The three of us made it back to the states, but just barely. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, I offered Ella and Sterling swimming lessons if they didn’t stop screaming! In all fairness, it was a lot of traveling for two five month old babies. We traveled through 13 time zones, and 7,158 miles to get back to the US. We left our house in Korea at 5:30am on Sunday, and went to the Daegu airport where we caught the 7:20am commuter flight to Incheon International Airport in Seoul. Unfortunately, there is only one 35 minute, commuter flight from Daegu to Seoul on Sundays, so it meant we had to wait at the airport for ten hours before our flight back to the states left.
Sterling was a "lap passenger" on our flights. This is him on the first leg of the trip- before the ten-hour layover! Here’s Ella during take-off. 
She’s must be a pilot’s granddaughter to be able to sleep through take-off without even waking up! A ten-hour layover is rough for just about anyone, but with two small babies in toe, it was a nightmare! Luckily for me, the airport had a very nice “baby room” with two cribs a changing table, and couch available for us to wait in, so at least they were able to lay down for a couple brief naps. It was nice to have cribs to put them in, but they weren’t exactly conducive to sleeping long periods because the loud P.A. system that runs in airports announcing fight changes, security information, etc. And let me tell you about what a nightmare getting through security 3 times, and customs twice was! The TSA rules state that you must carry your baby through in your arms when passing through security. Great plan if there’s only one baby per adult, but I had to figure out how to put our carry-on luggage, the stroller, and car seats on the x-ray belt while juggling two babies. I preformed acrobatic stunts that I’m not sure don’t qualify me for cirque du soleil!
At one point I decided to take them for a stroll through the airport- very bad idea. I wish I could accurately describe the mania and excitement at seeing twins in Asia. Statistically speaking, people of Asian decent are the least likely to have twins, so seeing a double stroller full of babies causes quite a scene. I get so tired of smiling and nodding my head at people who want to stop, stare, or exclaim in a language I’m unfamiliar with. So many people would carry on a whole excited conversation with me, and I had no idea what they were saying. I’d just nod at the words I recognized. For all I knew, I could’ve been agreeing to sell the babies on the black market! We did get to meet the first pair of twins we’ve met in Korea so far. This little old Korean lady came up to me and was trying to explain something to me in Korean about “song-doong-ee” (twins), pointing at herself. I was lost at what she was trying to tell me until two little twin boys ran up to us. Apparently she was the grandmother of these twins. The entire family was so excited to meet us- they even took their picture with us!
During our stroll through the airport I decided to get lunch from Korea’s version of McDonalds, Lotteria. I wasn’t completely sure how I was going to order, with my very limited Korean. Finally all the attention the twins draw worked in my favor. A teenage girl walked up and asked in very good English about the babies. So, I asked her if she could possibly help me order some food. She was happy to, and very excited to be speaking in English to me. She had grown up in Korea, and was traveling to the US for her second time ever to attend college at Buffalo State College in NY. I wished her good luck with all the snow up there! She ordered me a rice and kimchi burger and a cider (Sprite). The burger was, well, it wasn’t the hamburger I was expecting. Rice I’m good with; kimchi, not so much. I think kimchi might be the national food of Korea. They eat it at every meal, and I have no idea why? It’s disgusting! It’s cabbage that has been pickled and spiced with red pepper. Gag.
Sterling also proved to be the little ladies man while we were waiting on our flight. Once we were able to check in with Delta, we got through security, and went to one of the restaurants in the terminal to eat dinner before we left. I was still very hungry after an unsatisfying lunch. I had Ella sitting on my lap and Sterling sitting in the stroller. All the waiters, and flight attendants on their layovers kept coming up wanting to see the babies. And Sterling was just eating it up! He’d just smile and bat his eyebrows at everyone who was fawning over him. He’s so his father’s son! Ella on the other hand is getting dangerous. When you’re drinking out of a cup, you literally have to hide it from her, or she’ll grab it and put it up to her mouth. She REALLY wants to drink out of a cup. I think it’s about time to pull out the sippy cups! She also managed to burn herself (very mildly) by pulling the food I was about to eat out of my chopsticks. It landed directly on her arm, and caused her to scream. It left a little red spot, but certainly nothing serious. I think more than anything she was just shocked at the sting.
By the time we finally took off for the states at 6:05pm, both babies were absolutely exhausted and out of sorts from having spent the whole day in the airport. Needless to say, Sterling spent the first 30 minutes screaming bloody murder before he finally passed out. They booth barely got any sleep on the plane, cat napping for about 45 minutes at a time here or there. We also had a lot of turbulence, so that would wake them every time they’d fall asleep. And I don’t even want to get into how unhelpful Delta’s fight attendants were! Last time they were super helpful, but this time I had to beg for help just to be able to use the lavatory one time during a 14-hour flight! By the end of the flight all the passengers around us were running to get off the plane. They also proceeded to scream all the way through customs and baggage claims. I have never in my entire life been so happy to see my brother, as I was when he came to pick us up. We finally made it out to mom’s house by 8:45pm after traveling for over 28 hours. Never again- never, ever again.
Daddy's going to miss his babies.
Poor Michael. He's sooooo sad to have Ella and Sterling go back to the states. Of course he knows why we have to be with Mom right now, but that didn't make saying good-bye to his babies any easier. I bet he's going to miss listening to Baby Einstein!
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