the plane, there was a gentleman sitting beside me in the fourth seat. I tuned to him and apologized in advance for the noise that will come out of Gracie. He said she was very pretty seemed to be a very good girl. There’s a sucker born every minute. As we started to taxi, Gracie got very tired and started crying very loud. The guy sitting next to me was a little early with his “good girl” comment. As soon as we got in the air, Gracie fell asleep on me. Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendant set up Gracie’s bassinet and we quickly put her in it. She slept 13 out of the 14 hours we were in the air. Logan also got much more sleep on this flight than he did going over. I noticed he still managed to watch Spiderman III about three times during the flight. The kids did great and Becky and I even seemed to get several hours of sleep. The service on this airline is spectacular. They bring you a menu at the beginning of the flight for the two meals they serve and also provide snacks during the flights. They even know they have young passengers on board and bring them kid’s meals in advance of serving all meals. They are very polite and friendly and I can’t say enough about the quality of service. This was the flight that Becky and I were dreading the most and it turned out to be extremely comfortable for a 14 hour trip.

Flight from L.A. to Chicago

Although the flight from Hong Kong was on time, we only had two hours to go through immigration, get our luggage, go through customs and head to the domestic side of LAX. This is where the nightmare started.

We entered LAX and after some direction from one of the workers we were able to quickly proceed through immigration. We dropped off the folder containing Gracie’s paperwork so she is now a U.S. citizen. We were too tired and worried about our luggage to celebrate so we headed to the baggage claim carousel to retrieve our luggage. This place was getting very busy with all the incoming international flights. The idea here is to claim your baggage, go thru customs, drop our checked luggage off in the “checked luggage area” and walk over to the American Airlines terminal.

Everyone from our flight huddled around the baggage carousel waiting for the machine to start. After about 15 minutes, they announced on the load speaker that our flight’s baggage was moved to another carousel. We figured it was because of mechanical problems since there were workers wondering around our carousel with confused looks on their faces. We quickly moved to the new carousel and waited for our baggage. We waited and waited and waited. We finally got our luggage with only 25 minutes to make it thru customs and drop off our luggage and proceed to the domestic terminal. We quickly made it thru customs while Gracie was yelling because she was hungry at this time. The girl knows when to turn it on at the right time. We only had twenty minutes to get to the American Airlines terminal so we rushed to the luggage drop area at the exit. When we got there the workers said that area was closed and that we had to take our luggage to the American Airlines terminal next door. Becky and I couldn’t believe this. The baggage area closed at 11:30pm and it was now 11:35pm so we missed it. We didn’t have time to complain so we ran out of the international building and headed towards the building next door. Logan had one cart full of luggage, Becky had another cart full of luggage and I had Gracie in my arms running to the next terminal. We got to the next terminal with 15 minutes to go before our flight left. There was no easy way to get the luggage up a flight of stairs to the departure counter so Gracie and I took the steps while Logan and Becky looked for a way to get the luggage upstairs. Becky and Logan made it to the counter with 10 minutes to go but it was too late. We told the woman at the American Airlines area we had to make the flight to Chicago in ten minutes and she quickly said “you’re too late so you missed the flight”. We could tell by the level of customer service that we were back in the States. The woman is very lucky I had Gracie in my arms. She didn’t realize how long of a day we have had and the lack of sleep I was operating on. I could have easily ended up in the airport security from beating that woman. Becky commented that she had never seen me so mad. I took Gracie and walked away and paced for several minutes. Becky just started laughing or else she was going to start crying. Logan didn’t understand what was going on and thought we were still going to make the flight. After we calmed down, we stood in line to talk to the representative at the counter. She said the next available flight would be at 9:00am the next morning but she would put us on standby on a 6:00am flight. Logan was pretty upset by this news and buried he face into my side. The lady said we could go back over to the international terminal because the shops stayed open all night there. Becky said she couldn’t believe Gracie first night in the States and we going to spend it in the airport. Luckily the representative next to ours said there was a delayed flight to Chicago that might have some openings. Our rep checked and there were three seats available in the last row so we jumped on them. The flight was going to leave in one hour. This gave all of us a second wind. Logan was extremely happy again and was back to pestering his little sister. The time was 2:00am so I called Kevin to tell him of our new flight plans since he is going to pick us up at the airport. I didn’t realize until after I called him that it was 4:00am his time. I hoped he didn’t have trouble getting back to sleep after my call. This flight was going to get us into Chicago by 7:15am instead of 6:00am from our missed flight. The flight was uneventful and both kids slept for most of the flight.

As soon as we landed and entered the terminal we walked past a restaurant. Logan said “Dad, you smell that…………it’s American food”. He seemed to walk with a little more pep in his step. Gracie was awake and alert and ready to see what Illinois was all about. On our way to the baggage claim, Becky’s cell phone was all lit up with people calling. We quickly made it to the baggage claim and grabbed our luggage and headed for the exits. Kevin had called and said he was stuck in traffic and would be about fifteen minutes late. We didn’t mind because it was good to stand there and stretch our legs. It was suppose to be the start of a hot and humid week in the Midwest but to those of us returning from Vietnam, this seemed like it was going to be a cool day.

Kevin arrived about the time he said he would and we loaded up his van and were off to his house to visit before heading for home. Kevin and Sue had things ready for us back at their house. Sue had to work so she wasn’t able to greet us. They had bagels from the Great American Bagel Shop, cereal, and cold milk. This was the best. Logan didn’t have any problem getting enough to eat this morning. Kevin and Sue had planned for us to spend the night, if we so desired, so they had dinners ready and everything. We felt bad about them going though all that trouble for us but we traveled 10 thousand miles and all we had left was 150 miles to get to our home so we just visited Kevin until noon then headed for Forsyth. It was great to get a chance to take a shower and freshen up at their house after the long trip. Sue called from work and said she would have some open time so we stopped by to see her before we left Chicago. When we got to Sue’s office, she quickly took Gracie in her arms and toured the building showing off the new addition to the family. Everybody there was excited to meet Gracie and her brother Logan. They had heard of our trip and were happy to meet us. After about an hour visit, it was time to get on the road for home. We appreciate everything Kevin and Sue had done for us.

Gracie makes it Home

As we pulled up to the house, we saw our house decorated with a big welcome sign with lots of balloons that Jennifer Voorhees put up. That was just the start of the great welcoming we got from friends and family. As we entered our house we noticed the big bouquet of flowers from Becky’s gym buddies(Dena, Kelly, Jenny and Wendy) on the counter. There was a large bag of Del’s popcorn for us, a Lady bug necklace for Gracie and a game called “Find it” for Logan from the Lamdins on the table. There was a note from the Kupferschmids that read “dinner was in the refrigerator and all we had to do was place it in the oven.” Audrey Kupferschmid made a great little notepad for Gracie. The house was already clean because Dena, Kelly, Jenny and Wendy had the house cleaned for us while we were gone. We hope we have not forgotten anyone who provided us with a special gift. If so please forgive us. We told Gracie there was going to be a lot of people that care about us when we got home and everyone proved us right. Over the next couple of days, other people brought gifts for Gracie and food for us to eat. The love and support from everyone here has just been remarkable and we know we are truly blessed.

Logan wasn’t in the house longer than 2 minutes and he was ready to run the neighborhood. Becky and I brought Gracie in the house and then started to unload the car and unpack. This task took about two days to complete because shortly after we arrived home many people stopped by. It was great to see everybody and Gracie took all the new faces in stride. The Allsup family was running on adrenaline by now. I thought I could stay awake until 9:00pm but this proved to be a challenge. I hit a wall by 8:00pm and actually fell asleep talking to Dee and Tim from down the street. I hope they didn’t take it personal.

Becky and Logan were quick to recover from our long trip but it took me a couple of days to get my energy back. I called my supervisor on Wed to see if I could take the rest of the week off and return on Monday since we thought we would be ready for Gracie at home before we left but we didn’t have the little things from the store. My supervisor, Ralph Smith, has been very supportive and I can’t express my gratitude enough. It makes me feel great knowing that my management and company really care about my family first and the job second.

We will continue to post to our blog as events occur. We have so enjoyed sharing our joyous time with our family and friends and will present this journal to Gracie when she will appreciate it and understand her heritage and her birthplace.