Headed for home! - August 6 - 7 (Day 31)

Well, it’s a wrap!  We left our hotel at 9:30 AM this morning for our 12:00 PM flight and landed in Chicago at 12:00 PM CST.  Loving United!  We were bumped up to the section just behind first class with extra leg room (marathon gods are looking out for me) – AND our pilots got us there an hour early (12 v. 13 hours!)  Yay!

They still like each other after all this togetherness :)  Here Caden gives Lily a leg massage and Lily tolerates an unwanted Gigi-Monster hug in the lobby of the Cordis Hotel.

The kids loved the hotel robot!  He began each encounter with "nihau".

We've got this bag thing down to a science!  The kids did great with their own packs, rolling up their clothes in the space savers, and doing it quickly for each of the 10 stops on this trip.  Very proud of them and their ability to maneuver so well in the different airports and cities.  They have a travel confidence I did not acquire until much, much later in life.  It is awesome to see.

My seat partners / Word Brain / solitaire / movie watching partners for this flight.  

 And of course, my napping buddies too :)

So the Asian Angst Adventures have officially come to an end.  What a truly unforgettable and growing experience!  We have all learned so much about different cultures and different foods.  I am so grateful for this time together as a family.  I have asked the kids throughout what their favorite experiences were each step of the way, and the list keeps growing.  First and foremost for all of us though would have to be the people.  From China to Hong Kong to Thailand to Cambodia, we were greeted with such warmth and kindness from the people we encountered.  We witnessed so many different levels of economic prosperity.  All of the people we encountered exhibited such warmth and kindness, and such pride and care in their work.  Our hearts are forever changed.  I can see it firsthand in the kids and hear it firsthand in their prayers at bedtime as they ask to bless those we encounter.  We are eternally grateful to have the time and resources to have these experiences, and we hope that we will always be mindful of these blessings and how we can hopefully use these blessings throughout life to help and serve others.  

We made it back to South Bend at 4 PM.  Stopped at Pannera on the way home.  We are really going to miss the phenomenal food!!!