Jamil and Phyllis Ahmadia can finally get a good night's rest.

Their daughter, Sarah Ahmadia, made it home last night after a week-and-a-half of trying to flee Lebanon and get back to Hawai'i.

Family, friends and colleagues greeted the Big Island Kamehameha Schools biology teacher with hugs and lei at Hilo International Airport when she arrived around 10 p.m. on ATA.

Sarah came off the plane and went around hugging everyone, saying she was relieved to be back.

"Physically, she's just really drained," Phyllis Ahmadia said yesterday afternoon in a phone interview.

Yesterday, she spent the day preparing for her daughter's return. "I'm washing the dogs, putting a new comforter (on the bed) in the spare room," she said.

Although Sarah has her own place, she will be staying at her parents' house for the next several days. Her mother said Sarah woke up with nightmares Saturday night. "Sarah never in her life expected to see the things she saw," she said.

Over the next couple days, Phyllis said, her daughter will be "catching up with her rest, and putting her feet up."

While the Ahmadias are grateful for all the support they've received, Phyllis Ahmadia said her daughter "didn't want to consider it a party" because she was thinking of all of those who weren't lucky enough to flee Lebanon. "One moment she's all happy that she's home, and the next she's worried about the family back in Lebanon," said Jamil Ahmadia.

Sarah, 27, will report back to work Aug. 1, her mother said. Her parents joked that it would be interesting to see if any of her students could come up with a more interesting essay on how they spent summer vacation.

She started her return home from Lebanon last week and flew from Cyprus to Rome to Philadelphia. Her brother, Aron, flew from Chicago to Philadelphia to meet her. From there, she flew to San Francisco where she and her relatives there were met with lots of attention from family, friends and the media.

Sarah was on a three-week vacation in Lebanon visiting her father's family for the first time when Israeli military started bombing the country on July 12. At the time of Israel's first strikes on Lebanon, she was at a beach south of Beirut when she saw a fighter jet overhead, followed by a thundering in the distance.

Ahmadia said her scariest encounter came July 14, when Israeli warplanes bombed and destroyed a road some 500 yards from the house she was in.

Sarah is scheduled to have an MSNBC interview today.

"All of the media has been so considerate with us," Phyllis Ahmadia said.

Reach Brittany Yap at byap@honoluluadvertiser.com.