The flight attendants are SO amazing and the flight has been good other than the extreme turbulane. We were delayed taking off because “they” decided to change our take off strip so they had to do computer work to document the change. In other words, the captain said we could take off our seatbelts and move about the cabin while we waited - LOL. I passed out everyone’s McDonald’s (we’re not in China anymore, Toto, so McDonald’s food is back to same old same old… and not AMAZING in case you missed that fact that China has really good McDonald’s food) and then as soon as everyone opened their cartons (literally) the captain said we were cleared for take off and the flight attendants could take their seats. I collected all the cartons back and we taxied to the other runway. Jemma demanded for the umpteenth time to have her bottle so I finally gave in and HOPED it would last till we took off but no, I knew I was giving it to her too early and she sucked it dry before we even left the ground. Oh well, she had a paci and Phil let her munch on McDonald’s. (He has Jemma and Titus in his row and I have Sammy and Phoebe. Lily and Ian are together kitty corner from me and directly behind Phil and Jemma.)
Nice things about this flight - screens in every seat! Also, the flight attendants as noted above. We walked on the plane and they recognized us from our flight here (not sure if that was good or bad in their minds… :D)
The food was especially gross but our flight attendant seemed to try and convince everyone it was going to be a delicacy and the best meal they’ve had, maybe ever, as he passed them out. LOL I was totally sold until I started eating it and realized his hype was the best thing about the meal. :)
Jemma got dramamine and survived the take-off. We are only a few hours into the flight and I will be SURPRISED if we make it all the way without seeing some vomit. This ranks right up there with one of the most turbulent flights I’ve ever been on. I’ve never been on a flight were the exit sign lights start blinking and the captain calls over the intercom for the flight attendants to quickly be seated, at which point, the flight attendants start RUNNING around basically putting grown adults into their seats and shouting for everyone to be seated. There was even an announcement for adults to help children make sure they are buckled. Sheesh! I won’t lie, there was a moment where I considered if this was going to be the way we go… momentarily thought, well, at least we’d all go together, and then in crazy mom fasten your seatbelts kind of way tried to reach all the kids to make sure they weren’t flying out of their seats. Sammy woke up with the huge bumps and the man across the aisle started making paper airplanes out of his newspaper so Sammy wouldn’t be scared. Jemma woke up but then went right back to sleep - thank you dramamine! Lily was covering her eyes and I couldn’t see Titus. Phoebe did not seem alarmed, although I honestly think she would have burst into tears had she not been sitting with me and holding her blanket.
The kids are fairly content to just keep watching movies on their own screens. Ian chose to watch a movie in English, which totally confused me. I told him he had to pick from the kids’ menu. I showed him how to choose the Chinese language for the movies, but then he went and chose English.
*****
Finishing this blog post now that we're home:
Everyone pretty much watched movies, ate food, walked to the bathroom and back, talked with the flight attendants in the rear kitchen, and slept-ish. At one point, I rested while Phil held Jemma for quite a while but it was SO hard to sleep because the airplane air was very dry and irritating and the white noise of the plane was so loud. However, closing my eyes for that extended time helped get me over the hump of that crazy feeling when you're getting sleep deprived. Jemma stretched out over two seats and slept while Sammy slept on the floor. I held Titus in my lap trying to get him to fall asleep for a long time and after an entire movie and a half he did. Phoebe slept across two seats and Ian slept next to her in what had been my seat. Phil sat by Lily at that point and she napped as well. I was so glad the kids all slept otherwise, there was no way they would even begin to survive the welcome home at my sister's house upon our arrival. It would be 5am China time for that.
We were served breakfast at about the 1 hour 15 minutes to land mark. Since the captain had announced the timing of the meals (which is REALLY helpful, by the way), we knew to start cleaning up, winding up headphones, getting shoes on, etc. prior to breakfast being served. This time the flight attendants weren't so convincing that breakfast was going to be awesome... clearly they couldn't hide the fact that it was not edible. What's nice is all the people who need special meals get served first. So each of the kids got their trays. Except for the fact that only one kid was awake and could be woken up for breakfast at all. It was an egg/sausage/baked bean thing. Even Sammy who eats everything took a tiny nibble and said he didn't want it. Ian got an adult meal - noodles, decided by the flight attendant since he didn't speak English to tell her what he wanted. However, she brought him a second meal with the quiche. I could see he was really struggling with either of the meals and handed him one of the kids meals. He seemed to be really grateful to have that option, but also, didn't finish it. I really don't blame him.
Phil and I moved everyone around and got people woken and buckled. Phil covered Jemma with a blanket and had the puke bag open and ready. I had timed her last dramamine dose so that I thought it would still be in her system at landing. But ultimately, we found out later that a lot of people were praying for Jemma to not throw up! THANK YOU! Because she didn't. It wasn't near the turbulent landing that we had going into Beijing. I kept calling over to Phil and asking if she had thrown up and if he had the bag ready.
I told Lily to ask her neighbor to open their window shade so that Ian could see his first glimpses of the U.S.A! He was trying to soak it all in as fast as possible. He was so alert and watching. No putting his head in his hands this time. We landed and I patted his knee (blue hair alert!) and congratulated him! Technically, I think he became a citizen at some point after that, but oh well... ultimately, he was becoming a U.S. citizen in these moments/process and it was huge! As if he'd been born to us, he was automatically a citizen to the United States!
I was really pleased with how quickly we were able to get off the plane this time. No flight attendants helped us and we were not the last ones off. We were able to disembark when the shuffling out reached our rows.
We got off the plane and went to the customs area. It has become self-serve so Phil scanned in our 7 passports and we took the most HILARIOUS post-14 hour plane ride pictures to enter the country ever taken, I'm sure. The machine spit out our papers and pictures and we were told to go to the visa line for Ian. We were given the tell-tale pink file folder for all Ian's documents, Chinese passport, U.S. visa, and very important - the Immigration SEALED envelope! After getting through this line, we gathered all our luggage, used the restroom, changed shirts into our family coming home shirts that we purchased on Shamian Island (the Chinese equivalent to our announcement/gotcha day shirts that we had made). Each person had a shirt that said little sister, little brother, big brother, Mom, and Dad only in Chinese (both characters and pinyin).
Once we were all changed and packed back up (I had a packing cube in my back pack with everyone's shirts so we didn't have to unpack and actual suitcase), we headed over to the immigration line. The man looked at the 7 passports and said welcome back and then he saw me holding our pink file folder. That moment is so thrilling. He said, "Oh you have a new one! You can head this way." And then as I lead the way to the immigration holding area, I heard him say congratulations to our family. Thank you. That was what I had hoped to hear. It was a very satisfying moment. Congratulations for having a baby (teenager). Congratulations for becoming a U.S. citizen. Congratulations for taking your 6 children to China. Congratulations for being upright and organized. :)
We waited for the Immigration officer sitting at the long desk to finish his story to the other not working officer (while the other 3-4 staff members were completing tasks) to be greeted and allowed enter the area. I'll admit, I wasn't happy to see this particular officer. He's abrasive and rude and comes off as arrogant treating most of the people in the room as... lessors to say it nicely. He tends to have foul language. However, because I know the process, I didn't need to feel like his instructions were news to me so I just joyfully put our pink folder on the top of the desk and Phil and I had everyone sit down while we waited for Ian's citizenship/paperwork to be processed. It's really immigration paperwork, but his certificate will come in the mail in a couple of months.
It didn't take near as long as it had with Jemma, at which time they processed us in order of arrival instead of making adoptions priority. This time, we were kind of last in-first out. Definitely had the right person working the desk because that pink folder is just so awesome! I'm pretty sure the rude guy's only job is to tell people to come in and sit down. I was glad he wasn't processing our stuff. Very quickly, they brought out the papers to fill and said we were free to leave!
It took us a little bit to regather our things and then make the tight u-turn into the luggage security check. Yup - one more baggage check before we were free of them. HAHAHA! At this point in time, our entire family was so accustomed to these checks that it was comical - kids just piled up their shoulder bags and backpacks on the conveyor belt hill and then walked through to the other side and collected them like a tired ragamuffin bunch of ducklings. Ian knowingly pushed the carts through so that Phil could put the heavy bags back on and then he and Phil pushed our carts through the one-way only doors and there we were.
Phil texted my dad and after a bit of texting back and forth, we figured out how to tell them where we were and I saw our big blue turn the corner and park at the entrance to the pick-up line. We navigated all our stuff and all our kids through the crowds of people and luggage and carts and taxis and traffic controllers to the other side of the road where my dad, wearing red, greeted us with a huge smile and hugs and kisses. I introduced Ian to his grandfather, PopPop, and Ian just lit up in his grandfather's hug! It was so special! I could tell how much it meant to Ian to be hugged by my dad. He was willing and ready to receive that love.
Dad said to Ian, "Okay, I'll push the cart now." But of course, Ian did not understand that and just kept following Phil with all our luggage to our van and my Mom. Yes. My Mom. Oh my heart, she was standing there on the side walk grinning and looking so pretty in her spring green top and so excited to welcome us home. The Lord sustained her life to not only meet Ian, but to be there at that very moment, standing, with no oxygen attached, ready to welcome another grandchild into her family. I hugged her and kissed her and we both were so choked up and kind of cried laughed as she said she was just so glad we were home. Ian was standing at my elbow and I turned to him and said, "Ian, this is your grandmother, Nana." He said, "Nana" and then she hugged him and said that she was so glad to meet him and have him home. It was a moment. I hope I never forget my parents each meeting Ian and the warmth of the love that they unconditionally gave immediately. My dad and Phil loaded the van - not sure how there was so much space left... I even said I wondered what we'd left in China. We all climbed in and Dad drove us home.
I sat between Jemma's and Sammy's carseats. There are so many funny things about this, not the least of which was Sammy declaring that "WE HAVE CARSEATS JUST LIKE THESE!" upon climbing into his. It wasn't until we were nearly home when he exclaimed that we had a van just like this one when I realized he didn't know we were driving in our actual car. LOL! Jemma on the other hand announced after about 4 minutes of driving that she was "All Done!" referring to her buckle, and possibly traveling. She made it known several times on the drive to WI that she was NOT A FAN of her carseat.
I spent the time leaning forward between the driver's seat and passenger seat and talking with my parents the whole way back. It was SO nice!
to be continued...
The view out of our hotel room
Another glimpse of the Titus bus!
Bye Hong Kong - You're beautiful!
Because who can stay awake at 4:30 in the morning?
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