Leaving Vietnam, Heading Home

Leaving the hotel with Thuy. Our trip and our adoption would not have been possible without her, and we are forever thankful!

When we were able to leave Vietnam a day early. Lori suggested that if we could, stay over night in L.A. before the last leg of the trip home to Miami. It was one of the BEST ideas ever!!!! Thank you, Lori!!

We left Hanoi Friday morning, Vietnam time was 12:10pm. We took a 3 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan. Chianna was very good on the plane ride and didn't seem to mind at all what was going on. Then we had a 2 hour lay over in Taipei. She really loved the moving walkways there and we took advantage of an awesome Hello Kitty Baby Changing room they have there. The Taipei airport is really amazing!






We also grabbed a bite to eat at the restaurant at the airport.





And then we boarded the place for the LLLLOOOONNNGGGGG flight to L.A. The flight was only 11 hours! Ughhh and the only reason I say "only" is because the flight there was 14 hours, but 11 hours with Chianna on the plane was more nerve racking than the 14 hour flight there!

Chianna fell asleep as we were taking off, we had decided to give her some Benedryl because we knew that otherwise she would have never fallen asleep and it would have been an even longer trip. But the problem was, we timed it wrong. She fell asleep just as we were taking off, and we thought we were good, but then about 45 minutes into the flight, they turned on all the lights and started meal service. This woke her up and she started to cry, then scream! Uh Oh! Everyone was looking at us, and I knew they were thinking "Is this going to go on for the next 10 hours?" So were we. I guess we timed the Benedryl wrong, we should have given it to her after we took off, not before. Also just a note about Benedryl, I know it may be a little controversial because it is not supposed to be used to help children sleep, but we were only using it in this case because its an extreme circumstance. Finally, Myke was able to take a walk with her and after about an hour, she calmed down. She decided to eat some of her dinner and then soon after fell asleep. So for over 8 hours of the flight, she was fast asleep. Myke and I were awake the whole time, making sure that she was sleeping and comfortable; dreading her waking up again, for fear that she would start screaming again! When we finally landed in L.A. we woke her up and got going to INS and then to our hotel room. It took quite a while to get through the airport and through customs ans then INS so staying over night in LA was just the best idea ever!

Not only, did we have a chance to rest a little and take a break from all the flying, but Chianna got to meet her Great - Great Aunt and Uncle!



Aunt Ruthie & Uncle Marvin live in Santa Monica and were able to come to our hotel for dinner. I was so happy to see them and so happy that they could meet Chianna and that she could meet them! While we were waiting for Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Marvin to arrive, we walked around the front of the hotel, they had grass and gardens and we are pretty sure that this was the first time she saw grass! Chianna also loved all the flowers. She says "ower" for just about every one she sees. Its one of the English words that she knows really well, she just can't pronounce the first part of the word yet. After dinner we took Chianna to the hot tub, which she loved (of course)!

We set Chianna up to sleep on the couch. When I went to bed, she was not wanting to go to sleep and she was standing up, leaning against her bed staring at me. I woke up to find this:


I guess she eventually just fell over!


Waiting for the airport shuttle in he morning. Chianna wanted to run through the fountain in the front of the hotel!