The above picture was taken at NanJ*ng airport. The last thing Nancy did for us was ask a stranger to take a group picture. She did this after getting us our fight tickets and having them give us seats together on Ch*na Southern airline. She also walked us right past the security where hundreds were standing and got us VIP treatment as adoptive parents. The security there allowed us to enter through the first class entrance. We got done and went to our gate......27 clear at the end of the airport, in the basement!
We got to our gate at 2:30pm for a 4:15pm departure. Then it got interesting. We realized that people were groaning as Mandarin was spoken over the PA. As it turns out, most of the Guangzhou flights were being delayed. In a country where few speak Engish, this was pretty tough information to come by. We then found out that there was a typhoon coming through Guangzh*u and we were one of the many delayed flights. The problem was, we were the latest Guangzh*u departure. That only meant.......we were the latest Guangzh*u arrival!
He would tell us when he was going upstairs to smoke and come right back. He told us how he always wanted more children but due to the one-child policy, they were unable to have any more.
He helped us carry our luggage to the bus, which took us to the plane on the tarmac. He then stayed at the baggage claim at 2am and insisted on helping. He wanted to get us a taxi and translate where to take us. We then thanked him and said that our guide was there and he was free to go home to his family.
Well, here is our treasure. She was so good waiting all that time. She was on a food strike but did finally break down and eat a granola bar for me. The benches we were sitting on were metal. They were cool and that is about the only good thing I can say about them!
We finally boarded our flight! We were listening to the captain's voice over the PA and then everyone moaned. WHAT!!! We don't speak or understand Mandarin. Then the English announcement was made. We were told that we had to wait on the tarmac for at least 1 1/2 hours until the weather in Guangzh*u cleared. UGH!!!! We had a baby who didn't have any true supper or nap. It was 9pm and we had a delay.
Finally we were in the air at 11:30pm. Mariah was with me for the whole day. We decided that she needed to realize that I was her Mommy and that I love her unconditionally. I will not leave her! So, it was hard on me. My arms ached terribly. She doesn't help you hold her. She has very low muscle tone and does not walk much. When she does, she is very shaky. She prefers to be held.
In flight she fussed for the first 1/2 hour and the last 45 minutes. We believe her ears were bothering her. My sinuses were killing me and Jeremy's ear was bothering him too. Aside from that, you don't really hear much from her.
We arrived in Guangzh*u at 2am and our guide, Rebecca, was there waiting for us. By the time we got our luggage and got to the hotel it was 3:15am. Check-in took a few minutes and we went up to our rooms. They are beautiful! This entire hotel is incredible. We are staying at The Garden. We are amazed at it's beauty. The provincial hotel had a lot to be desired. We felt like we walked into a little paradise.
Here is the bedroom part of our suite!
Here is the bathroom!
The living area!
Here she is. I had to give her a bath at 3:45am. I hated to do that to her but we had a mandatory medical exam in the morning and she was so sticky from us trying to feed her. She was so sleepy!
I will try to update more. Today we had her medical exam. She was not impressed. She cried when they looked in her ear!
Tomorrow we meet our Lifeline group and go shopping with our guide, then lunch, then group photo at 4pm.
I still miss my other four kids terribly. This is a beautiful place but we would love to be home. Kyle, Micah, Rebecca, and Benjamin.......we love you so much!
Mariah looks like such an adorable sweetie!
ReplyDeleteWe had a delay (nothing as long as your delay!) when we flew from Beijing to Guangzhou. I have a feeling weather delays there are frequent! Hopefully you'll be able to catch up on some rest during the next couple days! You are getting closer to coming home! :)
Poor little sweetheart. I can't wait to see her smiling. Once it hits her she has found her wonderful forever family, she'll be one happy camper, Mama!
ReplyDeleteWe had Nancy when we were in Nanjing too. Our Nanjing airport was an adventure as well. Here is what I wrote on my blog:
ReplyDelete"Our guide in Nanjing thought that our plane would be delayed because of fog, but we decided to just go wait at the airport. We go there a little later than we originally planned and found out that it wasn't delayed. We ended up sprinting for a long time through the airport to get to our gate. I thought that I was going to pass out because half the time I was carrying Taylor (who is 24 pounds). We got to the gate and they were loading people onto a bus to take them to the airplane. We ended up having to take a second bus after the first filled up. As we were waiting, we realized that nobody's seats were together. Taylor and Jordan were all by themselves. We told the flight attendants about it as soon as we boarded and they asked people to switch seats so that Taylor and I sat next to each other and my mom was in the middle seat across the aisle from us. Stefan and Jordan were in the back of the plane about 8 rows behind us. We ended up having to sit in the airplane for two hours because air traffic control was trying to sort out the mess from all the previous flights being delayed because of fog. Taylor would have been fine if we would have taken off on time, but she got really antsy about 1 hour into our actual flight (3 hours of being on the plane). We had two crying episodes which had to be solved with lollipops. We are finding that to be a good distraction (bribe) when we know unpleasant things are happening to her. When we finally landed, two of our bags and D. and C.'s two bags were not there. Our guide was waiting behind the glass partition and Stefan and D. were able to communicate to her through a crack. She was able to find out that our bags were sent on another flight so we had to drive to another terminal to pick them up. We were very thankful to finally get to our hotel at around 9:00. We hadn't eaten lunch or dinner because of the plane fiasco (we did have a snack on the plane-cherry tomatoes, chocolate cake muffin, sweet roll, and peanuts-and Taylor ate all of her snacks that I packed) thankfully I had some granola bars and peanut M &M's in my backpack."
I as glad you are doing well. Mariah is so cute.
Joy