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March 28th 2015
Published: March 30th 2015
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We made it!

Throughout our trip, I had worried sporadically about the flight home (although I had admittedly never envisaged that it would be cancelled or that we would be trudging to the hotel on foot). My concerns had centred more around how Sammy would cope with a 9-hour-plus flight.

Ironically, the kids were absolutely fantastic (which was doubly impressive, given that I'd had to wake them at 4:00am for the flight home). I was the problem (as usual, many would mutter).

Having survived three weeks in China with nary a sniffle - despite a pharmacopoeia of medications in our suitcases - two hours before we landed, I felt really ill. Whatever it was, it was definitely gastrointentional. I felt as though I was experiencing what the Pentagon calls "unrequested colonic hydrotherapy". I was scared to move a muscle for fear that things would begin coming out of me from both ends, like someone smashing a chocolate croissant. I felt like someone had taken a toilet mat, steeped it in an old mop bucket filled with Christopher Pine's urine, then left it sitting in the sun for a few hours before jamming it into my colon and now that bulky, terrible mass was fighting for consciousness.

Unfortunately, I had cockily left the Panadeine and Immodium in the suitcases, due to our seeming invincibility against any health threat China could hurl at us, not anticipating a fall at the final hurdle.

Sammy seemed to understand, as he kept patting me and trying to pull the airline blanket over my head. Fortunately, Marvellous MayaTM came to the rescue. She entertained Sammy for the rest of the trip, and behaved impeccably throughout Immigration, baggage collection and Customs. She pushed the trolley full of suitcases to the taxi rank, helped put them in and engaged Sammy in a little game while I lay groaning in the back seat, much to the bewilderment of our taxi driver. Fortunately, Wenxian had taken Noodle to her house for a final goodbye, so we didn't have to worry about Sammy's reaction to her.

I just fell into bed, moaning insensibly. Marvellous MayaTM re-engaged and took it upon herself to make scrambled eggs in the microwave for everyone (cleverly placing my dish in the fridge for the morning). After she fed Sammy and took him to the loo, she placed him in my bed and crawled in after him and we all fell into an exhausted sleep. I woke in the middle of the night to find Maya cuddling him in her sleep.

It was a heart-warming end to a very stressful, but incredibly rewarding, journey. Both Maya and I feel so lucky to have Sammy in our lives. We can't believe how amazing he is, given his first three Dickensian years in an impoverished, heavily-polluted orphanage for disabled children. I know that he will enrich our lives as much as we hope to enrich his.

Thank you, my wonderful friends, for coming with us on our journey.


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30th March 2015

Welcome Home
Hello Gordons. Welcome back to town. We're glad to have you and the Nintendo back in one piece! With the last piece in place as it were. Looking forward to meeting the new Gordon! And so when's Maya making us all scrambled eggs for breakfast?
30th March 2015

Welcome Home
What a nightmare trip home! Thank God for small Miracles (meaning Maya)...I hope you are all well and happy...
30th March 2015

Welcome Home
What a nightmare trip home! Thank God for small Miracles (meaning Maya)...I hope you are all well and happy...

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