Coming home

We're over the Norwegian Sea, somewhere between Scotland and Iceland and about eight hours into a 14-hour flight. I have no idea what time it is, but it was 11:50 p.m. India time when we left Delhi. So far, this little child who has never been on an airplane is doing amazingly well.

This afternoon, we flew out of Chennai to Delhi, a 2.5-hour flight that would be the first test of whether Niranjana would freak out over going way outside her norm and into an airplane. Instead, she sat on Mommy's lap, learned the words "Airplane" and "Helicopter," then promptly fell asleep in Melissa's arms until we arrived in Delhi. Despite a somewhat-hard landing, we still had to awaken her from a heavy nap.

Delhi and Chennai have separate airports for domestic and international flights, so we had the driver my mother will use for the next 21 days pick us up, take us to her hotel (really more like a B&B), then drive us to the international airport. Everything was quite confusing, but we managed to get our checked baggage scanned and find the Continental counter.

Niranjana is traveling on an Indian passport, and that throws up all kinds of alarms wherever we go. At the Continental counter, we were thoroughly grilled about her and our bags. The gentleman spent several minutes inspecting the sealed envelope we will present to immigration in New Jersey. We finally passed some test in his eyes and moved on to the ticketing agent, who was extremely pleasant but was having troubles getting the printer for the boarding passes to work. Meanwhile, our little one badly needed to use a bathroom, and Melissa was not about to subject Niranjana or herself to one of the public toilets.

We finally got our boarding passes, then we had to go through Indian immigration, which meant filling out three forms and presenting them, our passports and ourselves to an immigration officer. He inspected us and everything else, then began to ask questions, such as how we found this child, was this our first child and why we chose India. To the latter, I nodded toward Niranjana and declared, "India is a beautiful country with beautiful people!" He replied, "The people are beautiful. The country is not." Interesting perspective.

Finally, we arrived at the first-class lounge, and mother and daughter were able to get to the A-plus restrooms sans accident while a weary papa enjoyed a complimentary Kingfisher beer.

As I've written, Niranjana is quite intrigued by photographs, and I've loaded the 791 we've taken so far onto the MacBook, and we began to thumb through them in iPhoto. Niranjana is easily able to identify herself and us ("Mommy!" "Daddy!"), as well as my mother ("Amma-ji," my mom's nickname, which means "paternal grandmother" in Hindi). We hit a group taken at her orphanage, and she named off all the children who have been her friends, as well as all of the caregivers. Amazing. She'll also say, "Pussycat," on photos of our kitties, and we even have her identifying Cate in some pictures.

I have been stunned over the past two days at how quickly Niranjana is picking up English words. I expected a little bit, but not at this lightning pace. She can say, "Thank you, Daddy," when I hand her a treat (though she usually just takes it then sticks her hand out for another), and she is able to repeat many words Melissa teaches her. Once she and Cate spend some time together, I think Niranjana will rapidly be on her way. Niranjana also talks along in what we think is Tamil, her native language. However, it could just be 3-year-old babbling. We will never know.

When we boarded our flight from Delhi to New Jersey, everyone was subjected to another security check (for us, this was the fifth grilling we got between the time we arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport and when we finally got into the plane). At our seats, Niranjana immediately learned how to push the buttons that cause the seats to recline (much to the chagrin of the guy behind her who has a broken leg) and how to push the "call attendant" button in the lavatory. It was closing in on midnight when we finally lifted off, and Niranjana already was curled up in her blanket and pillows, fast asleep. She slept nearly eight hours through dinner, several patches of rough turbulence and every person walking by wanting to talk to us about this beautiful and charming child.

So much for airplane travel being an issue.

We'll get into Newark about 4:30 a.m. EDT (where I hope to find wi-fi so I can post this), go through customs and take her through immigration. It's a bit eye-opening to realize Niranjana is coming to America on an immigration visa, not simply the travel visas the rest of us are used to. She has left behind everything she's known and is starting life anew in America. And so are we.