Day 13- Travel and Home!

Here’s your warning: This is a very long post. It reads more like a short novel than just a normal blog post. I wrote a very detailed account of each of our children’s entries into the world. You know, you think you’ll never forget, but those details fade! When they ask questions, I want to be able to answer them. I want to be able to go back and relive those days in my mind from time to time. So, I decided to write a very detailed account of baby K’s entry into the US and to home! I know very few people will be interested in reading all of this, but some will. When I was waiting to travel to bring our girl home, I devoured adoption travel blog posts no matter how long or short. No matter if it was well written or a horrible grammatical mess. I’m sure this post is somewhere in between (I overuse commas, ok, I admit it!)  :) Anyway, if you are interested, read on. If you are going to roll your eyes at me and call me over dramatic, well, go ahead and leave now :) Ha! It was the most insane, emotional, exhausting day (over a day) of my entire life…. And I wrote it to tell of the raw emotions and everything that I experienced and was feeling from start to finish. Let’s just say I’m glad to be on the other side of this particular day in my life! :) Whew!

Our last day started VERY early in the morning. We had a 9:30 am flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai. We got up and finished packing everything up, had a quick bite to eat and headed to the airport a little bit before 7am.

This 30-something straight hours of travel was a “day” that I never wish to relive. It was just stressful and yucky.

We had a tearful goodbye with Jack and he took us as far as he could.

Let’s start with the very non-friendly security agents at the very first security check at the GZ airport. They made me take K out of the carrier and take the carrier off. I understand why they made me do it, but this was the first time we’d had to do this the whole trip. Every other time we went through security, they just waved me through. J went through first and then he was going to take K from me and let me go through. Then we learned the hard way that they weren’t going to let us do that here! They wouldn’t let J take a step back to where he would be close enough to grab her from me! A rude male agent just grabbed her from me! So she’s screaming and terrified and I’m FUMING. I went through as fast as I could, but of course, they needed to pat me down too! REALLY?!?!? My newly adopted child is screaming and scared and you are going to put us through this?! I waited for a female agent to pat me down (not that I cared, but apparently it’s their protocol?)  Once she was thoroughly satisfied that I was clear, she let me grab K. Praise God. That was a very long few minutes. I was sweating bullets and about ready to explode. I couldn’t believe they were doing all this to us! I can tell you that 4 very worn out parents and 2 cranky and crying babies in carriers look about the farthest from a security threat that we could possibly look! But, whatever… thankfully we were almost through security!

The key word here… ALMOST. You’ll not believe what happened next!

They took ALL of the baby food that we’d packed for K for the ENTIRE trip home. I had 8 of the squeeze packets of baby food (it was the only kind we had) in the diaper bag. They took all of it out and proceeded to throw them all in the trash! I about freaked out! I was already worked up and when they did that, I firmly expressed my concern that this was ALL the baby food I had for an entire 30+ day of traveling and she wasn’t eating solid foods well yet!  There was a definite language barrier in addition to the fact that they seemed to care less. They were so very rude. At this point, I started bawling and begging. Jason is standing there with me and he turned beet red, was sweating and was not happy. We just kept standing there and pleading with them. Then Rachel comes over to start to help. Yall don’t want to see her mad face. Those nasty agents got her mad face. I had gotten to the point where I was crying so much that I couldn’t talk. I was just in disbelief! None of the packages were opened and they were clearly marked baby food—in their own language!

Well, they must have realized that we clearly were not giving up without a fight. I was just about to reach over, grab the food and make a run for it…. but then I chickened out :) FINALLY, they told us we could take 2 packages ONLY. I was sorting through trying to decide which packages to take, then put 2 in my bag and started to walk off. They started yelling at us and after MUCH going back and forth and grabbing of bags, figured out they weren’t through with us yet. They wanted me to open both of the packages that we were taking and put some in K’s mouth! I guess to make sure that it wasn’t dangerous and it really was baby food… are you kidding me?!?!?! Poor baby was so confused and was still crying over being grabbed away from me. She wanted nothing to do with the baby food, but we had to hold her head and squirt a little in her mouth anyway even though she spit it out.

Then, they were satisfied enough that they were going to let us go. Then, Rachel spoke up and said “2 each!” and grabbed 2 more baby foods and then we just walked off as fast as we could. By that time, they just let us go. I was scared they were going to chase us down and detain us but Rachel just said, “Keep walking! Don’t look back!” So we did! Apparently they were tired of dealing with us. And words cannot express how tired we were of dealing with them. Rachel had packed regular jars of baby food and they didn’t say anything about hers, so she already had all of the food she needed for the trip. So, she threw those other 2 bags of food in my diaper bag when we were out of sight of the security agents.

Ugh. Not the way you want to start your LONG day of traveling when you are exhausted and beyond ready to be home to your own bed and your other children!

We found our gate, got snacks and got ready to board. There was barely enough time for us to do anything before boarding! But we made it! They called for our flight and we got lined up. We raced out to the tram so we could get good position on it and we could be the first ones off when we got out to our plane on the tarmac. We sat there for about 10 minutes, then everyone started getting off. The announcements were only being made in Chinese, so we had no idea what was going on. Finally someone came and told us to get off the bus. We went inside and noticed on the board that our flight had suddenly been delayed.

Great. We had a 2+ hour flight and then we had a 4+ hour layover in Shanghai before our flight departed Shanghai for Detroit. We COULD NOT miss that flight!!!

After about 10 minutes, we could see on the boards that our flight had been bumped. It just disappeared off the boards all together. Then it started pouring down rain. Over the course of the next 2+ hours, it continued to rain hard off and on but they were boarding other flights as scheduled. We finally found someone who spoke English and they were translating for us. Basically the attendants at the gate had no information to give us on if our flight was going to go out that day at all or not. We had pre paid cell phones with us to use there in China and thankfully, The Benningtons still had some minutes left on their phone. We called Jack and put him on the phone with the attendant at the gate. After he talked to her, then we talked to him and he basically told us they didn’t know anything, but to give it another hour or so and if we didn’t take off by then, he’d start getting on the phone with the Shanghai airport to see if there was anything we could do, or he would just come pick us up and get us a room for the night in GZ again and we’d get our flights changed to tomorrow if we had to.

As we sat there watching it rain and mulling over the fact that we might not be getting home for our planned homecoming with friends and family, it was really hard not to be emotional. And angry….I was just still so upset about everything that had already happened that morning. And praying. Rachel and I just kept looking at each other and saying, “Just keep praying.”

Well, praise God! About 30 minutes after we talked to Jack, they called for boarding for our flight! We RAN to the bus and when we got off the bus, RAN for the plane so we could get on and get carry on space in good locations so that we could get off the plane in Shanghai ASAP and hopefully still make our flight to Detroit.

Scott got off before any of us and ran ahead. The other 3 of us weren’t far behind, but we all got separated in the sea of people. As we got to the plane, we realized they were asking for boarding passes to get on and Scott had Rachel’s and was already on the plane! Jason handed our boarding passes to the attendant and he grabbed both Rachel and I and we all just pushed forward quickly as a group! The attendant started yelling something out to us, but Jason just said, “Keep going! If she comes asking for your pass, we’ll be on the plane by then and we can give it to her!” So we did! We made it on the plane and got settled in. After what seemed like a very long taxi on the runway, we were finally in the air.

We landed in Shanghai and ended up having almost 2 hours before our next flight left! We thought that would be plenty of time, but by the time we retrieved all of our luggage, got it on carts, figured out where in the airport we were supposed to be and found our gate, we were down quite a bit of time. When we got to the Delta gate, there was a SEA of people. We knew we’d never make it if we had to wait in line behind all those people! We walked up to an attendant that was monitoring the line that spoke English (praise the Lord!) and told him what was going on and basically begged him to help us. He opened up a priority line and told us to go through! We only had to wait in line 10-15 minutes and we were at a desk getting checked in! We checked our luggage and as soon as we were all done and had boarding passes, we went to find our gate. We then had to go through security AGAIN. Thankfully they were much nicer here. It was a quick check. I had a bottle of apple juice and a half finished bottle of formula and they let me chose 1 bottle of liquids to take and I had to pour out the other. I understood and they were really nice about it.

After we found our gate, we decided we all needed to try to eat, so we grabbed Burger King, which was right by our gate. We ate quickly and then all went to the duty free shop to buy snacks and drinks for the LONG plane ride back to the US.

We had to go through ANOTHER security check right before we boarded this plane and get this…. they took all of the drinks we’d just bought! Jason and I had $25 worth of juice for K and drinks for us! They were purchased right outside of the Delta gate at the duty free shop and they were all unopened. Lesson learned… there are different rules at different airports, etc. They said it was TSA rules and that we could take nothing…. we explained it was different in the US but they just smiled and held the trash can up for us. I started crying again. I know it was just drinks, but after everything we’d been through this day, I was just upset :( And I was hoping they’d had juice and bottled water for the baby on the plane.

We made it on to the plane on time and were so thrilled to find 3 of the nicest flight attendants you’ll ever meet. They were just doting over the babies and sympathizing over the drama we’d experienced so far this day. And get this… the male attendant had adopted 2 girls from China and had been through all of this before. Twice. So awesome!

Before we even took off, he had brought each of us a HUGE bottle of water and hot towels and just told us to let him know if we needed anything else! What a blessing he was!

We found out that the posted time of arrival was wrong and we were also leaving a little early, so we were going to get an extra hour to catch our connecting flight in Detroit! Yay!! We knew 2 hours was really pushing it close, but when we were making our reservations on such last minute schedules, we had no other choice. So when we found out we’d have another hour, we were so very relieved!

Then it took over an hour for us to actually take off after the plane left our gate… there went that hour!

The flight was fine. K actually did much better than we expected and even slept for a few hours. J and I took turns holding and walking her when needed and it really passed by faster than I thought it would. We were just so very exhausted and I just needed some sleep! I only slept an hour or so total the entire flight home.

About 3 hours from reaching Detroit, I started to get sick. Tummy issues :( I spent the last 3 hours running back and forth from the bathroom. Let me just tell you. NOT FUN.

So the time factor became a huge issue, when we landed even later than our expected arrival time. Long story short, we had 3o minutes until our connecting flight back home would be boarding and a total of 1 hour until it was supposed to be taking off. This was going to take a miracle!

We asked it they’d let us off the plane first, but for whatever reason, they wouldn’t allow it. On this flight, we were back in the “cheap seats”, so it took FOREVER to get everyone off the plane. I was still feeling very sick. I was dizzy and I felt like I was going to pass out. My vision was blurry. I was holding a barf bag in my hands just in case. We had no other choice but to do everything we could to try to make that flight! We had kids at home that were really ready to see us and we were beyond ready to see them!!!

The next 1 hour of my life is almost a complete blur. I am going to recount the details to the best of my memory because I really don’t want to forget.

As soon as we got off the plane, we just walked as fast as we could through the people and tried to figure out where to go. We had to go through immigration first. There was quite a long line, but it only took us about 20 minutes or so to go through. Rachel had managed to get there before any of us and she saved us a spot. When it was our turn, we had to present all 3 of our passports and the big brown envelope we got from the Consulate which contained all of K’s immigration stuff. After he processed us, we pointed us to a room close by to go and finish K’s immigration process.  There was only 1 other person waiting in the room and there were 3 agents sitting at the desk with no customers in front of them. We walked right up to the counter, but they asked us to have a seat. What?! We started panicking out loud about how we were never going to make our flight and within a few minutes they finally called us up one at a time. While Rachel and I waited (with the babies in our Ergos) the guys decided they’d go on our to baggage claim to try to save time. It was the right thing to do but I was really nervous because I still felt like I was going to pass out. My vision was blurry, I was light headed and I still felt like I was going to have to throw up.  I just kept sucking on my mint tic tacs, sipping my water and praying that somehow God would get me through! Rachel and ML finished first and headed to baggage claim. Finally, K and I were finished too! I was holding my little bundle of joy—the newest American Citizen!!! But there was NO time to be excited or even think about it, I grabbed my papers and RACED out that door! By the time I found the appropriate carousel in baggage claim, the others already had most of our bags.  (yes! they all showed up! Praise God!) We should have been able to take them to a close spot which was a transfer station and they would’ve transferred the bags to our gate for us, but it was closed! Of course! After the day we’d had, we probably should’ve expected that! So, we had to push the big carts full of our luggage all the way through customs and then on to check in for our next flight.

The Bennington’s got all of theirs first and started towards customs. They asked a gentlemen for help after quickly explaining our situation and with no sympathy, he said to them that it wasn’t that far…

The next person they found was a nice lady and Rachel basically begged for help and she jumped into action! She said, “Follow me!” and off they started running! By the time our last bag came through on the carousel, they were already gone. We asked a couple people for help, but no one was willing to help. We were comforted by the fact that if The Bennington’s made it to the gate in time, they’d get them to hold the plane for us even if we didn’t make it on time. After we waited over 5 minutes in the customs line, we saw the nice lady that had helped them! We waved at her and she waved at us and said, “Yall come on!” We got out of line and she opened a lane for us to walk through. The Bennington’s had sent her back for us! One of the other customs workers said something to her and she said, “I’ve got them”, showed her badge and off we went running towards security! We thanked her profusely! As we ran, I cried. I was so emotional. So tired. So stressed about possibly missing our flight. Exhausted from carrying K the entire time as well as 2 heavy tote bags on my shoulders that kept falling off of my shoulders because of the Ergo straps. And still feeling SO sick and was so worried I was going to pass out and fall over on K because she was strapped to my chest in the carrier!

When we got to security, we unstrapped the baby, took off shoes and jackets, emptied pockets, unpacked laptop and ipad, loaded all of our luggage on the belts, etc as FAST as we possibly could. It’s a wonder something didn’t get damaged! We were slinging stuff everywhere. All the while, K got really upset and was crying and I was still crying and trying SO hard not to throw up. We finally got through and had to load everything back up again.

By this time, Rachel and Scott were already long gone and we couldn’t see them. We didn’t know where they were or if they’d made it to our gate or not. As we got through, Jason gave me a look that said a thousand words and said, “Come on, baby. We can do this. I’m going to run ahead to try to make it and I promise I won’t get on the plane without you. If we miss it, we miss it and it’s going to be ok either way, ok? I love you. You just do your best and be careful.” And then he took off running.

This was another one of those times where having a very muscular and strong husband really comes in handy! The entire time, he handled our HUGE duffel bags that were over 50 lbs each AND both of our huge backpacks. They were PACKED and they were SO HEAVY! I could barely lift either one of them and there’s no way I could’ve held even one of them on my back even if I wasn’t carrying K in the carrier.

I just simply couldn’t run anymore. I walked as fast as I could, but my body was just about to give out. I literally felt like I was going to fall over forwards from exhaustion and weakness with K on my chest and those bags on my shoulders. I just kept whispering the words to the Casting Crowns song, “If we’ve ever needed you, Lord, it’s now”. Don’t know why that came to mind, but it was all I could think or say in my head at the time. It’s like that line was just on repeat in my brain.

I got to a flight of stairs and worried I wouldn’t be able to make it, but I did. My head was spinning and I was so breathless by the time I got to the top. Sweet baby K was just as relaxed as could be in her carrier and her eyes were fixed on mine the entire time. Every time I looked down at her, she was looking right at me. I could tell she was very unsure of what was going on, but she just kept her eyes on me looking for reassurance. I kept whispering little things to her and held her head with one of my hands wherever possible.

When I reached the top of the stairs, by the grace of God, there was an employee standing there. I had no idea if our gate was close or a mile away. I frantically shouted out our gate number and he pointed and said, “It’s right there! You’re almost there!” I felt such relief when he said that! I couldn’t see any of the others, but I just kept walking as fast as I could and even picked it up to a little jog. Then things got REALLY blurry, so I had to slow down and take some deep breaths. I was crying so hard by this time because I just knew we’d missed it! I so badly didn’t want to disappoint my other 3 kids at home by not making it home! I just wanted to be HOME SO BAD!!!

As I walked a little farther, I could see the other 3 and little Mae. They were smiling and waving arms at me! Then I could hear them say, “It’s ok! We made it!” I shouted back, “We made it?!” And as soon as I got close enough, I noticed Jas had tears in his eyes and Rachel was losing it just like me. WE MADE IT!

Our plane was supposed to leave the gate 15 minutes earlier. Boarding had begun almost an hour earlier. The plane wasn’t delayed and all of the other passengers were already on board. How did we make it?!?!

Because God made it happen. It’s that simple. We were supposed to be on that plane.

The attendant at the gate was the sweetest lady. She told us that she just knew she was supposed to leave the gate open a little longer for some reason and she went with her instincts. And after she realized why she felt like she was supposed to do that, we all got a little chill because she told us she was so happy for us because SHE was adopted! **TEARS*** Wow. Only God. Thank you, Lord! We thanked her profusely through tears, took a deep breath and walked through the gate to our awaiting plane.

When we got close enough, we could see the 2 flight attendants, one male and one female, standing just outside the cockpit. They were smiling and welcoming us on board. As we entered the plane, and saw a plane full of passengers all seated comfortably, we realized they had all been waiting quite some time and probably wondering why in the world their plane hadn’t taken off yet! Rachel and I were still just bawling with relief and as we carried our babies on board, most of the other passengers smiled at us. At that point, when they saw us with our babies, our tear stained faces and our VERY obviously WEARY and travel worn bodies, I’m pretty sure they all knew we were very happy to be on that plane!

Our seats were at the back of the plane and it was perfect because there was no one in the 3 rows behind us on either side. After we got seated, the sweet male flight attendant came to tell us we could spread out however we wanted and asked us if we needed anything. I was able to get a bottle of water and some paper towels to make some fresh wet towels to put on my forehead and neck right away before the plane even began taxiing away from the gate.

I handed K off to Jason and was able to try to compose myself for a few moments while we waited to take off. I still felt really bad, but I definitely felt better with the relief that we had made it and we were going to make it home in just short of 2 hours!

I turned on my phone as quickly as I could when I realized I only had a few precious moments so that I could text my mom to let her know we were on the plane and to let everyone know we were coming home as scheduled!

After we got in the air, the sweet flight attendant came back to check on us and I was able to get some cold sprite and pretzels. I tried a few bites, but knew it wasn’t a good idea. I was so light headed and I knew my blood sugar needed a boost, but I just didn’t feel like my stomach could handle it. Jas took care of K most of the flight. We knew she was hungry, but she didn’t seem interested in anything we had to offer her. When he started breaking off little pieces of pretzel for her, she was happy! She fussed off and on throughout the flight but there wasn’t much we could do for her. She was just exhausted but was too stimulated to relax enough to sleep. Her Daddy did walk her up and down the aisle of the plane SEVERAL times to try to occupy her and keep her happy. At this point, she was learning to walk while we stood behind her and supported most of her weight by holding her hands. They got lots of smiles from the other passengers as they walked the aisle. We started experiencing some turbulence, so the attendant made them have a seat at some point.

The same kind, helpful flight attendant that had gotten me Sprite right when we got on the plane, came to check on us often and kept me going with cold Sprite and water and gave us extra pretzels in case I felt like I could eat at some point. Again, this wasn’t a chance encounter with a random person. No, friends, God was in this detail too. He shared with us how special he thought it was to see us with our babies that evening and how adoption had a special place in his heart because HE was adopted as a young boy as well. And not just that, but he was adopted and raised by parents of a different race. He also smiled and spoke fondly of his parents. What an encouragement to me as we were about to embark on the journey of REAL life with our new daughter.

I was able to use the teeny tiny restroom to wash my face, wet my hair a little bit to TRY to calm down the frizz (without much luck, unfortunately) and put on a little make up. I still looked horrible, but definitely not quite as “hot mess” as I looked before freshening up a bit!

When I first started this post, I was thinking I felt sad that none of us took ANY pictures on this LONG trek home. But now, I’m realizing maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all :)

That 1 hr and 45 minute flight seemed like the LONGEST flight of the day! Every second dragged on…..and on…. and on….. I was just beyond ready to get my feet on the ground at home and see my other kids and my family and friends!

When we could finally see the lights of the airport, the tears started silently flowing. Then, as we got lower and lower, I just kept thanking the Lord over and over again. Then, the glorious feeling of the jerky landing :) Never.Been.So.Glad.To.Be.On.The.Ground.
I looked over at Jas and he was smiling so big, had his eyes closed and let out a big sigh. Relief.
We exchanged a sweet, sweet look and I held our precious baby girl close and kissed her little head as the tears just flowed and I tried to hold back the sobs.

The flight attendant came over the loud speaker to announce our arrival, the time and temperature. I can’t remember word for word what he said, but he ended his announcement by saying something like, “Welcome home to our newest little citizens and their parents. It’s inspiring to see good people with big hearts doing selfless things in this world.” Then the other passengers clapped.

Whoa. I’m crying again as I write this. It was just so touching that he spoke that from his heart and we felt so much support from those strangers who’s plane had been held up for us before departing Detroit :) So very emotional.

As soon as the pilot turned off the fasten seat belt sign, we stood up and Jason helped me get K strapped in the Ergo. Then we grabbed all of our belongings and were the last ones off the plane.

The adrenaline must have kicked in at this point, because the exhaustion seemed to subside a bit and the excitement about introducing Baby K to her brothers and sister, her MeMe and our friends and family set in!

All 4 of us, although incredibly exhausted, had big smiles and we were walking pretty fast towards them! The girls were riding in their Ergo’s next to their Mamma’s chests and were awake and not fussy but seemed a little dazed and confused.

We were blessed to have our sweet friend Meghan there with her camera to take pictures for us at the airport.

Everyone was anxiously awaiting our arrival! These sweet, sweet friends and family all make a huge sacrifice to be there to welcome us home because our flight arrived after 9pm on a Wednesday night!

Here is the first pictures she took of us arriving!!

 

We Made It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!!

In the next post, I will share more pictures from the airport homecoming!