After disembarking from the plane Nathan and I walked down the halls of the airport with our sleeping daughters, towards passport control. This is where things get tough. There are two lines; a line for international entrants and a line for Australian entrants. I am Australian but my girls and my husband are American. I can't leave Nathan to hold both babies. I can only imagine him trying to hold both girls and try to deal with passports too. And as the pram is considered an oversized item, it will need to be collected after we get through customs.

As Nathan gets to the end of the international entrants queue I walk towards the tall, slim, naturally tanned young lady who looked liked she was in her late twenties who seemed to be there to help. I asked her what I could do about our situation. She looked at me with a smile and said we could get into either line and she would make sure the officer was aware of our situation. I told her I would stand with my husband and children and could she just let the officer know I was in the wrong queue for a perfectly good reason. She smiled at me and nodded politely.

Nathan and I waited for only ten minutes before we were called, the lady I had just spoken to came over quickly and explained to the officer our situation; I am actually Australian but both my daughters and husband are American, but to avoid juggling six week old twins and passports I am with him. He smiled at us, said it was fine, stamped all of our passports and welcomed us to Australia. He smiled extra hard as Stana started to make gurgling noises in her sleep. I turned Stana around for him to see her face which was all scrunched up from the extra light on her face compared to the darkness of where her head had just been, in the crook of my neck. He smiled at her and held out his finger to her hand. She grabbed it tightly. He told us his wife was expecting their first and he was very excited, he was also having a girl. Nathan shook the man's hand and said congratulations. Nathan encouraged the young man to take full pleasure in the sleep he was getting before the baby came. The man smiled and said he had been told that and was doing what he could. Nathan and I smiled at him and said our congratulations and goodbyes. We walked down the hall further to collect our luggage.
"I'll go and see if I can get the pram." I pointed to the oversized luggage pick up desk as I spoke. Nathan smiled at me and nodded. "I'll be back as quick as I can."
I walked over to the desk and handed the lady my oversized luggage ticket. Nearly fifteen minutes later the same woman returned with my pram. I managed to get it open, locked in place and I gently placed Stana in her side of the pram. I walked over to Nathan who had attempted to get our first suitcase with no luck, however someone had been kind enough to grab it for him. Nathan was smiling and shaking his hand and talking about little Kensi as I walked over with the pram. Nathan lay Kensi down next to her sister and the man just looked shocked.
"Oh my word, you have twins."
"Yeah." Nathan grinned at the man who was now peering down at the two girls fast asleep in the pram.
"They are so beautiful, how old are they?"
"Thank you, they are six weeks tomorrow, or today actually, here." I answered with a proud smile on my face.
Nathan went and grabbed the rest of our luggage.
"Must be hard to travel with one baby let alone two." The man was still looking at the girls.
"Yeah it's... ummm... interesting to say the least." I commented.
Nathan walked back over with our second suitcase "It's all about having a hyper organised wife." Nathe
"Yeah. Thanks" I agreed. "I am super organised." I smiled at the man and then looked at Nathan with that 'don't tease me' look.
The man smiled at us "I'm sure that will come in handy with twins."
"Agreed." Me.
Nathan and I both shook the man's hand as Nathan attached the smaller case to the larger case and we started to make a move towards quarantine. I smiled at Nathan as I pushed the pram. He smiled back at me before leaning down for a quick kiss.
We walked through quarantine and after having to open our suitcases to show them we had nothing to declare and then unload our girls and put the pram through the scanner we were finally walking through the big silver doors to see friends and family waiting for all their loved ones. As expected no one would be waiting for us. After walking out on my family over three years ago I didn't really have many people here in Australia that would want to see me at the airport, let alone at 3am.

Nathan and I had hired a car so we wandered over to the hire car pick up location. First thing we did after picking up the keys was check the car seats and put the girls in the car. We loaded up and headed out of the airport car park towards our hotel.
"How are you feeling?" Nathan asked me while holding my hand and rubbing his thumb across the back of it.
"I'm ok. Tired but good. The girls are gonna need a feed in less than an hour, I really hope we get settled into the hotel quickly."
Nathan smiled at me. Our conversations now always contain some level of baby talk. There is always something baby related. The girls need this, or did that etc. - always. But it's perfect.
"I meant how are you? This is the first time you have been back here since you left and since we got married and since we had the girls. Alot has changed in your life, but you're still the same girl that walked out on her family three years ago. How are you?" Nathan pressed. He always read me like a book.
"I am ok. I am nervous to see my Grandparents- they are the only ones I have told in Australia about you or them." I half smiled at Nathan knowing full well that my eyes showed how nervous I really was.
"You're gonna be ok. We're only here for a week. Your Gran has said she hasn't told your mom that you are coming and you will see your foster family on Monday. Hopefully they haven't told many people but I wouldn't be surprised if more than just John and Luisa are there."
"Yeah I know. I expect at least Cazz to be there. I don't really know who else. The best part of doing it on a Monday means it will reduce the amount of people that might show up." I was starting to relax.
"We're gonna be fine, no matter who shows up. You can show me and your girls off and we will then simply fly home next Friday."

We were literally here for a week. We arrived on Friday morning at 2am and were leaving the following Friday at 10am. I was excited to show off my girls like any proud parent, and I was excited to show off my husband too. It was funny; Nathan and I had been married for two years and so I had done most of the 'showing off' I needed to do, but now I was back in Aus and no one except my grandparents knew I was married and they hadn't even met Nathan until two days before the wedding. I'm sure they would have told my mom and my sister and brothers, but I hadn't told anyone but my Gran and Grandad. As I drove closer to the hotel I started to get more and more excited to show off my family. This was my chance to show people that the girl they ignored for her entire life had become more of who I wanted to be in the three years without them, than I ever could have in the 28 years I had with them. I simply smiled at Nathan.

"You're getting excited; I can see it in your eyes." Nathan smiled at me.
"I am. I love showing off my hubby and my girls." Nathan lifted my hand and kissed it. His kisses melt my heart every single time. All I could do was smile. The rest of the car ride was spent discussing the girls, people we could run in to and I told him more about where we were going and who he was gonna meet. We talked about Monday and how weird it's gonna be to introduce my foster family to my husband and kids considering last time I saw them I was single and angry about not being able to have kids.

Nathan and I arrived at the hotel at just before 4am and the Kensi starting to grizzle. As we pulled up a gentleman from the hotel walked over to our car and opened the boot. He pulled our luggage out of the car and put it on the bell boy's luggage cart. Nathan and I unloaded the girls and headed inside after giving the valet attendant the keys.

We headed up to the room which had been equipped with two porta-cots, which was great. Kensi was starting to get very frustrated with her lack of food, so while Nathan unpacked our stuff I fed Kensi. I love looking down at her face. I took in her light brown hair, her little round nose; that was the same as her dad's when he was a baby, her pink lips, her perfect chin and her little pink chubby cheeks. Even-though my girls are not identical twins, they look so alike right now. She seems to watch me when she feeds and I love it so dearly. The fact that I didn't give birth to my girls means that I can't breast feed, but that also means Nathan and I can both feed the girls and it also means that while Nathan's at work I don't have to try to juggle two girls. I don't even have to hold two bottles. The girls and I have an understanding, they only get fed one at a time. It's always Kensi and then Stana. Kensi is a guts. Stana is just fussy. Stana will eat and then get distracted by me or something else and then I have to remind her that she's supposed to be eating. Kensi however you could put her favourite toy, which is her lion, above her head while feeding and she won't even acknowledge its existence. All that exists is me and the bottle.
As I sat there feeding Kensi I watched my husband finish unpacking and prepare Stana's bottle and all I could think was how lucky I am. I have met the man of dreams and I have two beautiful girls. If someone had have said this would be my life five years ago, even three, I would have decked them for playing a cruel joke on me. But here I am- three years after walking out on my family and moving overseas- with my wonderful husband, who happens to be the main character from my favourite TV show and my twins girls; who carry none of my DNA and were born using the surrogacy program, but have my name on their birth certificate as their mother. I was one very happy woman. Nathan could sense my happiness overwhelming in me and looked up to see the tears starting to form in my eyes.
"What's up sweetie?" Nathan smiled at me knowing the tears were out of happiness and not sadness.
"I'm just overwhelmed with everything. I never thought I would have all of this, but here I am. I have more than I could have imagined. It's just a little overwhelming." The tears started to flow down my cheeks.
Nathan picked up Stana and came to sit next to me. He leaned over and kissed me and then proceeded to sit as close to me as he could. "You never thought you'd have your own family?"
"I had once hoped. But I lost the hope of having my own family long ago. I certainly never expected this all to happen with you, and I never expected my kids to be twins, nor to be so amazing, nor to come along so quickly. And even when I hoped I would meet someone, I never thought I would. I thought I'd be single forever."
"Well you're stuck with us now. Stana and Kensi need their mom and I need my wife. We love you very much Tam."
"I love you too Nathan." I kissed him and looked down to Kensi "and mummy loves you too baby girl." I leaned over and kissed Stana head "and I love you too princess." Wow. My family is so amazing.

After the girls were fed and changed we put them down in their cots. Nathan and I agreed I would take the next feed because I got to sleep on the plane (if you can call napping between feeds sleep) whereas Nathan can't sleep on planes. We didn't have to be at my Gran's until 12:30pm and so we had about six hours before we had to be up. Hmmm. I was exhausted just thinking about it.