We're Here, but very tired!

Well after about 28 hours of total travel time, we have arrived safely in Michigan. The trip was long, but thank goodness the boys were well behaved and kept themselves entertained throughout the whole trip. We started off on the wrong foot when we arrived in Nartia by shuttle bus, and we got off at the wrong terminal. Unfortunately some idiot told me that American Airlines was Terminal 1, but really it was Terminal 2. The driver wouldn't take us back, so we had to find our way (with all luggage in tow) to a shuttle bus that took us to terminal 2. Some very nice Japanese men helped on and off, so we were thankful for that. The flight took off as scheduled and landed as scheduled. It was once we finally arrived in Chicago that we had problems. We got off the flight and proceeded to immigration (which is not as smooth as immigration in Japan). The line was very long- in Japan, people with children get to go to the front of the line. Not the case here in America. We got our bags and had to recheck them through to our domestic flight to Detroit. Once we got through that, the boys and I all had to go to the bathroom. Okay- this is not an easy task when a mom is traveling by herself with two young boys. In Japan, they have family restrooms everywhere, but I could not find that in the Chicago airport. I was not about to send my 7 and 4 year old boys into a public restroom while I waited outside. This I do in Japan all the time, but I do not feel it is unsafe to do there. Bathrooms are creepy, especially in this country. Patrick was not about to come into the women's restroom with me either, so I finally asked someone, and I was directed to a family restroom. Finally, we were able to go to the bathroom and brush our teeth. We had to go through security again before we headed to our gate. I guess I didn't put my laptop in the bin correctly, so therefore a very rude and impatient security man scolded me. I really wanted to tell him that he didn't want to mess with a woman who had just traveled from the other side of the world by herself with two children. Why the heck couldn't he just do it for me- really, my hands were full and I was more concerned with going through the checkpoint with my kids. We finally made it through and headed to L4, our gate for our final flight to Detroit. It was now 4:30, and our flight was scheduled for 6:50. Not the case, unfortunately. It was delayed until 7:25. We found something to eat and grabbed some empty seats so the boys could play. Finally at about 6:00, we checked the sign again, and saw that our gate had changed to H9, and the flight was even more delayed. At this point, we had been up nearly 24 hours, and we were beat. The last thing we wanted to do was trek across the airport to a new gate. Matthew was dragging at this point- but I could not carry the poor little guy. So, we walked (very slowly) to the new gate. We boarded the flight at 7:15, and we were just about to pull away from the gate when the pilot came on and told us that due to a very dark cloud and predicted storm, we could not pull away, and they had closed the ramp. We would have to sit on the plane and wait it out. Well, wait it out we did. We finally were given the go ahead to leave at about 9:35. By this time, both boys had given in to some much needed sleep. Before we knew it, we were landing in Detroit- I must have dozed too!! We had finally arrived! We had a two hour drive home, but Nana and Papa were there to drive us. By 3:00 am, EST we were all in bed, sleeping soundly with our little Jazzy dog, who was so excited to have us back!

I'll post more as soon as we are more rested. Just a side note- it is now Saturday morning and we have been up since 3:00 am!