Obviously by now we are home...but I wanted to write how it all went down on our way home. We left our beautiful hotel in Guangzhou by way of a driver in a silver van, with the steering wheel on the right side of the car, he was from Hong Kong and had made the drive to get us. We only knew it was him because we knew what his license plate number was. His name was Mr. Chin, which made us laugh because that would be like Mr. Smith here. We met our guide at the Consulate and received our 'brown envelope' which is sealed and couldn't be opened until the agents at Immigration in Seattle received it in their hand. The drive was interesting because although we 'left' Guangzhou, we never left cityscape..I think they all just wound together one to another until we reached the border at Hong Kong. We had to get out of the car and walk through the building to get our passports checked and then we met the driver on the other side of the building. We didn't see much of Hong Kong as we headed to the airport hotel, but we drove over some impressive bridges spanning the inlets to the major ports. Their were huge cargo ships everywhere.
We got to our hotel around 7 pm and since it was connected to the airport we went walking to find our check-in spot for the early morning. Em had a hard time settling down to sleep and we were up at 5:20 in order to get where we needed to go. The airport at first seems very small but again, it was huge and it took us several escalators to get to the correct gate. It is so frustrating because you race through the airport, drooling at all the Starbuck coffee stands and restaurants that promise a tasty breakfast, only to keep racing to get closer to your gate, only to find out that there is NOTHING at your gate to eat or even to buy a bottle of water. Frustrating but true. We arrived the mandatory two hours early but by the time we got through all the lines, security, and various up and downs to find our gate, we only waited a few minutes to board. This plane ride was our first glimpse in a long time of other native English speaking people, which was nice. Emma traveled really well for the 3 1/2 hour ride. We reached the Tokyo airport only to be put into standby (circle mode) because there was a terrible wind and we could not land. We circled and went up and down for at least an hour before we made a white knuckle landing. You know when the flight attendants are gripping the sides of the plane as we land, that it is rough. We are so thankful to be safe from that. :) When we finally caught sight of land, it was a brown out dust/sand storm. Flights coming from all over were diverted, not sure why we were not. We got off our plane only to find out that our next plane to Seattle was suspended indefinitely and that the plane we were scheduled to take had been diverted to another city in Japan. After 9 hours of waiting in the Tokyo airport, we finally boarded our plane to Seattle, with a very tired little girl. Emma continues to amaze me, but she was DONE! :) We were seated first because of our 'small child' status, but then waited over an hour for the huge plane that was packed out to be loaded. The flight at that point seemed rather daunting but Emma did well, slept some, played, and only cried for about 45 minutes total over the whole 10 hours we were on the plane. We were feeling bedraggled by this time but were so thankful to land in Seattle. At this point, we went through customs and then immigration, where we had to turn over the all important sealed brown envelope. Emma was congratulated for her citizenship and we headed to the ticket counter to see what kind of mercy they could have on us. Come to find out they had a lot of mercy and helped us to get on the last flight of the evening to Pullman. Our car was in Spokane but our amazing brother-in-law Ben and one of our men that work for us went and got it for us. The flight over Washington was a beautiful sight and it was super fun to fly into Pullman because we pretty closely flew over our house...even though we could not see it. We didn't get to Pullman until after 11 so all but Mark stayed in bed, and we were greeted by Mark, Justin's sisters, and his parents. It was so wonderful!
We are so glad to be home and now are just looking to find the new normal. I took a picture of us eating dinner at the table tonight and was amazed at how God has grown our family. The table is pretty 'full of life'. Emma took her first meal at lunch today...with a spoon and everything. Apparently, she was just tired of food in China and is going to not be left behind at meal time by her siblings.
The kids are so thrilled with Emma and fought over who was going to play with her today. Ashley proudly announced to a visitor that brought us dinner that she has a new Chinese sister! Emma has taken their in her face excitement in stride and hasn't fussed much at all today. Beth is interested but not overly excited when Emma is in my lap, it will be an adjustment for her more than anyone, not being the baby anymore. The kids all seemed to grow up while we were gone, but Beth the most. She was my baby two weeks ago and now she seems so grown up and independent...how fast life goes by. So now as I sit here at 11:36, my question is this...how do you switch an 18 month old to a 16 hour time difference. Emma napped this afternoon and fell asleep this evening, I was all smug that "hey, this is easy" but at 10:30 she was wide awake, ate a meal and has been playing happily ever since. It may be a long night for this Momma!
Thanks, again and again, for all the support and prayers. I know many have asked our extended family for updates and pictures of our journey to and from China to get our beautiful daughter. We can't wait for all of you to meet her and see for yourself how she is just so precious. We feel so very blessed to have been led on this journey and it has changed our lives forever. I think the hugeness of it all hasn't really 'hit' me yet...but wow...what a challenging and blessed time for our whole family. As one of my adoption mommy friends said...we are praying as the glue dries...as Emma settles into the family and feels more at home with us and her surroundings.
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment