Three o’clock in the morning came very fast. Somehow we all managed to get dressed and do our final packing before Ramon showed up. We had checked out the night before, gotten all of our money and passports, and paid part of our bill, so we loaded up the car and got ready to go. Ramon graciously also gave us some gifts, including a T-shirt for Brian. I think he felt badly that our money was stolen and our credit cards cancelled and we couldn’t shop.

The streets were dark and relatively quiet and we made our way to the airport quickly. Doug paid Ramona and we said good-bye to him. We were so thankful to the Lord for bringing him to us. Even before we were out of the car, the searches began. At least we didn’t have to worry about terrorists with this flight. The car was searched as we entered the airport and I lost count quickly at home many times we were searched and went through check points. We waited in line for a while to check in, then went to pay the tax for Jonalyn. We also had to pay an airport tax and we didn’t have enough pesos. I explained all of this to the woman and she allowed us to use our American money. We had left ourselves about $75 to get home. We made our way through immigration and all that other wonderful stuff and found our gate. Again, it was a large area with several gates in the same space. We had to go through security yet again to be allowed into the gate area. We had to sign out in order to go to the bathroom, which we had to do several times over the course of our couple of hour wait. There were also shops behind us, so on one trip to the bathroom I took ten dollars and bought a Filipino doll for Jonalyn. This was the only souvenier we were able to bring home. At last they called our flight and we boarded. Doug sat by the window with the girls and Brian and I sat across the aisle from them in the middle. He gave Jonalyn some polvoron when we took off and she did just fine – no tears or anything. She really behaved beautifully, sleeping, playing with play-dough, coloring, and eating. Again, my food was terrible. Brian spent his time watching the movie. In front of Doug there was a Filipino couple with their very spoiled daughter. She was terrible, standing up, turning around, talking, whining, crying, and getting everything she wanted. It made me proud of how my children behaved.

After four hours we arrived in Japan. We went through security and found our next gate (through more security again. We were getting to be experts at taking off our shoes and getting everything on and off the conveyor belt quickly.) The girls and I went off in search of a bathroom and waited in line to use the facilities. It came to be our turn and the stall door opened to reveal a squatty potty. There was no way I was using it and no way I could help Jonalyn with it. I had seen some other stalls open and they had western style toilets, so I turned to the Caucasian woman behind me and told her to go ahead. She turned to the Asian woman behind her to told her to go ahead! After we took care of that, we found the play room again for Jonalyn. She played there for a while, but it was soon time to board our plane for the very, very long flight back to the States. Next to me was a woman with her three or four year old son and her six month old daughter. She was living in Japan with her husband, but going home for the holidays. Alone. No hubby. The little boy watched some cartoons on his I-pod, but didn’t know how to keep his hands to himself. The baby cried and screamed. I felt sorry for the woman in a way, but I was also so tired I had little sympathy for her if she felt she could make a trip like this without help.(I’m not a very nice person when I don’t get enough of sleep 🙂 The girls slept and I managed a little bit, but Brian again didn’t sleep at all but watched the movies instead. Our mid-flight snack arrived and they made a mistake and gave me the real snack – a piece of nut bread. Oh, that tasted good. I was very, very hungry by this time. At long last we landed in Minneapolis. It was such a wonderful feeling to be back on American soil. The lines for immigration were short because we had to go through the line of those immigrating to the U.S. The man took our packet, which we had guarded with our lives and kept unopened, looked at it, studied Jonalyn’s chest X-ray (there had been some questions about her T.B. test in the Philippines), stamped our passports, and we were through.

We had a bit of a wait for our flight back home. I just prayed that the woman with the children wouldn’t be on our flight. She mentioned to the flight attendant before we landed that she had a layover about the same length as ours. We had some McDonald’s and I ate well. Never had it tasted so good because I was starving. Next time I’ll just take my chances with a regular meal. I should be able to find more that I can eat that way than I did with the special meal. Then we walked a long way to our domestic terminal. Finally, Brian hit the wall. He layed down on the cold, hard floor and slept. And snored. We all had a good laugh at him!

We boarded our plane for home with excitement. It was a short flight and we would soon be home. They pushed us away from the gate. Then the engines stalled. I couldn’t believe it. The pilot tried to start them again, but nothing happened. Tried again, still nothing. Finally, they coughed to life. I was about ready to get off and would have if I could have. I thought for sure we would crash. We had made it so far only to die a few hundred miles from home. We should have rented a car!

We did manage to get into the air and I held my breath all the way. Fortunately, the flight was so short we didn’t even have a chance to finish our sodas before we began our descent. It was wonderful to see home appearing below us and to recognize landmarks. There was even snow on the ground.

We used the restroom after we disembarked, then made our way down the concourse. My parents and sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew were waiting at the end for us. It was great to see them. Jonalyn was a little bit shy, which was great to see, but smiled at them some. We talked for a while, but we were so tired and really wanted to get home. They brought our car and Mom put a chicken casserole in there for us for dinner (we arrived home about 5 p.m.) Home looked wonderful. We showed Jonalyn around and she seemed to like the place and her toys. We ate and were all to bed very early.

So ended our journey to our daughter. But the journey to becoming a real family had only begun and continues still, more than a year later.