The Journey Home

We left Guangzhou in a hurry last Friday afternoon. We went to the swearing in ceremony at the US Consulate expecting a quick deal, only to learn that in honor of National Adoption Day, they were doing an extra special ceremony for us. Oh, joy. They had the Consulate General, all the adoption processing workers, and tons more people present in honor of the occasion. They gave a great long political speech, acknowleged all the agencies present, swore us in, then wanted photos with everyone. We left before the photos since we had a bus to catch.

Our bus from the hotel had been in an accident and was unable to retrieve us. This greatly complicated matters. It was now rush hour traffic, so the taxi we had called had slow going. We were starting to get concerned because we still had to get back to the hotel, get our bags from the room we had left them in, catch another taxi, then get to the hotel the shuttle bus would leave from. We were accompanied by Qin Lei to the shuttle bus. When we arrived, we threw our stuff onto the bus, sat down, and it started moving. Whew! That was close!

We arrived in Hong Kong six hours later. It was supposed to be a three hour trip, but there was a traffic jam from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Misery. We had to pass through immigration to get into Hong Kong, dragging our four bags and child with us. We were dropped off in the middle of Kowloon, near another branch of the Metropark Hotel. We were at least near something we recognized. The staff there was helpful in helping us find our hotel on a map so we could tell the cab driver where to go. We flagged down a cab and went to the next hotel.

In the lobby of the hotel, we checked in and were given our room key (an actual key) and the remote to the air conditioner. When he saw all of our bags, he commented that our bags would not fit into our room, so he would upgrade us to the super room for free. Hmmm. There were only four bags. We had to go outside to the next lobby to get to the elevator. One was out of service with electrical difficulties. As the other elevator descended, every other floor or so, the display would read, "Out of Service." Greg told me to just not look at it. We rode the elevator to the 11th floor, found our room, and discovered that my parents' bathroom is bigger than the super. There were 2 single rock hard beds in there, a night stand, a tv, a small fridge, and a scary bathroom. It was actually clean, but still didn't look right. At this point it was 11:30 pm, we hadn't eaten any dinner, and wanted to be out of the hotel by 6:30 am to get to the airport on time without stress. So we just went to bed. Greg got very little sleep.

The alarm went off at 6 am. We got dressed, packed up, and went down to catch a taxi to the Airport Express train station in Kowloon. We had hoped to find a McDonald's on the way for breakfast, but the one we saw was inaccessible from the road we were on. We arrived at the train station and discovered that there was a United counter there that allowed us to check our bags all the way through to O'Hare. What a relief. We caught the train (they came every ten minutes) and relaxed on the way to the airport. We checked in at the airport and then found some breakfast. Food was a very good thing at that point.

Elijah had broken out in a rash a few days earlier. We had tried a dose of Benadryl but had not seen much change. We did not have infant Benadryl with us, which I would definitely take the next time! We stopped in the pharmacy at the airport and talked with the pharmacist. He sold us a bottle of Polaramine, which is an antihistamine. He cautioned us that it might make him drowsy, but that it should help with the rash. I'm not sure it did much with the rash, but what a bonus that it made him drowsy!

He slept for half of the trip to Tokyo. We had bulkhead seats, which allowed room for him to play. They gave us a bassinet for him to sleep in safely on the floor which he was too big for. He tried to turn over, found himself stuck, and freaked out. We got him resettled, but he was done sleeping there.

We had plenty of time to catch the plane from Tokyo to O'Hare. We did not have the bulkhead seats we were hoping for, but ended up next to the only open seat on the plane. What a blessing. He slept for most of the trip. He only fussed for maybe 5 minutes of the entire 11 hours on the plane and was quickly settled.

Once in Chicago, we had to collect our bags, get through customs, then get Elijah through immigration. That took a while, but he is now a US Citizen. We had had to recheck our bags, then get from the International Gate to Gate 1 at the exact other end of the airport. We got to our flight, sat down, they closed the doors, and we left. Whew! We barely made that flight! It was only 50 minutes from Chicago to Columbus, and we were so excited knowing that Kailey and Justin were waiting for us at the other end.

Arriving in Columbus, Kailey and Justin met us outside security with my parents. We ate at the Wendy's there, then headed for home. As anticipated, Elijah was not impressed with the car seat. He had never been in one before and really objected to being restrained. The first 10 minutes of the trip were really noisy. We turned on some music, and he settled right down.

That was the hardest leg of the trip. Greg and I were both exhausted since we had had so little sleep in the previous 48 hours. Greg drove halfway home, then I took over. We got home safely by the grace of God at 9 pm. Thank you for all your prayers for a safe journey. We all slept well that night.