There is no place like home

Just when you thought the Wizard of Oz theme had played itself out, I go and bring it back. Jack and I are home and very grateful to be out of the airplane. Jack was a very good little traveler and I had very few problems with him. In fact the stewardess on the last leg of our journey told me she has never had such a good little baby fly with her.

We finished our interview at the US embassy on Wednesday without any difficulties and returned to Bishkek that same night. We arrived at the Golden Dragon hotel around 9:30 that night and had a quick dinner before going to bed. We all woke up at 3am, packed our bags for the last time and loaded the cars for the airport. Sergei met us in the lobby of the hotel and escorted us through customs and immigration. After some minor hiccups, we boarded our flight for the first leg to Moscow.

The Moscow airport is much less dreary when sitting in the first class lounge. We were able to clean ourselves up a bit and have some food before boarding the longest flight of our journey to Atlanta. The flight itself was about eleven and a half hours and we flew directly over Germany, and Ireland before hitting Canada and entering the United States over Cleveland.

Atlanta is where we all said goodbye to each other and went our separate ways. John, Debbie and I all had a very short period of time before our flights departed and had to rush to catch our planes. Carolyn had a bit more time than the rest of us and we wished her well as we scrambled to our respective gates. I caught my plane with more than a few minutes to spare, and we had a nice flight to San Francisco where my family was waiting for us.

As Jack and I entered the baggage claim area, we saw Kate, Mac and my parents waiting for us. I was very tired and it was a bit overwhelming for me but I made it. Jack smiled as he saw his mother and appeared to recognize her. Jack put on quite a show and it was all very cute. We drove home and Jack and Mackenzie played until midnight before we all went to bed.

Friday was a rest day for Jack and I and we stayed close to home so we could recuperate a bit. Mackenzie and Jack are already very tight and Mac is bummed out when Jack has to go down for a nap. We plan on reminding her about this fact in a couple of months when he won't leave her alone. Jack is still adjusting to the new time zone and he is waking up at night expecting to see some daylight. Hopefully he will sleep through the night as he did in Bishkek sometime in the near future.

Thats it. The process has completed and we start a new chapter in the book from this point on. Jack is a now a US citizen and we are his registered parents. We have a bit more paperwork to complete, but we are finished at last. And just to head off any funny comments from some wisenheimer ***WE ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN, SO DON'T ASK!*** We are a very happy little family of four and plan to keep it that way forever. Yes, we are glad we did it, but it was a lot of work and we really only wanted a little brother for Mackenzie. We are very content with what we have and plan to enjoy it all to the fullest.

Thanks for keeping up with the story and I may continue to update this web page with Jacks progress over the next few months. I just won't be doing it on a daily basis from now on. Take care and keep in touch, we look forward to introducing Jack to everyone and spending some time with our family and friends. My parents are planning a large party at their place in June sometime and it will be a great chance to hang out and show Jack off to everyone. There are no invitations, just let them know your coming so they have plenty of food and then show up on the appointed day(s). You can email me if you have any questions. Hope to see you all there.

Scott