Home Sweet Home

Well, we're home! We saved up all our glitches for the end of the trip. We had to wake up at 5am to leave for Guangzhou airport at 6:10am. Our guide, Jack, cut us 10 minutes of slack since breakfast opened at 6am. We arrived to the airport and Jack was in a hurry which I didn't understand because I thought we were in good shape but I did what he said, he's the expert. As we were checking in, they could not find the ticket purchased for Katelin ... even with the purchase receipt that I had my hand. Our flight was Guangzhou - Hong Kong - Newark, the only issue was Guangzhou to Hong Kong. So after much conversation between Jack and the girl checking us in (all in Chinese). Jack told her to checkin the 4 of us, and I ran with him to buy another ticket. As we were running, he asked if I had any Chinese money and I said yes because I had just converted some for diner the night before. Well once we were ready to buy the ticket, I was about $50 (yuan) short - thats about $7 USD. So Jack just pulled out a $100 (about $15 USD) and told me to take it.... did I mention that I liked Jack :) So then we hoof it back across the airport with our ticket to the baggage checkin where the girl had not done anything because she was waiting for the ticket. We were one of the last people to board the plane but we all made it and were off to Hong Kong.

When we landed in Hong Kong, we had about a 1 hour layover where we had to switch to a different plane. on a diiferent airline, in the international terminal (Hong Kong and China are considered seperate countries). Our travel agent poo-pooed this when I raised concern about the short turn around but Jack was concerned. He said that it was doable but that we had no extra time, When we deplaned, there was a Continental rep waiting for us and 4 other people trying to do the same thing. I found this funny, he held a sign that said "New Yark", I guess that;s a cross of New York and Newark? Without this guy, there is no way we would have made it. We went through a special line for customs and ticketing (you can not get boarding passes ahead of time). Then he had us cut to the front of the security check. Once we got to the gate, there was a huge line, we were spotted for 2 reasons (1. we had a baby and 2. I was carrying a special brown envelope which you only have if you have an adopted child and she is immigrating to the US) which got us right to the front of the check in line. The plane ended up leaving 15 minutes late but we got 3 seats in the bulkhead row (yippee) for our 16 hour flight. Katelin did OK on the flight, she was a little fussy but so was I ! The most difficult part was Katelin pooped more on this flight than she did the entire time we were in China. As you experienced parents know, this can be a messy situation (especially in turbulance). We made it though with 1 diaper left and completely out of wipes. I can now say that I'm a member of the 30,000 mile club (no not what your thinking, I changed a diaper at 30,000 feet in the air).

Once we landed, we found out that 1 of our 4 bags did not make it out of Guangzhou... but at least it has been located. We also needed car seat because since they don't use them in China, its hard to find them. So we drove illegally to Toys R Us which is a mile from airport and got one. Next came a long drive home, there was traffic everywhere and took us forever (but we did make it). Then for the last glitch, we were all exhausted from being up for more than 24 hours and Katelin decided she didn't agree with the time change. She up most of the night and we did our shifts, hopefully tonight will be better. Bottom line is ... we made it and we all had a great trip. I think that we all had a super time, had very few problems and most importantly, Katelin adapted to us right away and is a great little girl. I'm glad to be home!