Arriving in Vancouver, Canada!

I explained in my last post why we arrived in Vancouver stinky and exhausted! We came through Customs and went straight through Immigration without much of a wait at all. Finally our Ayana and Moses were landed immigrants of Canada, we had done it. They were home with us at last. We asked the Immigration official to sign something special for them in their papers and he wrote, "Welcome home to Canada" What a feeling.

The euphoria faded somewhat as we came to realise that all of our bags except one were missing plus our stroller. Is it possible for bags to go missing both ways on a journey? I suppose it is. Is it possible that it always happens to us? I suppose so!

I had a moment of madness where all the frustration, stress and my general feelings of being overwhelmed rose to the surface and got the better of me. I saw a BA official, explained our situation in no uncertain terms to her ("We have been traveling for two days with 5 children, one of whom has very bad diarrhea. Our bags are all missing again..DO SOMETHING") and then we just said forget it. We want to go home. We will deal with the bags another day.

We left baggage, walked around the corner and were met with the loudest cheer, whoops of joy and delight, banners being waved and an enormous crowd of friends and family waving and crying. They had been waiting to meet us for almost 2 hours as we went through Immigration/ Customs and tried to find our bags. The picture above is of us first walking through...I still cry when I think of that reception. (I'm crying as I write this)

After all that horrific journey, after almost 2 years of waiting to bring the children home, after tears and ups and downs, we were home. Our family and friends were there to welcome Ayana and Moses into their new community. I was bowled over by the emotion on people's faces as they met them for the first time and it became so real to me how very special and "wanted" these children are. While we have been waiting, so have our friends and family, it was incredible. I have to say that it was one of the highlights of my life to be greeted and welcomed by that crowd of special people. I will never forget it.