We came to the United States via fiancée visa; it took our papers 9 months from the time it was filed and until it was approved. Finally, on February 9, 2009, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Manila, Philippines) we flew by EVAIR flight BR 272 –Manila-Taipei, @12:45pm. While inside the plane, my eldest son Miguel quipped by telling me “Mama, this is for real, I couldn’t believe that we’re flying and I’m experiencing this at 7yrs old. I’m only 7 but I already had a lot!” I laughed and hugged him, while my youngest Gabie was just pleased by merely staring around. The flight took 2 or 3 hours and before 4pm we reached Taipei Airport. Since our next flight to Los Angeles will be 10:35pm I decided to ask the ground attendant for a place where we can stay and preferably with a playground for my kids, I wasn’t sure if she understood, she instead got my boarding pass and gave me 3 complimentary meal ticket worth 180TWD each! We used the meal tickets but consumed only 150TWD each as our stomach were about to puff, and thanks to my excellent metabolism I got the chance to visit the airport's bathroom thrice. We walked around inside Taoyuan airport until we found the playground and stayed there killing time.

Exhausted and sleepy it was like forever waiting for the Taipei-Los Angeles flight, but sure it did paid off as we got a nice seat beside the window, which widened my boy’s eyes. As soon as the pilot announced, “take off” Miguel buckled up, beamed and said “ Welcome America!”It was the longest flight of my life- thoughts were gushing; moments from now we will be living in the “worlds most powerful country” will we make it there? Will my kids like it? Will my marriage work this time???…And so it went…

When we left Taipei it was midnight and upon arriving Los Angeles ironically because of the time difference it was still midnight. As a procedure, we passed the immigration; a Filipino officer interrogated us and had our passport stamped with an I-94 (arrival-departure, port-of –entry). I asked him if he knew where I could have my $100 bill changed so I can give tip for the porters, and I was surprised when he said, “why not give it all? anyway you’re here in America” WHAT??????? $100 for a TIP???? That’s almost 5k in Philippine peso!!!! Is this man CRAZY? without faltering I thanked him grabbed our passports and headed to the gate. We spent the night in Sheraton hotel,and we're lucky that one of the hotel attendant was a Filipino who helped us all the way in our room and he was kind enough to politely refused the $5 bill as my tip, at least I had not given up my hopes that there are still Filipinos out there with a kind heart unlike that immigration officer.Since we slept on the plane, my kids got hyper especially Miguel so I got the chance to take pictures even when we were inside the room. The following day, February 10, we flew from LA-Atlanta, this flight experienced a 30mins. “Air traffic” delay, miserably, I asked one of the steward because given the situation we might miss our connecting flight- our final destination – Atlanta to Gulf Port, Mississippi. It was 9pm, when we landed at Georgia, Atlanta we only have 30mins to catch our flight and the “last-schedule flight of the day”. Atlanta is one HUGE airport! one need to take the subway train to get to the other terminal as they always change terminals. As expected we missed our flight. I phoned my sister and told her everything and she talked to my husband CN and they decided to book us in Hilton hotel, GA, Atlanta and re-booked our last flight the following day at 11am.We slept the whole night, woke up at 9am and though we wanted to avail of the complimentary breakfast we just couldn’t afford another delay so I began packing our clothes making sure we didn’t leave anything. It only took us less than 3hours to reach Gulf Port and at last, there he was “My CN, the man in my life waiting…” and I just knew Im home ... this is AMERICA!