We left home on Thursday around 4pm to head to the airport!! Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:45pm. During our drive to the airport it started raining and storming. We got to the airport in plenty of time and was able to have our last dinner as a "family of five" at IHop with Craig. We said our goodbyes and headed to our gate. There was delay after delay due to the lightening and bad weather. It turns out our flight did not leave Atlanta until 11:45PM. We were flying to JFK, and had a 2 1/2 hour layover then we were flying out of JFK at 1:45am and heading to Guangzhou. We arrived in JFK at 1:20am and tried our hardest to find the international terminal but by the time we ran over a mile (it had to be!) our plane had already left. (there would have been no way we could have made our flight in 25 minutes anyway--just not enough time to go through security etc.) We tried finding someone at the China Southern customer service who could help us, but it just so happened that EVERYONE from China Southern was gone for the night. I really had NO clue what to do. I couldn't call anyone from our agency because it was 2am in the morning! I was able to get my computer and find out that the next flight out of JFK to Guangzhou, China was not until 11:15am that morning. So we walked around the airport forever trying to find a place to camp out. We went to baggage claim and Laura and Christine found some chairs to curl up in. I got a wheel chair and sat by a plug near them so I could charge our phones. Ava slept on and off in her stroller. I just couldn't sleep. Right after we missed our flight the girls and I went to the restroom and ran into a lady who came out of the stall and was laughing. She had just cut off the tag to her neck pillow and evidently she cut part of the pillow because white "snow" was coming out of it everywhere. We started talking and figured out that her and her husband (also from GA) were on the same flight and they were also headed to GZ and they were adopting a little boy!!! God is amazing how He orchestrates things. We have learned over the years that IT IS SUCH A SMALL WORLD!! We were so happy to know that we did not have to be on this journey alone.
We ended up getting our itinerary fixed around 6am, but it wasn't until about 9:00am that we got our boarding pass. I was surprised at how fast time actually passed. I was also amazed throughout the night at the amount of people were laying on the floor sleeping. People were lined up around the windows, in the aisles, just anywhere.... Around 9:03am there was an announcement over the intercom at the airport that they wanted us to observe a moment of silence in respect for 9/11. It turns out we were in Manhattan, NY (JFK airport) on the anniversary of 9/11. Pretty sobering. By the time we got through security, went to the restroom, grabbed something to eat at McDonald's they were already boarding our plane. We ended up eating our McDonald's on the plane. It turned out that our new found friends, Dan and Betsy, along with the four of us sat in two rows of seats together on the very back of the plane. We were so thankful to be on that plane!!! However, 15 hours on a plane is just brutal. Everyone seemed to get some sleep, and Ava was a perfect angel---but my body was so achy, I probably got 2 hours sleep max. I even took some melatonin. I guess I'm weird that way. Oh well...There is just no way to make a 15 hour trip on a packed plane fun. I got up and walked around a little. I was so tired, I just couldn't fall asleep.
We got into Guangzhou about an hour early which was very nice. By the time we got our boarding passes and went through security and immigrations we didn't have a lot of time left to spare. While waiting at the gate a Chinese woman sat next to Laura and kept staring at us and waving at Ava. She started talking to us, and Laura understood a little of what she was saying. She could not understand how I was the mama to all three of the girls and why Ava looked Chinese. When we told her that Ava was Chinese she was even more confused. She asked about my husband, wondering if he was Chinese. We showed her a picture of Craig, and she just shook her head. I still wonder what that lady thought. Most Chinese people do not know what adoption is, and don't understand how to interpret that word. We got a lot of "looks!" We took a bus that drove about 5 minutes to take us to our next plane for our flight from Guangzhou to Jinan. As soon as we boarded the plane I think Ava and I fell asleep. I don't even remember waking up for take off. I woke up a couple hours later and felt so much better!! I was finally exhausted enough to fall asleep!! This was only about a 2 1/2 hour flight, but they served a meal anyway. None of us were in the mood for anymore airplane meals and Ava was asleep when the flight attendants were handing out meals. When they handed us ours, we just shook our heads and told them no thank you, we were not hungry. Well, about 3 or 4 flight attendants huddled around in the aisle and discussed something--they seemed very confused. After they finished talking, they handed us the meals, and gave me a special vegetarian meal. They insisted we take it. We just decided we better take the meals. We opened them up, and closed the boxes back, so they would think we ate them. Just minutes later they came with 3 more trays of the same food for us. This time we shook our heads and said No thank you. They just looked at us and smiled. We just laughed and laughed. I'm sure they were trying to figure out us Silly Americans!!! I told Laura, that they must have thought we ate a lot of food!! I guess that's a story where you had to be there. It was just so funny that we kept telling them no, and they just kept bringing more!!!
When we got to the airport we were looking for our guide who was supposed to meet us at the airport. We were praying they would figure out that we would be on the later flight instead of our original one. We went and got our luggage (Praise the Lord, the luggage made it!!) Then we stood around looking for someone holding a sign. I was beginning to get nervous when all of a sudden this man ran up to us with a handwritten sign that had our agency's name on it!! We followed him to the van (we ran because he was walking so fast) and prayed that this man knew where he was supposed to take us! He didn't speak English because I asked him several questions and he just looked at me!! The drive from the airport to our hotel was very nice. The highways were very organized--not all the crazy driving and honking like in the other cities we have been in. Our driver even wore his seat belt and didn't scare us at all!! He only honked a few times!!
We arrived to our hotel around 10pm. We got checked in and went to our room. The hotel is absolutely gorgeous!! I realized we had no idea about what time they were going to bring Andrew to us the next day so after a couple attempts I ended up talking to our guide. She informed me that the orphanage director from Andrew's orphanage had a very important meeting Sunday and couldn't meet us on the day that was scheduled. So our gotcha day is now Monday September 14th at 1pm. As much as we wanted to have Andrew asap I also felt that it might be nice to get a good nights sleep and just have a day to scope out the area and relax. Ava was so tired, but I was able to get her a bath, and put her pjs on her and she fell asleep within minutes! I took a shower, which felt AWESOME, and got a good nights rest. I didn't even move until 6:30am!! It seemed like it took an eternity to get here to China, but we are so thankful to be here!
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