Coming Home

2:30 AM, waiting for Niko to pick us up

America has never felt so sweet, nor home so precious.  Simple pleasures like toasters and bathtubs and rocking chairs have brought great comfort to three weary travelers.  We are so grateful to be home.  Jetlag still plagues us, and we're still suffering the aftereffects of culture shock, but we are doing well considering everything we have been through over the last 3 months.


Poor Aaron was so confused the day we left for America. He knew we were going on an airplane, but no one told him about the lines: lines for boarding passes, lines for passport control, lines for security checks, lines to board the plane. He waited with us patiently, but his distress increased as time wore on. By the time we reached the ticket counter after a solid hour of waiting, his eyes were beginning to leak tears. We didn't know how to comfort him, but we signed to him that we were indeed going to get on an airplane.


If you're an old hand at air travel, as we now are, you know that your best bet is to get your boarding passes for each leg of your flight at the first ticket counter. That way you know you have a seat on every flight, and you don't have to stand in line again for more boarding passes. We got our first boarding passes, but our second and final flight was overbooked by 21 passengers. There were no boarding passes available for our second flight. After everything that had gone wrong for us on this trip, we were virtually certain that we would get bumped and have to spend one more night away from home, this time in Frankfurt.


Aaron happily danced his way out of the ticket line, thinking we were going straight to the airplane.  His hopes were dashed again when we entered the passport control line. Again the tears began to leak out of his eyes. We could not console our little guy, who understood only that we were not fulfilling our promises. We handed over Aaron's passport, and the officer left his stall without comment, leaving us to wonder where he had gone and for what reason. At least five tense minutes passed before he returned, handed us the passports and waved us through. Aaron perked up again, only to face another disappointment as we entered the security line. When we sat down to wait for the boarding call, his disappointment was too much to bear. He fell apart, tears pouring down his face. We bought him a drink, gave him comfort foods and tried to convince him that all was not lost.  Since he could not see an airplane from where we were sitting, the child must have been convinced that we were the biggest liars he'd ever known. 

     Finally we were able to carry the child onto a real live airplane.  He was beyond happy.  The entire short flight was pure joy for him.  We could not have asked for a better behaved little boy. 

Fortunately, the overbooking problem didn't materialize, and we were able to get seats together on our next flight with just a bit of wrangling. Our sigh of relief could be heard across the ocean.  From Germany to Virginia, Aaron watched cartoons and was just as happy and content as if he had been flying his entire life.  He slept for only a few minutes on each flight, so by the time we arrived in Virginia he was fairly exhausted.  This may explain why he elected to stick out his tongue at all of the family and friends who came to greet us at the airport. This was a bit of an unexpected greeting, since we had never seen Aaron stick out his tongue before. Fortunately, everyone took it in good spirits. Hopefully that will be one of those memorable moments that Aaron will never be able to live down.

     After a rough first day at home, Aaron has settled down. He's even made friends with our golden retriever, Summer. We expected dog trouble because everyone in his village treated dogs like, well, dogs. Our biggest issue is finding food that he will eat without crying in frustration. He is happiest with fruit, yogurt and cucumbers, and since all of these are healthy foods, we are quite happy to oblige him. Of course if there happens to be a bit of candy or chocolate on the counter, he will happily eat it as fast as his little jaws will go!  He also thinks that cake is worthy of his attention, and he doesn't mind potato chips either.