Headed home with a new US citizen

The last several days have been busy. Day before yesterday we journeyed to the US Consulate in Guangzhou to take an oath for Charlotte and picked up her visa and the famous "brown envelope". Yesterday, we journeyed back to Hong Kong by train with two kids in tow. Thank goodness for Daniel's mother. Roller bags and amazingly well behaved kids in tow we made it through all of the temperature checks, immigration, etc. As we left China I felt a sense of sadness for Charlotte that I also felt for Catherine. This brave little girl is simply trusting us to love and care for her as we leave the familiar sights and sounds of her home. I know that she will no longer have congee for breakfast and her native language of Cantonese will shortly be lost forever. This morning we left Hong Kong quite early though Charlotte had been awake since 3AM and did not restfully sleep again. The Hong Kong airport treated us well with some Popeye's chicken (yeah baby!!) for breakfast. Any other time I would be disgusted by that but it was so good. The flight was quite brutal. The adrenaline of the journey over is gone. Fifteen hours with a squirmy two year old and a tired grumpy five year old is simply not fun. Daniel and I were certainly in the tired and grumpy category as well. We did purchase Charlotte a seat so she had a little more room to squirm. Unfortunately she is too young for the AV entertainment and is in the throw, laugh and hope for adult pick up stage. The floor of an airplane is simply disgusting if you have never had the opportunity to check it out. Luckily, all of our bags made it to Newark and we had no problems with immigration (brown folder was intact) . Charlotte became a US Citizen under an IR3 visa when we landed in Newark. Unfortunately, the stuffy customs and immigration folks did not allow photos so we only have memories. We are now waiting for our luckily direct flight from Newark to New Orleans and crossing our fingers for no delays. We have eaten a yummy salad and enjoyed several unlimited refills of iced tea. We are dirty, eyes bloodshot, and exhausted but thrilled to be almost home. China was 13 hours different so Hong Hong's days are our nights. The acclimation was really rough when we returned home with Catherine five years ago. Catherine will start 1st grade next week so we hope that it goes a littel more smoothly this time. We will be in touch when we get settled.