Though she’s been in our hearts for many years, this is how long we have enjoyed the blessing of having Claire in our arms.  Our lives have been forever changed.  And WE LOVE OUR LIFE!

Also here are a few pics of Claire with some of the balloons from the forest brought inside, plus another balloon bouquet brought to Claire by a dear friend.  We thought she might fly away – she’s so little and insisted on holding as many balloons as she could all at once!

We are not sure what we did to get to enjoy the blessing of such supportive & thoughtful friends!

They couldn’t get us all on the same row.  Sandy and Claire were together (they almost told us they couldn’t even do that!!!) and I was 1 row behind in the middle seat between to big guys.  OUCH.  Not good for me.  I’m not exactly Tiny Tom, so I was pretty squished the entire flight.  I didn’t get any sleep (over the 10 hour flight) and therefore arrived in LA not feeling quite like myself.

One very cool thing happened in LA which I should mention.  We had been told NOT to enter by the US Citizen line at immigration because Claire was not yet a citizen.  So we did as we were told and got in a HUGE line waiting to pass through.  A worker came up to Sandy and told her to go sit down and she would grab her and Claire when it was our time.  Then another worker talked to Sandy and asked if she was a US Citizen.  She explained our situation to the officer who then told Sandy that the consulate didn’t know what they were talking about … of course we could go through the citizen line.  Well, sadly, the citizen line was also HUGE … but was moving a bit faster … so we switched.  Immediately upon switching, another worker asked us about our situation.  We told her and she said … “You know, why don’t you move over to line 16.”  Well, line 16 had a few people in it … but it was “rope closed”.  I expressed that and she waved off my question and opened the rope for us.  This line had like 4 people in it and I think was some sort of VIP line for returning US officials or something, because they would only allow a few people in it at a time.  As I started to move, the guy behind me also started to move.  The lady looked straight at him and said, “I didn’t say YOU could move … get back in line!”  Wow … VIP treatment.  God bless the USA.

Anyway, we made it through and then had to go the immigrant processing section.  There were like 3o people waiting there.  I gave the officer our paperwork and he told us to go get our baggage.  We finally found our baggage, but not until after I helped a lady who needed a bag off the carousel.  As I grabbed for it I noticed something on the handle.  Something like honey had spilled either out of or onto her bag at the handle area.  Fun for me.  I felt less gross after a couple of wet wipes and we headed back to the immigrant processing section.

We arrived and the officer said, “This your kid?” As he held up Claire’s paperwork.  I responded,”Uhh, yes.”  He then handed me the stuff and turned away.  I asked, “Is that it?”  He gruffly responded, “Well, unless you want to chat for an hour or two … I’d get out of here if I were you.”  Duly noted and quickly exited.

We then made it to our gate for the flight to Salt Lake.  I was now operating on less than 5 hours of sleep over a 48 hour period (didn’t sleep well the night before we left) and really wasn’t feeling well.  As I was paying for some food at a counter, I literally “drunk stumbled” away from the counter and almost fell on my rear.  Not pretty.  The flight home was good and I actually got 20 minutes of real sleep.  That made all the difference and I was ready to be home.

Arriving home was AWESOME!!!  Please refer to the pictures below.  Somebody (genius) had loaded up the area with balloons.  It couldn’t have been a better move.  Claire loves balloons and they were the perfect diversion to help her deal with all of the attention she was getting.  We had a ton of family there and it was so great to see them all.  I think my favorite was when Seth came running up and jumped onto me.  Love that boy.

Our family finally united together.

The group at SLC Airport

We spent about an hour with everybody at the airport before heading home where we found our house decorated by our good friends.  Again, balloons everywhere and a cards stuck to the garage and front door.  Most of the balloons were staked into the grass.  So Claire jumped out of the car and ran through the “balloon forest” for 10 minutes before she even went inside … simply fantastic!

Since that time … we’ve been trying to get back into the “swing of things”.  Sandy and I have not recovered well from the jet lag yet after a week.  Lack of sleep drove me to a nasty cold/flu that I’m currently dealing with.  I wake up faithfully at 2:30am each night and can’t get back to sleep.  So I continue to operate on about 4 to 5 hours per night.  Last night was my best night so far at 6 hours!!!

I had a rough couple of days last week as Claire lost complete interest in me once her brothers and sister showed up.  It really was a bit tough for me to swallow as she wouldn’t even look at me let alone talk, cuddle or play with me for 3 days.  She’s back, though, and doing well.  She loves Seth, Kate, Zane and Grant and will spontaneously grab their arm and kiss and hug it.  She loves for Seth to hold her and can’t get enough of Kate.  As I said, all is well.

I will try to be better about keeping this updated … particularly for our friends in China and Canada.  We’ll be out of school in a few weeks here and will start regular trips to Cherry Hill, our local water park … can’t wait for that!

Also, please notice that there are a couple of new posts below as I’m trying to finish up before we leave in the morning.

See you soon!

We then jumped on the train to make our way up to ShaTin … the first and last area of my mission.  It was so great to see ShaTin park and the ShaTin Center.  It’s interesting … because I know I keep saying how much things have changed … ShaTin really hasn’t very much.  I felt like I was back home.  We walked the bridge where I did most of my “finding” while in that area … surreal experience.  Claire played in the park and we just relaxed while walking through one of the most beautiful community parks I’ve ever been in.

We then jumped back on the train to head up to TaiPo which is very close to the Chinese border and is the area where I served the longest (a total of 8 months).  We headed to the church first and checked in with the bishop.  We still had an hour before meetings and so we headed out to the market area for a bit.  This being my longest lived area … it really felt like home.  It’s not as pretty as ShaTin … but it was where I did most of my work and where I saw most of our success in terms of teaching and baptizing.

We then headed back to the chapel and I saw two members who were still in the ward from when I was there.  Brother Lam who I recognized and Sister Wong who I really recognized … it was great to see them.  Even better, the bishop is close friends with two of the three people I was hoping to see (but didn’t because they have moved to different areas of Hong Kong).  I gave him a couple of my cards and he is going to pass them along.  One of my friends is now the stake president of one of the stakes here … crazy!  He also had some information on one of my closest friends while here in Hong Kong … Leih Yuk Bong (Leo).  Apparently he has moved to California and the bishop has lost touch with him.  I’m going to see if I can track him down so I can see him next time we’re in Cali.

Overall, it was a great trip out to the New Territories where I served most of my mission.  It is all so beautiful and worth the time spent.

Claire was dying to get back to the pool this evening … so that’s where we headed (no arm twisting needed).  Some more time was spent in the “experience shower” and we ordered a “Mondo Mango” smoothie to sip on while in the hot tub mini-pool.  Seriously … I might come back to Hong Kong next month just for another couple of trips to this pool/spa!

I’m now currently typing this last message and it is 11:45pm on Sunday night.  Sandy and Claire rounded out the evening watching the Hannah Montana movie.  Claire liteally was literally bouncing on the bed with excitement and “singing” along by the end of the show – apparently she loves Hannah Montana (and Justin Bieber, she really liked his music video when we were flipping through channels and saw him on MTVChina one day – thanks Kohl and Keaton!)   We’ve packed everything up and will be headed to the airport at 11:30am tomorrow morning.  We are so excited to get back home and unite our “more complete” family together.  Can’t wait to hold Seth, Kate, Zane and Grant and let them hold Claire.  Can’t wait for Claire to finally get to know her amazing brothers and sister.  Can’t wait to start our “new normal” and bond more fully with Claire.  Can’t wait to see you all.

So that’s it … I’m trying to get this all done before we get home because I have little faith that I’d get finish up once home.  I expect the mad crush of reality will be flattening me in about 48 hours.

Thanks so much for following us all on this journey.  We feel so blessed to be completing it and heading home.  All has gone well and we couldn’t be happier right now.  Sandy was a bit weepy about an hour ago just thinking of how blessed and lucky we are RIGHT NOW.  While the last four years of tears and frustration were very real … they seem small now.  How blessed we are to finally have Claire in our lives.

LOVE YOU ALL!

OK … so in yesterday’s post I mentioned something that would keep us off the streets of Hong Kong and inside … the hotel pool and spa area.  Seriously, folks … it’s ridiculous!  If you ever have the chance to stay in Hong Kong … choose The Mira.  We knew they had a pool … we just didn’t know how beautiful the pool room was or how many other incredible amenities would exist.  There are some pictures and a video we’ll include here … but I fear they don’t do it justice.  Let’s start with the pool …

It’s beautiful … it has one of those drop off edges so it looks like the pool just terminates in the air.  Then, they have very relaxing music playing all of the time … and it’s also playing under the water, which is awesome.  The pool “furniture” consists of modern/urban round fabric lounge beds and fabric “sun chairs”.  It’s an indoor pool (which I normally don’t like) with a ceiling that is constantly changing colors and has “twinkling star lights” for lack of a better word.  You can order drinks while lounging in the connected hot tub mini-pool.  Before you say “totally disco” out loud, just trust us, it’s ridiculously serene and relaxing. Oh, and the temperature is a nice reasonable “warm” … leaving no room for anybody to get the mistaken impression that Tom screams like a little girl while entering a swimming pool.

Onto the changing/”room of complete awesomeness” room … The changing rooms consist of a dry sauna, a steam room, a private gender only hot tub (for clothes free soaking I guess), full private showers, a few “rinse off” showers and … relaxation beds:  Seriously, full on beds with semi-private locations where you can fall asleep and just relax.  AND BEST OF ALL … an “experience shower”.  Let me explain what this means.  When you enter the shower you think it looks like just a normal shower with a few extra shower heads around the sides.  But … then you notice three little buttons about eye height labeled “Fun”, “Fresh” & “Tropic”.  Pressing one of these buttons automatically changes the room into a haven of comfort and exciting possibilities (some guy from the East Coast said it was like a human car wash … but he clearly didn’t see the vision of it all).  First the light changes to green, blue or red and then the over-head water plate starts “raining” on you.  The water options will rotate between a heavy jungle like mist, to side jets massaging you, to the over head plate either raining down on you torrentially or just with a light drizzle.  It lasts for about 3 0r 4 minutes and then … you can just push the button again!  Sandy and I have agreed that if we ever move, we will put one of these in our house before a silly theater room – who needs to watch movies when you can spend all day rotating through various shower programs?  (although for the record … I still want one of those too).

So, again, coming to Hong Kong … stay at the Mira and plan at least one extra day to do nothing but hang out in the pool and spa.  We didn’t get massages … but totally would have if not for more important responsibilities (Claire).

It was actually tough to leave the hotel after our first experience at the pool/spa … but we’re glad we did.  We took a quick trip to the Hong Kong Temple to take a look around.  This was Saturday … so the mission offices were closed and nobody was really around.  I was there when they broke ground on the site … but never got to see it even reach beyond the property wall.  It’s beautiful and so great to see a temple in China.  Really an amazing blessing for the members in Hong Kong.  I feel silly to have the section about the temple be less than half of that about the pool … but honestly, there wasn’t anybody around and all we could do was look.  It was beautiful.

We then grabbed lunch at Cafe de Coral … a great little find that we lucked into on our way to a different place.  It’s kind of like a Noodles & Company with awesome Chinese food.  Claire loved it, we loved it … a win all around.  And the Coke was the coldest thing I’ve had to drink in the past 2 weeks+ … aaahhhh!

We then headed over to Kowloon Park so Claire could play on the play sets again.  I headed to ChungKing Mansion to try and find some Bollywood movies … success!!!  ChungKing Mansion is one of the few places I wouldn’t let Sandy and Claire go into.  It’s fairly seedy and about the least safe place you can experience in Hong Kong.  But it also houses tons of international souvenirs.  So, when in search of Bollywood … that’s your best bet.  I totally found a movie I’ve been looking to buy for the past year … and it was only $3 USD!  Om Shanti Om is the name of it … if you were wondering … and it’s awesome (and yes, there is singing and dancing in the movie, and no, I am still not ashamed to admit that I love it).

That night we headed back to the harbor to take in the night time view.  Once again, beautiful and awe-inspiring.  They apparently do a light show now at night … so we watched that for a few minutes.  Not bad … but not Disneyland quality.   (apparently we think the Disneyland light show is the apex of all things light show – maybe we aren’t that well traveled?)  We treated ourselves to a McDonalds’ double fudge sundae as we walked back to the hotel.  Kinda like the chicken and beef, somehow McDonalds ice cream taste’s better in Hong Kong, too.  Okay, maybe nearly everything is better in Hong Kong . . . but you probably already know that I feel that way.

Sandy and I then watched Om Shanti Om after Claire fell asleep … Sandy said she enjoyed it, even though she was asleep for about 1/3 of it (but in her defense, it was really late at night, and you do have to read subtitles).

And for a bonus, Sandy got a good long soak in our awesome bathtub using this made-from-fresh-fruit-and-vegetable  ”bath bomb” I bought for her here.   It was all “sea weedy” and smelled awesome.  We all slept well that night.