So we survived the trip over from Tampa to Chicago to Hong Kong to Changsha, then to Guangzhou. It was still pretty exciting flying a medium size plane then a huge plane then a couple of little bitty planes. Part of the original excitement was probably following it through the eyes of our daughters who were experiencing flying for the first time. Both girls willingly welcomed the adventure and I can honestly say they have been well behaved, well mannered, non-complaining participants through the entire adventure! I am so proud of them. The other excitement likely stemmed from the mission at hand, going to meet and bring back our son! It has been an exciting, emotionally draining and sometimes overwhelming experience, but I wouldn't change it for anything!
Ian has been a trooper. He got on his first ever fast train to meet us the first day and then 5 days later hopped on his first itty bitty plane. Now only 11 days from that first train ride that took him away from the only home he has ever known, he is telling across the globe. He travels really well for a little boy, never mind the fact that he
is a little boy with a brand new family he is trying to get used to and the fact that he is traveling to the other side of the world.
So we started out in pretty great shape early this morning (10/25/12) but then somehow we managed to lose the little man's back pack before getting on the first plane. None of us can even remember where we saw it last. It must have been at the security check. I was seriously bummed about the idea of losing his little Chinese flash cards from his orphanage and his new crazy goat..I mean pleasant goat, pencil holder with all his crayons and colored pencils in it, not to mention all the brand new stickers, sticker books, note pad, wipe board, alphabet wipe board and snacks etc..etc... Now the dreaded thoughts...we have nothing with us for this child to do for the next 24 hours of traveling. No time to worry now...We raced to make it to the plane on time. Whewww.. we made it!!!! Praise God I had to take his kindle out for the security check and it wasn't in that back pack! That first flight was ridiculously short but the panic hit when we realized we had approximately 45 minutes until take off of our next flight and we were still on the first plane. Fortunately when we finally got off there were attendants waiting to escort all those going on our next flight over to that gate. Good thing, because the trek was HUGE and we never would have made it on our own. In the nick of time we made it thru immigration and got our carry bags checked and boarded the big plane. Poor Ian's little legs barely kept up going thru the airport. I'm sure he was as relieved as we were to finally get to our seats.
Wow... I'm tired just WRITING about this!! LOL
Ok...so we arrive on the plane in the seats we will occupy for the next 14 hours and 55 minutes. Now let me tell you...the flight home FROM Hong Kong is much different from the flight over TO Hong Kong. To begin with there are numerous adoptive families on the flight and most of the families have little babies. One family has TWO!!!!! We have our 5 year old and the folks behind us have an 8 year old, but otherwise it is pretty much babies. Now I don't know about you, but in my "previous life", the worst thing to have on an airplane is a crying baby. HAH!!!! We have like FIVE or SIX!!!! Now I know 20 years ago it would be driving me nuts, but as I sit here listening to these moms and dads try to calm their babies, I can't have any other feeling besides pure empathy. It is a long brutal flight to begin with, but to have an inconsolable little human being along for the ride is just a major bummer! I have been doing some praying, sharing dum-dum pops and smarties, and sending Emmy, "the baby whisperer" into the trenches to help.
Our girls are doing great! Have I mention that I'm so proud of them!? They have experienced so much on this trip! They are world travelers at 10 and 13 years old! They have welcomed a little brother with big open arms! And they have willingly given of themselves and helped others!
The time just popped up on the super cool GPS screen and we have about 8 hours and 13 minutes of fly time left. We just passed Kamchatka!!! That was always one of my favorite countries to conquer in the game of RISK!!!
The only big pain in the tushy that I find on this flight is the fact that they insist on darkening the entire plane for people to sleep. That os just fine and dandy if it were night time, but they start it in the afternoon right after the first food service. Sorry, but Jeff, the kids and I are WIDE awake at 3 o'clock in the afternoon! Ian just finally conked out next to me. He didn't have a nap yet today and he has been up since 5:30am and it is 6:30 now. He may just sleep right thru to the next food service now. Me...I'm still wired!!! I really think there should be a sleeping section for this flight.
Oh...I forgot to mention that apparently before we left the hotel this morning, I moved a couple of Ian's things out of his back pack to lighten it up and I put them into Emmy's which was pretty empty. The good news is that included his flash cards from the orphanage and his crazy goat pencil box with all his crayons and colored pencils! Thank you Lord Jesus for small miracles!!!! Emmy insists that someone will be kind enough to ship the back pack to us, but I'm not holding my breath. We will see. There is a luggage tag on it, so she could be right. But if not, we lost about $60 of stuff including the back pack itself and the adorable jacket my friend Erin bought for him. No doubt we will have to run out and buy a new back pack for school for Monday, but that's ok.
We just crossed the international date line!!!!! Whooooohoooo!!! I can see Anchorage Alaska on the GPS!!!!!! 7 hours 53 minutes till landing!!!!! You know what happens then??????? Our sweet boy lands on American soil for the first time and becomes a US Citizen!!!! How exciting!! I know that Ian doesn't comprehend the significance of that landing, but for the rest of us, it represents the culmination of all the prayers, paperwork, preparation, money spent and travel time, all coming together for a single purpose... to bring Ian home!!
The last 6 hours were interesting as our living, breathing, giant-sized, bobble-head slept next to me. What an adventure. I couldn't have dozed off if I wanted to. This little man is all over the place in his sleep and it isn't any better in an airplane seat than it is in a bed or on the floor. So many times I had to catch him from flopping around like a fish out of water and prevent injury to his head or complete bodily invasion of the young man in the seat on his right side who basically slept for about 12 hours! Several times Ian actually popped straight up in his chair with his eyes wide open, looked around, and fell back in his seat asleep. Totally bizarre!
Now we are just 45 minutes from landing in Chicago. Oh how I wish this was the end of our trip, but alas we have a 4 1/2 hour lay over in O'Hare and another 2 1/2 hours in the air to get to Tampa and then another 1 1/2 hours drive home.
Forgot to mention...I must have been extra stressed because I chewed off all my fingernails this flight...ugh....gross!!!!!
It feels really good to be on US soil and done with all the trips through immigration and customs. Our poor little guy conked out...posted the pic from my phone. The girls did too. We are all beyond exhausted. Meanwhile I'm sitting here feeling like the building is swaying?!?!?!? Is that normal?!??!?!?
While we were gearing ourselves up for the last leg of our flights, we experienced a huge delay of our flight from Chicago to Tampa. This has been extremely frustrating. First the plane was over booked and they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats. But then it turned out the cockpit door needed repair and they were debating switching out the plane. I'm thankful that we finally departed but now we are looking at an 11:35pm arrival time instead of 10pm. So frustrating but in the big scheme of things I guess its not that big of a deal. At the time...in the gate waiting area..it was a big deal. Oh and to top it off you have to pay for WIFI at O'Hare. Not cool!
We are split up on this plane. Emmy and I are sitting with Ian and Sarah is by herself and Jeff is by himself. Its only a 737 plane this time which is pretty small so being separated isn't that big of a deal. Oops...and there went Emmy's coke all over sleeping Ian and the floor... funny...I don't eve care! I have officially lost my mind! LOL
Next stop Tampa!
My frustration level lowered as we got closer to home and the adrenalin began to build. I'm not mad at American Airlines anymore. We finally arrived home at close to 2am. We came in to balloons, flowers and dinner in the fridge to be warmed up, all from my dear sweet friends Ronnie and Frances. By 3am we were having a feast! I'm pretty sure this was the first time Ian ate any of those foods, meat loaf, scalloped potatoes and German chocolate cake, but boy did he enjoy them! Next it was lego time. Ian (and Emmy) LOVE legos!!! He is very coordinated with his hands. He is obviously a kinesthetic tactile learner and he is very quick to watch, learn and do. We have observed this a lot over the past two weeks.
While the kids played and our adrenaline pumped, because we were home and because it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon China time, we went ahead and unpacked every single thing from our trip! Jeff and I were unpacking machines. So funny! But around 4 pm, the 36 hours of being awake kind of caught up with us and we forced ourselves to try to sleep. I woke up first around noon and got brunch started and then got the rest of the clan up by 1pm, fed them and we got everybody cleaned up over to the school by 2:15pm. We made it to school during free choice time in kindergarten so it wouldn't interfere with a lesson. The kids were so excited to see Ian! Ian carefully handed out a Chinese lollipop to each of his new friends. And he said hello by name to each student. We visited there for a little bit and then it was time to clean up and go to the pep rally. Ian jumped right in to help clean up and then lined up with the class! I loved watching the interaction between him and his new friends. I truly believe he is going to fit in with this group of students perfectly and I pray he will build long lasting friendships with them at SRCS. Ian said hello and high-fived so many people!!! He was swarmed like a rock star at one point. I got him safely tucked in with his class on the top row of the bleachers and he went along and did whatever the other kids in his class did. People were afraid he might be overwhelmed, but considering his lack of sleep and all the activity, I think he handled it beautifully!
After the pep rally we hustled over to the pediatrician's office where it was confirmed he 45" tall and weighs 52.5 lbs and he DOES NOT have a heart murmur! Turns out our little guy is missing quite a bit of his immunizations so he had to get 4 shots today!!! He was amazing! He never flinched, never cried... quite impressive. Then he walked out with a handful od stickers and lollipops! The nurses just LOVE him and a couple I understand have also become blog followers!!!! How cool!!!
Next was a visit to the dance studio to see some of the wonderful ladies that have stalked, I mean followed, this adoption journey since the first initial conversation back in January. We watched a little bit of jazz/across class, high-fived here and there, got some hugs and off we went to Winn Dixie for provisions.
When we arrived home we had the task of introducing Ian to his pet beagle, Gracie. To say he was not impressed would be an understatement. He indeed screamed at the top of his lungs and clung to my leg. We gradually worked to show him how sweet band good Gracie is. While we at a yummy dinner, Ian's eyes remained clearly attentive to Gracie's locale at all times. We still have some work to do but I think we made substantial progress.
Finally there was the first bubble bath with the dinosaurs at home and then he hopped into the brand new big boy bed! He woke crying one time earlier (the baby monitor works great) but has been sleeping peacefully for several hours now. Emmy was tucked in very shortly after Ian and then Sarah. I'm really hoping we will all wake up on a Florida time schedule tomorrow. And yes, it is around 1:30am as I finish and post this, but quite honestly, for people who know me, this is sort of "normal" for me.
Love & Blessings our friends and thank you for following our journey! Now for the FUN stuff!!!!!!! Stay tuned!
晚安 Wǎn'ān!
Georgia
Thanks for the baby whisperer. We are still in the trenches at night time. Hopefully by the time hubby heads back to work we will have got past the worst of it. We were delayed an hour out of Chicago so we didn't hit bed until after midnight. I was officially awake 30 hrs w/ only a cat nap inbetween. Cari slept all day Friday...welll till 1pm. I can totally identify with the swaying building feeling, thankfully I had that feeling in the past and was not too worried. Have a good weekend, we are battening down the hatches in prep for Sandy
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