Coming Home - The Longest Day

We awoke to a nice winter morning - cold, calm and sunny.  Around mid-morning, I looked at my e-mail and saw that my cousin Joe had emailed that North Korea had launched a rocket to commemorate our visit. Even though the e-mail was in jest, we're thankful it turned out to be a non-confrontational event at least in the short term.  It's  easy to forget that South Korea is still technically a country at war - the Korean War never officially ended.  A cease fire agreement in 1953 has held off fighting, but a peace treaty was never signed.  I hope war never breaks out again on the peninsula again, but we're especially thankful it didn't break out today.  As I consider the rocket launch, my heart breaks for the people of North Korea - their leaders are worried about missiles while millions are starving as their country decays.  (After I returned home, I started reading a book called Nothing to Envy, that gives an inside look into North Korea and the lives of everyday citizens - it's an eye opener).

Most of the morning was spent packing.  We ate leftovers for breakfast - last night's dinner, tangerines from Jeju, leftover breakfast from the previous morning, a bottle of formula (well, that was Alex anyway).  We didn't want to take it with us so we tried to clear it out.  Packing wasn't the easiest task as the kids were getting a bit stir crazy and Alex wanted to discover everything.  But we finally got it together and decided to head out for lunch.  We had heard about this fast food bibibap place called BiBiGo on the Kimchi Chronicles.  According to their website, there is a location at Gangnum station, one subway stop from our location.   Gangnum station is a fairly major subway stop with underground stores and shops so I figured we'd go there and walk around to see if we could find it.  I tried to look it up on Google Maps, but reading Korean Maps is not an art that I've mastered.  Just getting the address typed in correctly can be a challenge.

Watching gimbap being made at Gangnam station

So we set off for our one stop subway ride.  We arrived at Gangnum station and walked around for 10-15 minutes and couldn't find it anywhere.  By then the kids were getting hungry and tired and we decided that we'd go for plan B which ended up being a little restraunt where a lady was making gimbap at the entrance.  We ordered up five rolls and took them to go - most of it was eaten before we made it back to our subway stop.  On the walk back to the guest house, we stopped at a street vendor's booth to get a snack of sweet smelling waffle-like dough cooked in a peanut shaped mold with an actual peanut inside.  It was pretty good.

Waiting for KAL Shuttle with all our luggage

When we returned to the guest house, Dana inquired about getting a ride to the bus stop where the KAL airport shuttle picks up.  It's only a five minute walk, but with our 19 different pieces of luggage (that includes camera cases and kid's backpacks), it was going to be an interesting logistical challenge.  Luckily, the SWS driver was able to load up our stuff and take us down to the stop.  We arrived in time for the 2pm bus, but as we were unloading, the bus came by and decided it would be too hard or too inconvenient to stop and went right on by.  So we had to wait a half hour for the next bus.  Luckily, the stop is by the Renaissance Hotel so we took turns going inside to get warm, visit the restroom, and look at their Christmas tree, which was nice, but not quite the same stature as the Millenium Hilton.

Our ride to the airport was uneventful.  We all caught a few winks of sleep which is always a good thing when heading into a 12 hour flight.  We arrived almost four hours before our flight, but the Incheon airport is such a nice airport, I could spend half a day there without feeling too bad.  Even though its bustling with people, it has an overriding calm about it - I think it's the way its designed. 

It took us a while to get checked in since we had to purchase a ticket for Alex and we also asked if we could have a bulkhead seat so we'd have a little more space and a place for Alex to sleep.  In the bulkhead, they can attach a bassinet so a baby can sleep there and it's helpful because there is no one seated in front of you.  At first the agent informed us we'd have to pay extra for those seats, but Dana pleaded and the gate agent was nice enough to snag three of the "premium" seats for us at no cost.  Ben and I were seated in a window/middle seat 5 or 6 rows up.

Ian, a proud big brother at McDonalds in Incheon

After check-in, we looked for a McDonald's.  Ben wanted another bulgogi burger before heading back so we found the only McDonald's in the airport and got him his burger while Ian and Cami went for the exotic chicken McNugget and fries.  We took our time since we had arrived early and then we started our way through security.  We got stopped for a suspicious substance in our bags and I realized I made a packing snafu by packing our citron tea in a carry on instead of a checked bag.  It's a gel like substance so it had to go.  I couldn't even give it to the security person, she just tossed it.

By the time we walked to the gate, which seemed to be at the farthest end of the airport, our plane was ready to board.  We were standing around chatting with Nancy Fox from AIAA when the gate agent ran up to us and told us to board first since we had children.  Even though it was Delta (sorry Delta, that's not a compliment), we were in Korea and children seem to have a special place in the culture and their gate agent made the extra efffort to offered us this courtesy.   I know airlines offer pre-boards to families with children in the States, but I can't ever recall a gate agent going out of his or her way to tell us we could board early.  And the way the airlines are changing, I'm surprised those pre-boards haven't changed so that only Platinum Elite babies get the courtesy pre-board.

So you might be wondering why I titled this post the longest day.  Sure, it was a long flight with a toddler who didn't know us, but Alex really did well on the flight.  He fussed a little, but we averted long fits of screaming and he slept for a decent portion of the trip.  The reason it was the longest day was the way traveling east messes with time.  We left Incheon at 7pm and arrived in Detroit the same day at 6pm.  While it's cool to travel back in time, I wonder if the exhaustion of travel correlates with the time traveled?  If so, I think traveling back more than a few days would kill me.

The kids watching the fountain in Detroit's Terminal A

After arriving in Detroit, we had about 3 hours before our flight back to Milwaukee.  It took quite a long time to get through customs because of Alex - only certain agents could process his paperwork.  We then acquired our luggage and had a few people ask if we were moving back to the states.  Maybe we did pack a bit too much!  On the walk to our gate, we stopped at the fountain in the center of Terminal A.  By the time we arrived at our gate, they had started boarding - only an hour to go before we'd be back in Wisconsin.  The flight to Milwaukee was uneventful.  After we got off the plane, we were greeted by our friend Kristyna Wentz-Graff, a photojournalist and member of Families Through Korea Adoption - Madison (FTKA).  She was kind enough to snap pictures of our arrival home.  The picture at the top of our blog, where we are in front of the Christmas tree, is her work.

A welcome home gift from our neighbors.

After our photo shoot, we gathered the luggage, then Ben and I took a few pieces and got the car and brought it around to pick everyone up.  It was a cold, windy night, but we were warm and cozy in the van as we headed back.  While we enjoyed our time in Korea, it was nice to be back in familiar territory - well, geographically speaking.  Four children is new territory.

When we arrived home, we were greeted with a clean, warm house and a gift of cookies and a basket of fruit and bread from our dear neighbors.  It was hard to get everyone in bed as they were excited to be home, but we eventually got everyone in bed.  We then proceeded to bring in our luggage and throw our house into disarray while Alex reminded us that we were not baby proofed!

So that closes our journey to bring Alex home.  While the trip was exhausting, we are truly blessed.  We were blessed to have three wonderful children when we started our trip.  Blessed to be able to bring everyone along and spend two weeks experiencing Korea.  And blessed to return with four children.  We thank the many people who have been praying for us - we really appreciate the prayers and hope you continue to keep us in your prayers as Alex adjusts to his new home.