New York! Just like I pictured it!

We were up pretty late last night packing. We had to be up at 5:00 am, So this will be a short post.
We got up and got the two children dressed and ready for the long day.

Our driver picked us up at 6:15am for a 10:00am flight. We loaded our ten tons of luggage into his car and drove through Bogota for what may be our last time. I tried to soak in the sites and burn them into memory, but we know how that goes. After a while, the memories fade of the minute details. And all you have is the photos.

We get to the airport in only about 20 minutes. Once at the airport, we unloaded our ten tons of luggage. We get a sky cap and have him tow our luggage into the terminal.

Once inside, our driver told us to hang out and wait for him. So the sky cap and the Carman family waited for about 15 minutes for Mauricio to return. He had to go pay the airport deportation tax. That is a tax that every person leaving Colombia has to pay. It costs $50 U.S. per adult and about $30 for James. But you can not get your boarding passes unless you have a receipt of payment.

Then we had to go towards the ticket counter. Our sky cap had to unload the little luggage cart and place it on the floor. So I gave him a $3000 peso tip, which was my last of the pesos. He counted it and stood there. He said something to our driver, who then asked me for more. Some pair, huh? I told him that was it, I was tapped out. So my driver gave him some more.

We had 5 check on bags, two of which were over the allowable weight. The airlines wanted us to pay $75 extra per suitcase. But Mauricio talked them out of it. So he was good for something after all.

They did ask Linda to step to the side so they could open one suitcase. They took everything out of it. I was stuck at the counter getting our tickets. Linda gave Mauricio the baby, and James was basically roaming around doing whatever he wanted. After about 2 minutes, Amelia started screaming and crying, but there was nothing either one of us could do.

Finally, after almost 25 minutes, we got everything approved.

We then walked to the gate, but not before stopping at a place to buy 10 bags of Colombian Gold.
Coffee that is. So whomever would like to come by for a cup of joe tomorrow, we will be serving between 8:00am -10:00am.

Mauricio walked us to the gate and we bid our fond farewells. I just remembered that he never gave me the change from the $300,000 pesos I gave him for the airport tax. Which was about $230,000 pesos. Scum chicken!

We had to wait about an hour before we could board our plane. Amelia was great this whole time.

Our flight was 5 1/2 hours long. Amelia had about 3 outbursts through out the flight. Each lasted about 5 to 10 minutes.
We all have heard the one about being stuck on a plane with a crying baby, Well now we were the ones with the crying baby.
I was a little freaked by the whole experience, but Linda handled it very well.

Everybody napped for a little while, and all in all in hindsight, the flight was not bad.

After we landed, I was ready for an experience that we had when we came home with James. Especially after Sept, 11th.

We were the last ones off the plane. We than had to go through immigration which felt like 3 miles from where we got off the airplane. The last time we had to wait on line for about 30 to 45 minutes before even reaching an immigration official. This time we waited about 30 seconds. The guy told me to take the sealed package that the U.S. Embassy gave us and hand it to any officer near the exit.

I did and he told Linda and James to sit and wait while I took the baby to the office of immigration/department of home security. Last time we had to wait about an hour before we were seen. This time it was about one minute. By the time my name was called, and I got to the counter, the guy was handing me Amelia's passport back and said good luck.

From there it was on to baggage claim. Last time, at least a 30 minute wait. This time about 3 minutes. I gathered my 10 tons of luggage on to a cart and we went off to U.S. Customs. Last time we waited for customs at least 30 minutes, and were asked a bunch of questions. This time we walk in the guy says were you in Colombia for business or pleasure? I said to adopt this beautiful baby girl, point to Amelia. He looks up, smiles and says how long was the adoption process? I say since August. He says that's great, have a nice day and congratulations.

We went downstairs, and there was my mother waiting for us. I wanted to have the video camera ready for that, but didn't get a chance. James ran to grandma with big hugs. He then introduced my mom to his new baby sister. It was very nice.

From there we went to the car, hopped in and started home. The last time we came home, we had landed in a blizzard. We were supposed to be home by 7:00 pm but because of the snow, we didn't get home until 4:00am. This time, other than being stuck on the belt parkway for a little while, we were home by 6:20pm. About 3 hours less then I anticipated.

We came home about 10 minutes earlier than we should have. We caught Linda, Michael and Matt decorating our house with welcome home signs and balloons. And a red carpet was laid out from the stoop down the walk, good idea Matt!

My sisters and their families came over with some pizza's which the three of us ate and cherished. Linda went out to get Mrs. Henriques to come back and meet Amelia for the first time.

It is now 10:15, James went to bed about 20 minutes ago and is out cold by now.

The baby is in her crib, in her own room.

Now that we are home, it is like the last two weeks never happened. Driving home on the crappy belt parkway at about 8 miles per hour, made me kind of miss the lush tropical Andes mountains of Colombia.

But in actuality, It has never felt so good to be home.