Monday, September 29, 2008
38 HOURS! ARGHHH.
Our travel day back to the states started with the 5:30am wakeup
call (Already awake), luggage out at 6am, final breakfast buffet
(Try eating the Denny’s breakfast bar 16 days straight sometime)
and on the bus by 7 am for the airport. Note: 5 PM on Friday
night when we started our day. It was nice having a few of our
travel mates flying with us. We made it through the multiple
security checks and got to our gate for our flight to Beijing
from Guangzhou. This was a 2 ˝ hour flight and Em did alright
except for the seatbelt thing. Cheerios are a good bribery tool.
Upon arriving at Beijing we had to pick up our luggage and
recheck it for our International flight which didn’t leave for
almost 6 hours. We went through security again, you get the full
pat down and wand treatment in China as well. This is Nicole’s
favorite part of traveling abroad. We found a few places to grab
a bite to eat before getting on the 13.5 hour flight to D.C. and
Nicole and Em went to a little duty free shop and picked up a
few stuffed animals to give the kids when we get off in
Columbus. Em and Andrew played together as we waited and we
could see that sharing would be fun at home.
After much waiting we boarded in Beijing and began the longest
leg of our journey. It was close to bedtime so we thought the Em
might sleep a while but when the drink cart, food cart and drink
cart again keep coming up and down the aisle she drank her
entire bottle (a first) before falling asleep. Uh oh! She did
eventually fall asleep but woke up to some very wet pants. One
outfit down. We changed her and put a few blankets down on the
seat and she fell back asleep. She slept for maybe half of the
flight and did pretty well until we hit some nasty turbulence
coming into DC. She screamed and cried for a few minutes and my
prayerful wife calmed the winds and we made it safely to DC. It
took us about an hour to get through immigration and our girl
officially became a US Citizen. We only had 45 minutes to catch
our connecting flight so we went right to the gate, called the
kids and then we got the great news that our flight to Columbus
had been cancelled due to mechanical issues. Note: This is 29
hours into our fun. After going to multiple customer service
desks they might be able to get us on the same flight the next
night but wouldn’t guarantee anything until Monday. Talk about
wanting to make a Christian man cuss. Nicole and I looked at
each other and we both were ready to cry. We haven’t seen our
other three kids in 17 days, we have been traveling for 29 hours
and you want me to go to a hotel room and wait another day. Not
gonna do it. I called a few rental car places and found a car,
tried to retrieve our luggage which was stuck in customs and get
home ASAP.
Leaving our luggage behind, we left DC at about 12 midnight and
headed home for Columbus about 450 miles away. Are we crazy? Em
fell right asleep (Praise the Lord!) and we got to drive in some
very wonderful rain and mist (real mist, not the China kinda
mist either aka SMOG) through Maryland and West Virginia. At
this point we had already been traveling for 31 hours and it
felt like my eyeballs we about to pop out of my head. Em woke us
a few hours into her first carseat experience and cried the most
heartaching cry I have ever heard. Thanks again Tonya for “Big
Bird Goes to China” because that kept her busy for a little over
an hour. Nicole and I traded shifts (very short shifts) and made
it home at around 7:15 am. Not going to mention the car sick
story for the sake of time. We bathed, showered, brushed our
teeth for about 30 minutes headed to Ye Ye and Nai Nai’s house
to see the kids. 38 of the longest hours know to mankind. This
was definitely the longest Saturday of my life. |
Emmi Su & Andrew
Are we there yet?
Travelin Girl
Noodles anyone?
Finally the four all together
Playing at home on the swing set |
