We did it! We flew out from Hong Kong to go to Chicago. We had the issues with the first flights through Air Canada where we had the 26 hour layover in Japan. That doesn’t work. You’re not allowed to stay overnight in the airport.

My mom was able to get us flights through Eva Air flying through Taipei. On the way to the US, we had one layover in Taipei. Going back to Hong Kong though, we had a layover in Seattle and in Taipei.

It was crazy because there was a typhoon coming in on the day that we left. It was at T3 when we flew out and turned to T8 when we reached Taipei.

It was so exciting to finally find our way out of Hong Kong.

To go through Taipei, we did have to get a PCR test the day before. In Hong Kong though, it’s super easy to find a place to get that test done.

Going through Hong Kong Airport though was so much easier than I expected it to be.

The longest part was going to the airline counter to get our boarding passes. There was no one in security. There really aren’t a lot of people traveling.

In Taipei, we weren’t allowed to go anywhere. We were told to stay on the plane if we are transiting through Taipei. We were given stickers to color code us into connecting flights. Then we were taken to a room where we had to stay for the entire time until we were going to board our next flight.

When it was our time, they led us to another room that looked exactly like the room we were in before. It was completely disorienting.

After a 13 hour flight, we were finally in Chicago. Finally in the US. It took us quite a while to get through immigration and customs.

My mother and brother both came in to pick us up from the airport. Our flight came in around 8 PM, and we were not through to get through the hoops until almost 10 PM. After that, we drove the 2-3 hours back to my parents’ home in AR.

My parents were in the process of moving to Tennessee and were supposed to be out of the house before the 1st of July. We were originally going to stay in a hotel in my hometown, but my parents decided to give the kids one more opportunity to spend time in the home they had basically grown up in.

It was so good to be home. It was so good to be with our family again. In the past, I had struggled to be in the house when I was with B. Again (as with last time), I didn’t have those struggles. It was just so good to be home. I was in the home with my siblings and parents. My youngest sibling, M was already in Tennessee with her daughter and soon to be husband, so it would be a few days before we were going to be able to them. It was a little over a week before the wedding when we got there.

We will have a month to spend in the US before returning to Hong Kong. Upon our return, we will have to complete a week (7 nights) of quarantine before we can return to our home in Ma On Shan. Not looking forward to that part, but that is a problem for future me. For now, I am just so happy to be with my family.