Bogota to Midvale in 16 hours...

We made it. We are home. Yesterday was quite a long day, as one would expect with flying from Bogota to SLC, but it was relatively good. We woke up early, rousing the kids from bed so we could get something to eat before we left, and headed to the airport at 7 AM. We needed to get there 3 hours early to guarantee us enough time and I thought we had plenty of time. But really, we didn't. After getting to the counter quickly we were held up for several reasons: first, the change in tickets confused the counter attendant. Second, they hand searched one of our bags, which took longer than I thought it would. Third, there was a mix-up at immigration in which they looked for our papers in our folder but did not find them. So I was sent back to the counter to check with anyone I talked to about getting the paper back. Nobody had them, so I went back to immigration only to find them with the papers! They didn't look hard enough. Five of them could not find it until after I left. Anyhow, we got through with no problems, but with only a few minutes to spare before boarding. Janine quickly got all the kids to the bathroom, and the time we planned on spending our last Colombian pesos were spent shuffling the kids to and from the bathroom. Anyhow, we made it on the plane, sitting in the fron row, which was very nice, as we had plenty of leg room and space for the kids. Juancho started fussing as we left the gate, and he fussed for about 40 minutes, but finally calmed down. I know that both he and Andres were pretty tired, and Andres proved as he fell asleep shortly after take off. Juancho found that his favorite place on a plane is on a blanket on the floor. He did wonderfully as long as he could stretch out and lay down on the floor. Andres and I had no one next to us, so he was able to stretch out on the seat as he slept. So 4 1/2 hours later we landed in ATL and were shuffled through customs and immigration. We ended up sitting and waiting for a while as they went through our packets of paperwork, but finally they approved everything and let us know that our kids were now welcome to the U.S. and would be able to become citizens when we go through the proper channels. We were sent on our way with little time left to catch our flight to SLC, so we hustled through more security (ATL security is not friendly!) and had to pull our kids out of the way of a thousand jerks whose time was more important than the safety of our kids (seriously, how can you just run over kids?!?). Anyhow, we made it to our gate with little trouble and even less time. Janine again got the kids to the bathroom (really not an easy task at all) and when she was finished I got a bunch of grub at Chick Fil-a', as we were informed that there would be no meal on the plane. Oh yeah, we didn't have seats together at first, so I talked to people at the counter and got moved up from row 23 to row 10, got seats all together, and moved from zone 8 to zone 1. It was nice that they worked with us so easily. Anyhow, we ended up boarding with zone 3 because the food took so long to get ready, but we made it on and ate before we took off. Juancho did much better taking off this time, and we thought the boys would sleep early on, but they were up for much of the time. We were all very tired and a little cranky, but we managed to make it through this flight, too. The boys had different times of fussing, but really did very well considering how long of a day it was and that it was only their third flight ever. It always helps (when they are fussing) that everyone thinks they are so cute (they are).

So enought about jets. When we touched down at SLC, we were anxious to be done with a day of flying and anxious to see our friends and family. After the long walk through the terminal ( I think our gate was actually in Ogden!) we were greeted by our friends and family in baggage claim. It was so nice to see everyone, to share hugs, and for everyone to meet our children. The boys were so tired they didn't really care, but Shirley enjoyed seeing people and even cracked a couple of jokes (displaying her wondeful sense of humor). She got to hang out with Arleth and Nohemi, girls who she has already talked to on the phone during our time in Bogota, so that was nice. There were about 15 of our friends/family there to meet us, which was so nice. Thanks to all of you who came! It was awesome. 7-UP: whose the chump?

After we collected our bags and had our fun greetings we left for home. The boys liked their car seats (as they could sit higher and see everything out the windows) and I explained to Shirley that in the U.S. she needs to be buckled in. We will need to get a new car, though, as ours is pretty tight for the three of them (with car seats) in the back. We made it to the house (my driving was not at its best, after not driving for a month) safely and the kids loved the greeting we recieved (balloons, welcome signs, etc....thanks all!) and toured the house with balloons in hand. They explored their room for a while, and the rest of the house for a bit, but it was late and they were tired, so off to bed pretty quickly. Our heating bill will now go up as we try to keep the kids comfortable (imagine, a guy from Alaska being comfortable in temperatures colder than kids from Colombia, hmm.) Anyhow, it was so nice to get home, to sleep in our own bed, to eat a bowl of cereal, to see friends and family, to wake up and drink coffee from home (good coffee!). I am so happy that the kids seem to like it here already. It will be fun to see them today when they are rested. We may try to see how they react to Pakak today, at some point, and we will need to get some shoes for the boys at some point, so we will be somewhat busy today. We are just so happy to be back, to have our kids at home, to begin our lives together here as a family.

Thank you all so much for your comments and for reading this blog; you don't realize how valuable your little comments on here were.

Thank you to all who prayed for us, as it was felt so often and seen in so many ways.

Thank you to those who participated in the Valentine's Day fun package, as it was a wonderful taste of home.

Thank you SV for keeping our house from falling apart. I really hope you enjoyed your stay. You should move to the neighborhood!

Thank you Chocolate family, for being our contact, for paying bills, for being so much more to us than you could ever imagine. We will walk the dogs together again soon!

The Shinn family is home, it is hard to believe, but it is true. God has blessed us in so many ways, with our children, with our trip, with our friends and family. Glory to God in the highest.

We know that we cannot see everyone who has faithfully read our blogs and participated in our journey, at least right away, but we look forward to the day that we can meet, that you can meet our children who are even more lively and so much cooler than what we could ever explain or write in our blogs. Thank you all, with much love.

Stay tuned, too, as the fun has only started. The blogs will continue, for sure.

The song for the day is "Conventional Wisdom" by Built to Spill...