Delayed in Chicago

Many of my most faithful of blog readers meet us at the airport but I feel the need to complete the blog of the trip anyway.
The flight out of Korea was delayed by over an hour. Asiana airlines apologised, said they would make up some time in the air and then served us the worst food ever (it wasn't so bad going over). The flight was eleven hours and the children slept a lot of that. Overall it was uneventful but late. Our connection in Chicago was already a little tight (2.5 hours but there is a LOT to do) so when we arrived over an hour late, we made a made dash to customs. We headed to a gate and handed the officer our "brown envelope" from the US Consulate in GZ. He accepted it with total confidence (unlike our experience with Michael), put it in a pink folder and confirmed that there was no way that we would be making our connecting flight. (We knew that but you've got to try, right?) Next we had to reclaim the luggage - all of the luggage - and head to the next stop that is only for the adoptive parents. We were told to lay our pink folder on the counter, push our luggage to the wall and have a seat. No hope remaining, I called Uncle Jimmy, who would be picking us up and alerted him to the uncertainty of our arrival. Once our names were called we had the luggage scanned again (Why?), and headed to the United Airlines counter.

Somewhere in this confusion our Kai Shui Hao became a US citizen and lost her Chinese citizenship. Such a huge moment that passed by so unceremoniously. A life altering moment. As her parent, I can only hope that as an adult she views this moment to have given more blessings than losses. Welcome to America, Kailey Shui Hao. You are loved.

At the counter of United Airlines, we were greated with the news that another flight to Louisville was available in just two hours. We started to call our friends and family to alert them to the delay, only to realize that they were all already in the Louisville airport awaiting our arrival. Darn you, Asiana Airlines.