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Jackson and I have been home in Japan for a week. It's been a long week of readjusting. He couldn't be doing better, I on the other hand am struggling. I'm tired. Tired might be an understatement. After such a huge trip and a massive time change, it's silly to come home and just expect to fall right into a normal sleep pattern. I feel like going to bad at 4 in the afternoon, but I try and hold out until 8 with my eyelids drooping, and then I'm up before the sun ready to start my day. I'm working on it though. Jackson seems to be in perfect adjustment. Sleeping full nights and even taking naps during the day. You'd never know what we went through just to get here.

The trip. Oh my goodness! I for some reason don't take myself seriously every time I promise myself that I will never make that trip alone with Jackson. Maybe I forget how hard it is or maybe I'm just a gluten for punishment. Either way it's never easy. This time around wasn't as bad as it could have been. It certainly wasn't a cake walk though.

On our long flight over to Japan, 12 hours feels like it will never end. 3o minutes felt like 6 hours. I somehow managed to switch seats with someone, bless them. My original seat was the very last seat in the back of the plane, against the window, with Jackson sitting on my lap. I switched seats with someone who had two empty seats next to them. So I had my own seat and Jackson had two seats. This made things sooo much easier. Entertaining him for that long was the hard part. He had no desire to sleep, despite the fact that he was exhausted. After all our flight was a night flight. I can honestly say that he was the most well behaved child on the plane. He did the best he could have in that situation, and when we landed in Tokyo, I thought, so far so good.

Now came the hard part. Customs. 3 suitcases and 2 carry ons. A stroller and a cranky boy. By myself. I got a cart, got my luggage off the carousel, and loaded it up. Pushed the cart overflowing with bags and a stroller.....at the same time.....through the long customs line. We made it through, but then had another obstacle. We had to get out to the hotel shuttle before it left. I pushed the cart and the stroller outside and across the street. Jackson crying all the way. I knew he was so tired. We loaded onto the bus and rode the 15 minutes to the hotel. Tokyo Hilton. What a beautiful hotel. With full room service. I took full advantage of that. Jackson and I were tired and hungry. We showered, had a snack, and went to bed. We slept well, but woke up early to get ready. We had another plane to catch.

We somehow made it back to the airport, in a very similar fashion. We ate breakfast while we waited to board our plane. Our second flight was small and very uncrowded. In fact we had a whole row of seats to our self. Jackson slept for almost the entire 2 hour flight. He woke up just in time to get changed before we landed. As I got off the plane, I remember feeling proud of myself. I told myself that I was an international traveling guru, and with an 18 month old to boot....wow I'm good! I know that I can do just about anything, but it feels good to have such a big reminder.

We had to get our bags before we could venture out to meet Brandon who was waiting for us. What a happy reunion. Jackson hadn't seen his daddy for months. He was a little shy at first, but warmed up pretty quick. And I...couldn't have been happier to see my love, my heart beating fast and butterflies in my stomach when I saw his face. This is where we are meant to be. Here as a family. Home.