Saturday - HOME!!! and Medical Update!!!

Continuing from Friday's Farewell post:

After just a couple of zzzzzz's, we headed back to the airport and were ready to go home Saturday morning! Magnus enjoyed roaming all over the airport with me while Mike and the girls kept all the other StL travelers company at our gate. I only mention this because a simple interaction warmed my heart and made me so thankful to be back on American soil. A woman mentioned how beautiful Magnus was as he toddled around. I thanked her and said that he was the newest American citizen as we had just arrived from China. She said, 'I had a feeling', looked in his eyes and proceeded, 'God has big plans for you, little one.' Oh ma'am, no truer words have ever been spoken! I will never forget her loving and kind words to my son. They were just what we both needed, maybe me more than him!

After a quick up and down flight, we recognized our sweet home St. Louis! Since we had already dealt with Immigration and Customs in Dallas at 11pm Friday night, we walked right through the airport to a loving crowd of family and friends! An amazing photographer, a fellow China adoptive mom, was there to capture our homecoming pictures free of charge. I now belong to another great community! We were so thrilled to be welcomed home so lovingly and were so appreciative of our dear ones for being there. I know many of you couldn't make it after our return day was switched from Friday to Saturday and although I was so sad for that, it was probably best for Magnus to have a smaller group. We stayed and chatted for a bit and then made our way across the river to Troy, IL! 

We arrived home to balloons, 3 sets of welcome home signs and several gifts on our front porch. Have I mentioned how awesome our village of family and friends are?! The next couple of days can be summarized quickly. They involved severe jet lag that we are still adjusting to, a much anticipated return to school by all 3 girls until strep throat hit for all Duff females. Craziness! We are so thankful Mags didn't get it and Mike's immune system is of rock star caliber so he was clear. 

Today is Wednesday and it was Magnus' first cardiology appointment at St. Louis Children's Hospital. I have had many requests to post about it here so I appreciate you patiently waiting throughout the day today! I wish I was more eloquent right now but this jet lag is really doing a number on the functionality of my brain cells so here it goes. We have been anxious yet overall peaceful for this day to come. We were anticipating answers to questions about his past and, more importantly, his future. With tearful eyes, bursting hearts and hands folded in prayers of thanks, we are excited to report that Magnus's cardiologist strongly believes he will have a full biventricular repair surgery!!!!! That means he can have a fully functioning heart!! She was in awe of him and was quite smitten as he charmed her, a fellow and a resident. Watch out ladies, we already have a heartbreaker! We spent almost the whole morning there where he had an Echo and EKG. There are many details but the most important are: 1. we believe we can stay here in St. Louis for his surgery, 2. there is no urgency in timing because he is doing so well so maybe surgery will be scheduled in the summer or later, 3. he will need a sedated cardiac MRI or cardiac cath before surgery and 4. we will know more after his already-beloved cardiologist speaks with the surgical team. 

So to all of you who have been praying for our Magnus, thank you from the deepest part of our hearts. We believe in the power of prayer and yet again, God has taken us into His loving and protective embrace. Although I have dreamed of Magnus's future and what it may look like, I have feared how his story may end. Of course the fear will always remain. I have it for my healthy children. But there is a tremendous weight of uncertainty that is slowly being lifted and replaced with so much hope! Tonight, sweet dreams little one because tomorrow is Day 1 of the rest of your LONG life!! You are a miracle, my Magnus! And I don't know what I would do without you! Thank you Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

Forever Thankful Duff Family of Six!!

Friday - Farewell China

Friday was supposed to be our only day of travel but once we found out our plane was delayed by 7 hours, we knew it would be a two day trek home. Blah! On the bright side, the delay gave us a little more time in China so we decided to have a relaxing and long breakfast and then walk a couple of blocks to the Aeon store that we had heard so much about. We had been wanting to get there all week but it wasn't ever a priority and never made it onto our itinerary. The girls were excited to go because they had heard from their friends that there was an awesome play area. Well we heard it was quite expensive so we prepped them that maybe we wouldn't partake but that all changed once we saw the place. Leave it to the Chinese, it was so cool! At first we only had the girls playing in it, not wanting to overwhelm Magnus, but soon realized he would have a blast in there too. Mike and I took turns shopping and playing. The store is like a very, very nice Target and I have yet to meet a person who doesn't love them some Tarjay! I found some wooden toys for Magnus and a pair of squeaky shoes which I was determined to find...to Mike's dismay! He searched high and low and found...a door mat. Hahaha, I love this man! We stayed for quite awhile and then headed back for some lunch and relaxation in our room for the last time. We weighed our suitcases and said, 'sayonara' (wait, that's Japanese, right?!). We said 'bye, bye' as they do in China.

Our agency arranged a private van to take us to the Hong Kong airport and we were met by our guide, Elsie, who had just arrived from Nanchang. Sadly, we didn't get to say goodbye to our favorite guide, Sarah. We left some gifts for her as well as unused scabies cream and lice treatment for the next families who may need them. Thankfully, we didn't! We hopped in the van for a long 3 hour ride to Hong Kong. Our driver was nice but apparently had never dealt with children or cracker crumbs in his life because he expected his van to remain impeccably spotless. Uh, that's not how we roll. Nope, not with hours in this confined space. After several minor spills and one small vomitting session from Mags (which was quietly and swiftly cleaned up), we arrived at the airport. I wish we could have spent several days in Hong Kong. It was so beautiful with lush, green mountains, beautiful bridges connecting the island and numerous skyscrapers. 

After throwing some last minute items in one bag, we somehow were over our 50 pound limit and had to do some rearranging. We then needed to waste several hours and luckily happened upon an available table in the food court after searching for nearly 20 minutes. We headed to our gate where we were then ushered to another gate. Oh no, not again! We had been put through the ringer so many times in airports that we surely thought we were running into a another roadblock. Luckily and shockingly, we boarded our plane right away. I had been dreading this part of the trip for months. I expected it to be a disaster and prayed for a smooth 13 hour flight to Dallas. Just like time and time before, my prayers were answered and we pretty easily made it to the U.S. of A. I changed Magnus into his red, white and blue outfit right before we started our descent. I was overcome with the anticipation of our landing. As soon as those wheels hit the runway, our son was an American citizen. The magnitude and privilege of this is not lost on me. He will have endless opportunities here and have a promising future in our wonderful country.

My moment of sentimentalism was quickly overshadowed by the predicament we had to deal with since we missed our connecting flight to St. Louis. We traveled with another adoptive family from Omaha who we instantly adored earlier in the week. American Airlines was sending us to the same hotel, a Days Inn. After pure chaos, miscommunication and waiting for over an hour at 11pm at night, both families took taxis to the hotel. Now as you know, we are not hotel snobs by any means but after nearly 3 weeks in 5 star hotels, the Days Inn was quite disappointing. The trail of blood from the hallway into the elevator (you can't make this stuff up!) and the dirty kleenexes and old sheets in the pull out couch were enough to have us running for the hills. Truthfully, we were too delirious to really care at that point so we carefully avoided everything gross. We quickly went to bed and were all ready for the excitement that Saturday was to bring!

'Chinafied' Duff Family of Six

Thursday - Last Full Day in Guangzhou

Sorry that we are a few days behind on the blog. We will post a few short ones to close out Chapter 1 of Magnus' story.

On Thursday in Guangzhou, Dana had lined up a photographer to come to the hotel and take some professional pics. She is an American whose husband works in Guangzhou. It was (of course) spitting rain and overcast, but that didn't stop us.  The hotel was beautiful and the photographer knew about a spot in the back of the grounds that we hadn't even seen. It was a very tranquil koi pond with some bridges and gardens. We haven't seen the final product yet, but I think we got some good ones. Here are a few pics that I took of the area.

We then hung out in the room for a bit and packed our bags in preparation for leaving the next morning. We had been told there was a play area in a shopping mall across the street.  We decided to head over to the mall and see what we could find.  On the way, we ran into some robots.  Literally!

The mall was VERY high end. We went up and down and around, but couldn't find the play area.  We ended up going across the street to another mall that seemed to somehow be connected to the other, but we couldn't figure it all out.  After roaming the floors for a bit, we finally found the play area.  The kids had a good time working out some energy.

Around 3:30, Dana wanted to go back over to the pearl market. She wanted to take a cab and head over (just her and Magnus). I was quite uncomfortable with the idea, so I convinced her that it was best that we all stay together and go as a family.  As we were walking through the lobby to the cab, Sarah (our genie, I mean guide) once again appeared and asked if we needed help with anything.  She also asked if we had checked the flight status, because another family's flight home had just been cancelled.  We looked it up quickly and that is when we saw that it had been delayed for almost 8 hours.  Here we go again!

Sarah said she would call American Airlines for us to see what options we had and then would call our room at 7:00.  We hopped in a cab and took a 20 minute drive to go the 5 miles to the pearl market.  We were able to get in and go back to the same store and communicate what we wanted to purchase.  The ladies in the store remembered our family from a couple of days before and appreciated that we had come back. 

After leaving the store, that is when things got real.  We walked outside to hail a cab back and the first one drove right past us.  Then the next one.  And again and again.  We tried changing locations up and down the street, but it was no help.  We watched as multiple cabs pulled up and told us no, but then allowed other people to get in.  This went on for about an hour and it was starting to get dark.  A crowd was forming to basically watch us struggle and stare at us as we failed to catch a cab.  I was feeling quite helpless as I couldn't get my phone to work and had no way to contact anyone.  Finally, we changed locations and found a cab driver that was willing to take us back to our hotel.  Again, it was only a couple of miles, but the traffic was so bad that it took us almost 50 minutes to get back to the hotel.  I paid the cab driver double the fare (still less than $20 US dollars) as a thank you for helping us and hopefully helping out the next stranded Americans someday. 

By this time it was almost 7:00 and we hadn't eaten and didn't know what was going on with the flight.  The girls had been troopers through the whole thing and we had promised them a treat and that they could play in the playroom.  I went out and grabbed some food and Dana took the girls to play. Magnus was sound asleep at that point, the poor little buddy. 

We ended up hearing from Sarah around 8:30 that she spoke with American Airlines and the delayed flight was still the best option. They acknowledged that we would miss our connecting flight to STL, but would put us in a hotel for the night and on an early flight Saturday morning.

All in all, it was a very stressful evening/afternoon, but we made it through.  The delay did give us a bit more time on Friday morning to do/see some things before taking the 2:00 van shuttle for the 3 hour drive over to Hong Kong. 

Here are a few other pictures.

Once Again Delayed Family of Six!