We arrived at the Tampa airport at 4:30 am Saturday morning.
I was very thankful that the airport wasn’t crowded, because it was quite a
process scanning and checking all 7 passports! We got some breakfast and had a
few minutes to eat it at our gate before boarding. Leading up to the trip, I
wasn’t sure that Lily actually understood what we were telling her about going
to China. She didn’t seem excited about it at all. But let me tell you, the
girl was pumped in the airport! She was jumping and singing all over, and kept
saying “Go China, get David?” We boarded our plane and had a quick and uneventful
flight to Houston. Our layover in Houston was quick, so we just went to our
gate and waited for boarding. The second flight was 4 hours long, and
everything went smoothly. We arrived in San Francisco early, and hungry! It was
quite a trek to the international terminal. Once we got there we found a deli
and got sandwiches and salads for lunch. I was also able to watch/follow online
the fourth quarter of the Florida game. I couldn’t pass up my weekly
opportunity to experience high blood pressure and exasperation!
For the first two flights we were switching which kids sat
with which adults. We weren’t able to get seats all together, so we were
usually in twos or threes near each other. This time I sat with Lily and
Caroline, Brian sat with Matthew, and we gave my parents the opportunity to be
kid-free! Brian and Matthew ended up with an extra seat next to them, which
really came in handy. Everything on the flight started out well. The kids
hooked up their headphones to the in-seat screens and started watching movies
and shows. There was a little concern when we thought that my parents’ seats
didn’t have tvs because there were no seats in front of them, but they
discovered that they come out of the side of the chair. I was pretty tired from
my 3:00am wake-up call and couldn’t get comfortable in my seat, so I traded
Brian and stretched out a bit in two seats. I slept for a few hours, and was
woken up with the sound of Caroline doing a choke/cough that resulted in her
throwing up. All over herself. And the plane seats. We were trying to be
discreet about it, but it was a little tricky with her crying and the not-so-pleasant
smell. Thankfully I had packed an extra set of clothes for everyone in our
carry-on so I took Caroline to the bathroom to change and wash up. In case you
didn’t know, Caroline has a thing with clothes and she was not happy with my
selection of pants. So a bit more crying ensued. I managed to get her back to
her seat and settled watching Inside Out and my dad and Brian cleaned up the
plane and got her clothes and sprinkle blankie in a bag. This all happened at
about hour 5 of our flight.
By hour 6 I was pretty sure that there was no way that I could
make it through the rest. I kept staring at our plane on the little map and we
were only over Alaska. The flight time remaining countdown kept taunting me
with its 8 hours and something minutes. No matter what I did I couldn’t get
comfortable, and every time Caroline breathed funny I was on high alert with a
barf bag to catch any further vomiting. I was pretty sure death was imminent.
To get out of my head I literally had to tell myself that no matter what I did,
time would go on, and I would be getting off the flight eventually. I basically
gave myself a survival pep talk. Then I decided that sleeping was obviously not
working, so instead of trying to sleep and being continually frustrated I would
just stop trying and watch a movie. That worked for a while. A few hours later
Caroline got sick again, but this time it was all contained in an air sickness
bag. None of the adults were able to sleep much at all, but Lily passed out
across two seats for a huge chunk of the flight, and Caroline slept quite a bit
too. Even Matthew managed a few hours when I made him stop watching the
in-flight entertainment!
We did eventually land in Chengdu, and I could not have been
more relieved. I had been dreading the flight. No one should be in a tiny space
for that long! In our rush for freedom we almost left Matthew’s suitcase on the
plane, but thankfully Brian realized it at the end of the jetway and went back.
The Chinese are always ever so helpful in their input about clothing, and the
man sitting across from us on the plane made sure to tell us that Caroline
needed a jacket on. It wouldn’t be China without unsolicited advice! After
making our way through two customs stations (read, attempting to stand in line
while simultaneously boxing out anyone who tried to cut in front of us) we met
our guide Susie. She took us to our van and we embarked on a 50 minute drive to
our hotel. We could not believe how much traffic there was on a Sunday night!
Without traffic I doubt it would have taken us very long at all. It didn’t take
long for us to be indoctrinated back into China driving. It’s basically a
continuous game of chicken with lots of honking involved. I think we almost
took out at least 4 bikers and a few scooters, but somehow managed to make it
to our hotel unscathed. Susie told us that we would be meeting David at 9:30 in
the morning and to meet her in the lobby at 9:00! We didn’t get to meet Lily
until 5:00 in the afternoon, so I was feeling a little unprepared and
overwhelmed with it all. I still had to write questions for the caretakers, put
together some gifts, pack David’s backpack, and breathe. But at that point I
was so tired it was all I could do to make it up to our room and go to sleep. I
think by 10:30 we were finally in bed.
I wish I could say that I had a great night’s sleep, but I
woke up around 2:00 because I was so hot! No matter what I did to the
thermostat the temperature wouldn’t change and the fan was not blowing any air.
I think I lay there for an hour in misery, contemplating what tomorrow would
bring, and to be honest, kind of having a bad attitude about everything. I
wanted to be back at the Garden hotel where we stayed before, where things were
a familiar. I didn’t ever want to set foot on another plane again. Too bad that’s
happening all too soon. And to be honest I kind of just wanted to go home. As I
was laying there having a pity party for myself about how uncomfortable I was,
I felt God very clearly speak to me. He said “Erika, how much did I sacrifice
for you when I adopted you as one of MY children?” That stopped me dead in my
tracks. Wow. Surely I can handle a little heat, strange food, and not much
sleep for a few days. I mean, God gave his only Son for me. And Jesus gave HIS
LIFE for me. All out of love. How cool that I get to experience a tiny part of
that through this adoption. My small sacrifice of comfort is bringing life to a
little four year old boy half way around the world.
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