06/29/2013 Homestudy began
07/01/2013 Submitted LOI (Letter of Intent to adopt)
07/19/2013 Received PA (Pre Approval from China)
07/23/2013 Final Social Worker visit
08/12/2013 Rough draft of homestudy received
08/28/2013 Supplement 3 to the I800A sent to immigrations
09/04/2013 Receipt of Supplement 3 at USCIS
09/16/2013 Supplement 3 confirmed on our officer's desk. Original file with the i800a was ordered to be consolidated with the Supplement 3.
10/01/2013 Spoke with our officer on the telephone. Someone for some unknown reason cancelled her request for the file.
10/08/2013 Officer confirmed that the original file arrived and she intended to complete our paperwork that day.
10/10/2013 Supplement 3 was approved
10/19/2013 i800a approval arrived in the mail
11/07/2013 Fingerprinted (random notice in the mail that we were afraid to ignore)
11/14/2013 DTC (Dossier to China)
11/25/2013 LID (our Log In Date for our dossier - it is in their system now!)
12/03/2013 OOT (our dossier is Out Of Translation - it is now written in Chinese)
12/30/2013 Reviewed
01/03/2014 LOA issued (Match Reviewed)
01/06/2014 LOA received (Letter of Acceptance)
01/08/2014 I800 sent (immigrations form petitioning to adopt specific child)
01/28/2014 I800 approved
02/04/2014 DS-260 filed
02/06/2014 PDF received
02/10/2014 Article 5 drop off in Guangzhou, China
02/25/2014 Article 5 pick up
03/05/2014 TA (Travel Approval)
03/24/2014 Met the Prince
03/25/2014 Legal adoption complete in China
04/04/ 2014 Arrived back home
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
GUANGXI PROVINCE
We left Cincinnati on Friday, March 21. The Little Princesses were excited to have their beloved Ruth staying with them this first weekend. After a speedy trip to the airport (in which I thought we might die in Cincinnati traffic -not naming any names) we arrived at the airport. One of the first things that happened was Ethan decided to try out the PIN number for the credit card to be sure he had it right. Guess what? He didn't. The teller machine ATE the credit card he thought would be our primary one for use in China. Oh well....
Our "luxury vacation" began (seriously, how can people think an adoption trip is ever - in anyone's wildest imagination- a vacation?) with being stopped at the baggage inspection when they spied something "suspicious" in my carry on. Yup, it was a dangerous, unopened, large bottle of powdered Miralax. I needed this over counter medication for our son and it wasn't available in China. The officer informed me it should go in my checked luggage. Not much chance of that since everything that HAS to go with me is carried on. Not to imply that I don't trust that our luggage will arrive with us. (see our homecoming surprise in a later post.)
Next stop -Chicago. They didn't seem to care a bit about my bottle of Miralax, but the drug sniffing dog was VERY interested in ME and I was pulled aside for further dialog. Where was I going? Who was traveling with me? Had anyone given me anything to carry on with me? Had anyone given me any money? Was I wearing a money belt? How much cash exactly did I have on me? Turns out that the dog smelled TOO MUCH MONEY on me! Having too much money had really never been an issue. Like EVER! We giggled about that experience for days to come.
No, I wasn't intending to go on a huge shopping spree. Those of you who have adopted from China will recognize that the parents have to carry cash for the provincial and other fees in country - in crisp, clean, undamaged bills to be changed into Chinese yuan once you arrive. The officer accepted my story and let us board the plane.
After hearing so many good reviews about Cathay Pacific and their wonderful service I was super excited to have our international flight with them. Perhaps going into it with such high expectations was my downfall? In any case it was NOT the great experience I had hoped for. Here is a rundown of my experience on this particular flight - Chicago to Hong Kong.
It didn't take very long to discover that the seats on our particular flight didn't fit my short frame at all. There were no foot rests either. It is a bad feeling to settle into a flight that you have to be on for about fourteen hours and be uncomfortable within the first hour.
The next thing was shortly after take off they insisted that all of the window blinds had to be closed even though it was still very much during daylight hours. Anyone who knows me knows I don't do well without light. On our previous trip to China both international flights had been at night so I was looking forward to not being in the dark the whole time. Seriously? All day with the darkness and the flicker flicker of all the entertainment consoles? I guess they wanted people to be able to sleep if they were inclined? Wanted to encourage them to sleep so they wouldn't have as much work to do? I am not an experienced flyer by any stretch of the imagination, so perhaps it is just standard practice. Who knows the reason, but it was awful.
There was very little space between the rows of seats. I get it, we were in economy, but they seemed extra close together - at least in comparison to the airline we'd flown previously. At one point Tikvah (11 years old, and a very well behaved kid) was attempting to retrieve something from her bag and the grouchy guy in front turned around and grumped at us. Well... I was sorry we disturbed him (and his very violent movie that I was glad Tikvah couldn't see from her seat) but seriously she was just attempting to work within the tiny space allotted to us. I apologized to him and told him we would be more careful.
Thus far the actual airplane had been the primary complaint, so I didn't hold that against them so much. What I had heard about over and over though was their stellar service. Um- not so much. True, Mr. Grouchy Guy in the seat in front of us got a refill on his alcoholic drink every time he (frequently) requested it. I asked for coffee. I was told, "Not now." Another request, "We'll bring it later." And I finally got up and went to their little service area and asked if I could please have my coffee now. I was told, "Oh, we just dumped it, but you can get a good cup in Hong Kong." Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
I am a coffee addict. There I said it. I generally make two or three pots of coffee a day at home - no I don't drink it ALL by myself! But, a fourteen hour flight - really? Probably the only thing that prevented an international incident was I pulled out instant coffee packets from my purse and sent my sweet husband to get me a cup of hot water. Cathay DID give us that much. Not impressed, Cathay, not impressed. One a scale of 1-10, I will give them my personal rating of comfort 3, service 2.
Hong Kong - We stayed at the Regal Hotel at the airport. It looked very fancy. We had multiple minor issues - like ever try explaining to a barely English speaker that a feather pillow will make your head blow up like a balloon? I didn't even attempt explaining that our (non smoking entire hotel) room smelled badly of smoke. And I let Ethan handle the internet connection issues. For some reason (lack of sleep - or maybe lack of coffee???) I found the whole exquisitely expensive hotel room issues fairly amusing, AND my first thought when I woke up to the sound of VERY LOUD Chinese was, "I wonder how these people to talk to one another when they are angry?" For some reason they seem to yell - like ALL THE TIME.
Since our flight left early in the afternoon we were advised not to leave the area of the airport. So, not much to show or say about Hong Kong! We walked around outside a bit, and looked at the HUGE mall within the airport complex. One thing that caught my attention were the large amount of taxis parked outside!
I've since learned that they are color coded for the parts of the city they serve.
We got to Isaac's province of Guangxi, and were to meet him on March 24 in the city of Nanning. It always takes awhile to clear passport checks and immigrations, but then they had to xray our bags as we LEFT, not sure what that was all about. :) It was around 45 minutes to our hotel from the airport. Our guide met us as we came out of luggage claim. We had been told we were having the same guide we had with the girls, (Elsie) so were surprised to have someone else approach us and ask if we were the Lanz family. I guess it was kind of obvious?
Our guide, Sara, was very nice. She tried to get us to go somewhere with her to eat or at least go to Walmart and buy some groceries. At that point all I could think of was that we desperately needed sleep, so we did something we've never done and ordered room service. Let's just say that the crackers and peanut butter we had last night was better, and I actually left just about all my order mostly uneaten and got the crackers out again! Nanning is apparently in a spicy food area and I just really couldn't take the burn!
We
stayed at the Marriott in a super nice suite type room
since we have an eleven year old girl AND boy. With medical needs a
second bathroom was also necessary. We had a large bedroom, a living
room where Tikvah slept on the couch, an office area where Isaac had a
roll away, and a small eating area with a table. Adoption trips are so
stressful anyway without having half the family sleep on the floor. In
spite of the extra cost, we made a wise decision.
March 24, 2014
Introducing our Prince! Isaac is such a charming young man, and we are blessed to have him as part of our family. Can't wait for you all to meet him!
March 25, 2014
There are fewer adoptions in this province than the one where the girls were from, and not as many of the staff spoke English. One of the funny things that happened, was on the actual adoption day, Isaac was sleeping on and on and we were running late. I attempted to order breakfast from room service. This is what I requested: oatmeal, danish and apple juice. They called me back twice to ask again what it was that we wanted and somehow translated it to an omelet instead of oatmeal. The staff had me spell it and that helped. Then she wanted to know if we wanted milk, and since my attempts to tell her that two milks would be plenty just confused her more, I said, "Yes, four milks." So we did end up with the juice, the oatmeal, too much milk -- and we got croissants. I called it a win!
The official adoption day! In Guangxi Province they hold a little adoption ceremony and the judge makes a really big deal of it, right down to posing with her an the adoption certificate!
We did get some shopping done near the hotel after this, and were able to make breakfast in our room after the first day.
I loved the turrets on the apartments there. This is a view out our hotel window. Note: We were told Isaac was from a rural province and much smaller city. Defined that means there are ONLY seven MILLION people in Nanning!
The park has a lot of statues in it. Some are realistic looking ones, like these which portray the various ethnic minorities in the area. Some are playful and you'll see those a little later.
This was made for a celebration held for the largest minority groups called the Drum People. The thing in the middle is a huge drum.
Isaac was amazing in his chair. He went up, down, popped wheelies, etc. And he LOVED zooming down the hills and squealing his tires. I told him that Mama was going to have a heart attack, but you know Baba. He said something to the effect of, "HE IS FINE let him go." Ahhhhhh!
The building in the back is a monument to the students lost in the war with Japan. In the forefront are statues that have a kid's theme. It seemed as if some of them might be Disney princess stories like Cinderella and Snow White.
China seriously must have the best parks system in the entire world! This place was huge. While the rest of us walked, Tikvah made her way around in a series of ropes and other obstacles.
Fun statues...
Family photo op
March 27, 2014
Climbing the Mountain and Visiting the Buddhist Temple
We climbed waaaaay up the mountain (it was paved) to a Buddhist temple. Like it or not, this is part of the history of the land where some of my children were born, so we wanted to see it. Isaac and I ended up staying out of the courtyard and temple because so many people were burning incense and it was really smoky. Yup, my kid - bothered greatly by smoke.
Mega
smoky! Incense sticks about two feet long could be purchased, and people were carrying a
whole handful of them into the temple yard to give thanks to Buddha.
I didn't go into this area because of the smoke, but Ethan took a picture for me. The guide was trying to give us history on the area and said something about "guards who looked after Buddha." The big gold statue must be one of those guards.
We had REALLY used up all of our energy going round and round to get up to this place. THEN we discovered there were carts, like open air buses, one could ride. We got on, Ethan held the wheelchair off the back of the thing, and down we went. I wish we had figured that out for the ride UP!
March 28, 2014
We spent today getting acquainted with Isaac's province, specifically the various ethnic minorities and rural peoples. Whereas the Little Princesses were from a very large factory city with lots of migrant workers, Isaac is from a rural area - think of our parallel of Native Americans and different tribes. We visited the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities http://www.gxmb.com/eng/ and learned a lot about the area. The "huts" you see models of are what they still live in in these rural areas. Also think rice terraces on the mountainsides...
Looking at a huge map of Guangxi Province.
The Guilin area which is where "An Orphan's Wish" was located. This is where Isaac received the medical care that he wasn't able to receive in his orphanage, and the place that advocated for him to get a family. They were directly responsible for US finding his file, and also for him receiving such an excellent foster care placement once they closed last summer.
This lady was making "love balls". Apparently on a particular day each year the guys are on one side of the river and the girls on the other. They sing to each other - perhaps questions about how many family members the other has, etc. If a girl is interested in a particular fellow she throws the love ball across the water to him. If he returns the interest he catches the ball.
I loved learning about Guangxi Province and if you go to Nanning, this museum is worth your time!
After the Minorities Museum we went to The People's Park and fed the giant goldfish.
I also included pictures of our drive to and from our outing. China is full of contradictions. High tech fancy buildings right near the old style little street shops, it is a mixture of an evolving city.
Greatly amused because Tikvah accidentally dropped her entire bun into the water instead of just little pieces. This is french bread (that the Little Princesses LOVED when we were here) so Ethan - talking for the fish - said "Hey, come over here. They've opened a French restaurant!"
The French restaurant floated quite awhile until the fish figured out it was actually eatable.
The scooters are everywhere. I saw what appeared to be hundreds of them parked on the sidewalks all over town. They all bunch up like that at the stop lights
March 24, 2014
Introducing our Prince! Isaac is such a charming young man, and we are blessed to have him as part of our family. Can't wait for you all to meet him!
March 25, 2014
There are fewer adoptions in this province than the one where the girls were from, and not as many of the staff spoke English. One of the funny things that happened, was on the actual adoption day, Isaac was sleeping on and on and we were running late. I attempted to order breakfast from room service. This is what I requested: oatmeal, danish and apple juice. They called me back twice to ask again what it was that we wanted and somehow translated it to an omelet instead of oatmeal. The staff had me spell it and that helped. Then she wanted to know if we wanted milk, and since my attempts to tell her that two milks would be plenty just confused her more, I said, "Yes, four milks." So we did end up with the juice, the oatmeal, too much milk -- and we got croissants. I called it a win!
The official adoption day! In Guangxi Province they hold a little adoption ceremony and the judge makes a really big deal of it, right down to posing with her an the adoption certificate!
We did get some shopping done near the hotel after this, and were able to make breakfast in our room after the first day.
I loved the turrets on the apartments there. This is a view out our hotel window. Note: We were told Isaac was from a rural province and much smaller city. Defined that means there are ONLY seven MILLION people in Nanning!
Because there aren't as many Americans visiting this province, we
were stopped several times to have our picture taken. As Ethan put it,
"They do exist, and I've seeeen one!" At this point when this lady
(who spoke no English) grabbed me and then kept calling other family
members to get in the picture (this wasn't all who eventually were in
it) I totally lost it. I was giggling like a mad woman - too little
sleep and too easily amused I guess. I'm sure they went away thinking
that Americans must be the most cheerful people in the world.
March 26, 2014
Visiting Mount Qingxiu (Ching shoe)
The park has a lot of statues in it. Some are realistic looking ones, like these which portray the various ethnic minorities in the area. Some are playful and you'll see those a little later.
This was made for a celebration held for the largest minority groups called the Drum People. The thing in the middle is a huge drum.
Isaac was amazing in his chair. He went up, down, popped wheelies, etc. And he LOVED zooming down the hills and squealing his tires. I told him that Mama was going to have a heart attack, but you know Baba. He said something to the effect of, "HE IS FINE let him go." Ahhhhhh!
The building in the back is a monument to the students lost in the war with Japan. In the forefront are statues that have a kid's theme. It seemed as if some of them might be Disney princess stories like Cinderella and Snow White.
China seriously must have the best parks system in the entire world! This place was huge. While the rest of us walked, Tikvah made her way around in a series of ropes and other obstacles.
Fun statues...
Family photo op
March 27, 2014
Climbing the Mountain and Visiting the Buddhist Temple
We climbed waaaaay up the mountain (it was paved) to a Buddhist temple. Like it or not, this is part of the history of the land where some of my children were born, so we wanted to see it. Isaac and I ended up staying out of the courtyard and temple because so many people were burning incense and it was really smoky. Yup, my kid - bothered greatly by smoke.
I didn't go into this area because of the smoke, but Ethan took a picture for me. The guide was trying to give us history on the area and said something about "guards who looked after Buddha." The big gold statue must be one of those guards.
We had REALLY used up all of our energy going round and round to get up to this place. THEN we discovered there were carts, like open air buses, one could ride. We got on, Ethan held the wheelchair off the back of the thing, and down we went. I wish we had figured that out for the ride UP!
March 28, 2014
We spent today getting acquainted with Isaac's province, specifically the various ethnic minorities and rural peoples. Whereas the Little Princesses were from a very large factory city with lots of migrant workers, Isaac is from a rural area - think of our parallel of Native Americans and different tribes. We visited the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities http://www.gxmb.com/eng/ and learned a lot about the area. The "huts" you see models of are what they still live in in these rural areas. Also think rice terraces on the mountainsides...
Looking at a huge map of Guangxi Province.
The Guilin area which is where "An Orphan's Wish" was located. This is where Isaac received the medical care that he wasn't able to receive in his orphanage, and the place that advocated for him to get a family. They were directly responsible for US finding his file, and also for him receiving such an excellent foster care placement once they closed last summer.
This lady was making "love balls". Apparently on a particular day each year the guys are on one side of the river and the girls on the other. They sing to each other - perhaps questions about how many family members the other has, etc. If a girl is interested in a particular fellow she throws the love ball across the water to him. If he returns the interest he catches the ball.
I loved learning about Guangxi Province and if you go to Nanning, this museum is worth your time!
After the Minorities Museum we went to The People's Park and fed the giant goldfish.
I also included pictures of our drive to and from our outing. China is full of contradictions. High tech fancy buildings right near the old style little street shops, it is a mixture of an evolving city.
Greatly amused because Tikvah accidentally dropped her entire bun into the water instead of just little pieces. This is french bread (that the Little Princesses LOVED when we were here) so Ethan - talking for the fish - said "Hey, come over here. They've opened a French restaurant!"
The French restaurant floated quite awhile until the fish figured out it was actually eatable.
The scooters are everywhere. I saw what appeared to be hundreds of them parked on the sidewalks all over town. They all bunch up like that at the stop lights
All China adoption trips end up in Guangzhou because that is where the American Consulate office is located. We enjoyed Guangxi Province and getting acquainted with some of the history from the area where Issac was born, but it was time to move on at the end of the week. Driving to the airport...
Guangzhou is a larger city, and more westernized than Nanning. There is also less smog, though noticeably more this time than a year ago when we were here adopting our daughters.
This is a view out our apartment window.
A LOT of adoptive parents stay at The Garden Hotel while in Guangzhou. Again, because of our need for bedrooms for both an adolescent boy and a girl, and the need of an additional bathroom, we chose to stay in the apartment tower of The Garden instead of on the hotel side. It is difficult to find any information on these apartments online, and the questions I'm most often asked about travel have to do with this apartment.
To give you the idea, the regular hotel room has two twin beds, one bathroom and a small living room area. Our apartment had two bedrooms, one with a king size bed that Tikvah and I shared, and another bedroom that Ethan and Isaac shared that had two twin beds. There were also two and a half baths, a good size living room, a dining room with a large table, and a smallish kitchen that was supplied with dishes and cooking utensils. There was a microwave, an oven, a full size refrigerator, and a teeny machine that washed AND dried clothes.
It is not fancy or plush at all like the hotel side is. The half bath has been updated and there is a funky toilet attachment in the master bath - don't ask, I didn't use it! :) The carpet is worn and stained, but it was very functional and seemed clean overall. It had space enough for a family to stay here a week and not lose their minds in the process. Having a big table and a washer/dryer is a huge plus as are the extra bathrooms.
And now for the picture tour: Entryway with the ever present, ever needed umbrellas. (I brought them)
The updated half bath, just as you come in the door.
Off the living room, the guys' bedroom with two twin beds and a bathroom.
Living room and to the left the dining room.
Dining room - one thing that has really surprised me is the lack of decorating. There were nails for pictures but no pictures hanging on them! The carpet in the hall smelled AWFUL and was stained terribly, so I think they may have had some water leakage previously. They possibly were remodeling.
From the dining room into the kitchen..
There was a full size refrigerator next to these sinks. The stove/oven had pans. There were dishes in the cupboards and silverware in the drawers.
Hot pot for making cofee - vitally important! Microwave and little machine that washes and dries clothes.
Master bedroom that Tikvah and I shared. The ironing board just stayed out because either I couldn't figure out how to set the dryer appropriately, or it just always fried the clothes. Everything ended up having to be ironed.
Large closets in both bedrooms.
The master bath, and the fancy toilet.
Advantages
from my viewpoint. We paid about two times the amount for the
apartment as a regular "suite" room in this hotel. We all got to sleep
in an actual bed. We had the extra bathrooms. Four free breakfasts
came with the apartment vs only two with the regular rooms (the
breakfast buffet is like $20 each for kids?) We were able to wash
clothes instead of sending them out, and friends from our agency ran
some laundry as well. Because of the extra room - living and dining -
we got to be the hang out spot for other families, and this was great!
The English speakers had lots in common, and the Chinese speakers took
comfort in playing games with the others who could understand them.
Those who understood English a little better than others helped
translate for their friends. I believe it was good for ALL the kids.
The adopted children had someone who could identify with their feelings
as did the siblings who had just gained a new family member.
NOTE!
While the twin beds seem to have been ok, the king sized one was REALLY
HARD, like sleeping on a box spring only. It was so hard that my hips
literally HURT the next morning. If you run into problems with this ask
the staff for extra bedspreads. We put several under our bottom sheet
and it helped quite a bit.
Once we got to the health office there were LOTS of people I'd met online. If it hadn't been such a stressful time with/for the kids we could have had quite the little party there!
We had to go to various stations such as an eye test, weight and other vitals, etc. plus a blood test for TB and our poor guy had to get four shots. I felt pretty bad for him, but he was a trooper.
Then we had an outing to restock water and snacks.
Shortly after we got back to the hotel all the moms met with our guide to get our paperwork in order for the immigrant visa which we'll apply for at our appointments at the American Consulate next week.
The day finished with a meal out at a local noodles/dumpling restaurant. The day likely sounds fairly ordinary - doctor appointment, shopping, paperwork, dinner - but it was special to meet these other families, most of which I've been talking with for weeks online. It is also helpful to talk with others in a similar situation. Most of us are in that twilight daze of not really knowing what day or time it is. :)
You may not be aware that at The Garden, the adoptive families are generally seated in an actual hallway off the regular dining area so our (often upset) children don't bother people. When we are sent upstairs we get a really fancy private room. We had breakfast two mornings in a row in this private dining room with another adoptive family from Cincinnati! What a small world!
After breakfast we headed out to Shamian Island. Since there are four families here from our agency, we traveled as a group on a small bus.
At the island we browsed around while waiting for church time. Check out the photo of Isaac watching his "chop" being made.
I assume because of the European history on the island, a Christian church is allowed to meet openly on the island.
Some songs were in Chinese and some in English. It honestly brought tears to my eyes to be in China and hear all of these people singing praise songs in Mandarin.
The sermon was in Chinese with an English translation following every few sentences. It has to have been the highlight of our trip for me! It was so great to have our first church service with Isaac to be in a language that we all could understand.
March 31, 2014
Today we were to have gone to a park, but it was raining HARD so instead we went to the folk art museum. Isaac wasn't feeling well after breakfast (said he was really tired) so Ethan took him back to the room to take a nap. Tikvah and I went on to the "field trip". This was the group from WACAP while we were there. I just love these people!
Isaac would have enjoyed this particular place so much. It was sad he had to miss. There were various types of art displayed as well as some artists exhibiting their techniques. This man "painted" his pictures with ink using his bare hands, fingerprints, etc. Fascinating!
In the afternoon Tikvah and I (along with some friends) took a taxi back over to Shamian Island since we didn't get much of a chance to look around (in the rain) on Sunday. It had actually stopped raining by that afternoon. We hung with Tracy and her son Tao, got some lunch, and took some pictures.
Isaac was feeling better by dinner time, so we went to the noodle restaurant again. Service in the restaurants in China is not like at home. The tips are built into the prices so the servers have no motivation to give good service. The food isn't timed to serve the entire party, but brought out as it is done. Some people may be finished by the time the others have their food.
In this instance ALL of us were finished by the time Tracy's food arrived, and then we practically had to beg for it. They kept insisting that the order of noodles that our family ate was her order, and didn't seem to want to bring more. Bizarre. But we had a lot of good laughs throughout the evening about it.
April 1, 2014
Consulate Appointment - immigrant visa prepared
The plane we were to take to Hong Kong from Guangzhou was late getting in. We had given our travel agent (Todd) the heads up the night before that it looked like this plane OFTEN was late. He was aware of that and didn't seem very concerned. Thus I didn't worry until we hit the ground in Hong Kong only to have them tell us as we left the plane "You take flight tomorrow." Um.... our GIRLS are waiting for us, we prepared them for WEEKS, they KNOW we are due home, NO WAY! Todd didn't answer his phone (told us later he was sick and didn't hear it.) so we were at the mercy of the airline.
I will confess at this point that I became a blubbering mess on the desk of the airline and they began to look like "Get this lady on a plane to ANYWHERE, but out of our airport!"
So, after missing a connecting flight in Hong Kong instead of getting home on Thursday, we finally arrived home on Friday. Instead of Guangzhou, China to Hong Kong to Chicago then Cincinnati, it was Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Taipei, Taiwan to Los Angeles to Nashville to Cincinnati. Whew! What a trip! Our anticipated twenty-three hours stretched suddenly to thirty-seven. And then I thought for sure we would miss the flight to Nashville! We had a lot of assistance with the wheelchair and the airline people speeding us through immigration and security checks in order to avoid missing any more connecting flights.
I will confess at this point that I became a blubbering mess on the desk of the airline and they began to look like "Get this lady on a plane to ANYWHERE, but out of our airport!"
So, after missing a connecting flight in Hong Kong instead of getting home on Thursday, we finally arrived home on Friday. Instead of Guangzhou, China to Hong Kong to Chicago then Cincinnati, it was Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Taipei, Taiwan to Los Angeles to Nashville to Cincinnati. Whew! What a trip! Our anticipated twenty-three hours stretched suddenly to thirty-seven. And then I thought for sure we would miss the flight to Nashville! We had a lot of assistance with the wheelchair and the airline people speeding us through immigration and security checks in order to avoid missing any more connecting flights.
Isaac
did great on the grueling trip home and kept on smiling in spite of
having tummy problems from the start of the trip. Not sure if it was
nerves or eating different food, or likely a combination of both, but
he didn't complain AT ALL. I can't make that claim about myself...
I took missing the connecting flight pretty hard, primarily because
of disappointing the Little Princesses. They were counting down the
days and KNEW we were supposed to be home on Thursday. I worked
so, so hard to build their trust.
 |
| As the plane landed in Los Angeles, America gained a new citizen! |
Our
time spent IN China was really good. I posted daily updates with
photos on Facebook, but I know some of you weren't able to follow it
there. I do plan to backtrack and fill in some of those travel days.
We had a fun travel group and made sweet memories with our sweet boy.
For
those who are still in the adoption process and wondering about
the differences between the airlines, I intend to write up our experience with the
various planes we've flown on our trips to China. I'll give you a
hint: the favorite of many – Cathay Pacific – scored the lowest
in both comfort and service.
But
for now, we are HOME and happy to be here! We were met by family and
friends at the airport. Unfortunately, several who had planned to be there were
bumped out by the change of the time and date due to the missed
plane, but there were plenty of people there to let Isaac know that
people were anticipating his arrival.
 | |||
| Friends and family awaited us with a party at the airport. |
 | |
| The Little Princesses LOVE their big brother! |
 |
| Isaac with sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews |
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