Flight recap

I posted these messages from my blackberry - but they did not make it to the blog:

We survived the flight from Hong Kong. It was long and painful. April and Bennett slept for a couple of hours, but since Mark had to be standing up for April to sleep, and Bennett fell asleep on my lap, neither Mark nor I actually slept much! We cleared customs and immigration in less than 30 minutes. They really have their act together in Newark. We spent almost 2 hours getting thru immigration in Charlotte when we adopted Bennett. We have a 3 hour layover, so we leisurely made our way down to our gate and grabbed a bite to eat. They just announced that our flight will be delayed 35 minutes. We just want to be home. Mark is trying to run the kids around to tire them out. I came down with a headcold some time during the flight and feel like crap. We are wondering how April's first night at home will go. Please send us happy sleep thoughts as Mark and I have been up for over 24 hours already and the kids are getting cranky and overtired.

It is 7:30pm and we are still in Newark. Delayed from 6:05, to 6:40, then 6:50, then 7:15 boarding, then 7:35 boarding and now due to maintenance delay, our new boarding time is 8:15. It is pouring rain and we are begining to wonder if we are going to get home tonight.

We finally boarded the plane and left the gate at 9:30pm. Bennett was asleep before the plane doors closed and was really mad when he woke up because he didn't believe we were in Charlotte. He thought we were still waiting to take off in Newark! We arrived to a very deserted Charlotte airport @ 11:15. Mark's parents and sister and brother in law were waiting for us at the baggage claim. Boy was it great to see them!! Bennett was so happy to see grandma, grandpa, Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike. We gathered our luggage and headed to the car. Thank goodness we had the family meet us at the airport. There was no way either Mark or I could have driven home.
April did great in the carseat - she seemed to like the view from high up in the seat. Bennett was happy to be "buckled up for safety" as he was quite concerned about the lack of seatbelts in China.
We pulled into our neighborhood and noticed 2 smiley face signs. We didn't think too much about them until we saw 2 more on the corner of our street and then saw our yard. More smileys than we could count and a big "Welcome Home April" sign. We were brought to tears - after such a long journey and to know how welcomed April would be. We love our 'hood!!!