Our Adventurous Journey

Well, I've had a great night's sleep, and am now ready to update you all on our first few days.  We left home Friday evening and went to Heath's parents' house.  We got the kids all settled in and moved in their truckloads of stuff.  Putting them to bed was a little sad, knowing that we wouldn't see them again for almost 2 weeks.  They handled it OK, and I did too.  :)  We went to bed about 9:30 and left for the airport at 3:30.  (Night #1 of not enough sleep).  The plan was to fly to Beijing (with a layover in San Francisco), and then fly to Nanchang, check into the hotel and get rested before meeting Rayanna.  That's not quite what happened.

The flight to San Francisco was fine.  The skies were clear, and we were low enough to see a lot of amazing scenery.  It was gorgeous!  We had a very short layover there, and boarded the plane for Beijing.  It was a long and boring, but non-eventful flight.  It felt very good to get out, and we were looking forward to a few hours to stretch our legs before the final flight.  It was supposed to leave at 7:30pm, so we would have 4 hours at the airport.  We successfully got our luggage and went to the domestic flights to check in for that.  The lady there told us the flight had been delayed so we couldn't check in yet.  This was the first of many non-informative things we'd be told.  For the next few hours we attempted to get more information, but no one could tell us anything except to wait.  As more and more flights were cancelled, the swarms of people grew.  Lines don't mean much in China, and we aren't very pushy people in America (let alone compared to here), and we don't speak Chinese so it was futile for us to get any real help.  We weren't supposed to have a guide meeting us since it was just a layover, but we ended up getting in touch with Lisa, our Beijing guide from the last adoption.  She came to the airport to help us out.  After lots of waiting we finally were given a flight for 7:40 the next morning.  That would get us to Nanchang just in time to meet Rayanna at 11:00.  By this time it was really late, and the nearby hotels were booked.  So we decided just to stay at the airport.  Lisa left, (and refused to take any money for her trouble and transportation.  I'm still trying to scheme up a way to get it to her!) 

The reason for the cancellations was a very severe storm.  The whole airport lit up with each lightning flash, and we could hear the rain pouring down like crazy.  The thunder was very powerful, and I have to admit I'm glad we weren't flying through that!  However, I was none too happy about the situation.  We had talked to our Nanchang guide Echo to let her know we wouldn't make it, but I was worried we wouldn't get a flight even in time to do the paperwork at 3:00 the next day.  Because so many flights were cancelled, the airport was filled with people camping out.  Every booth seat in restaurants, every bench, chair, or other surface had someone sleeping on it.  We found a quiet hallway, and just lay down at the edge of it, using our bags as pillows.  Wow.  As a kid I thought sleeping on the floor was fun.  It certainly is not fun anymore!  Especially when it's not even carpeted!  We moved around a few times, basically out of boredom and frustration, but never found any good place to sleep.  Around 4 am, I was glad we had our suitcases because I was able to change clothes and brush my teeth, and that helped.  Despite the set back I was ready to face the new day and go get our daughter!

So about 6:00 am we went to the other terminal to check in for our new flight.  And we heard once again those terrible words, "You cannot check in now; this flight has been delayed.  Come back in 30 minutes."  Now, I thought I'd been handling our misfortune pretty well all night.  After all, I slept on a cold hard tile floor and didn't complain (that much).  But this was my breaking point.  I was so done with this trip and ready to just give up and go home.  Anything to get out of the airport!  There was no way we'd get to Nanchang in time now, and if we missed our paperwork appointment it would probably get us stuck in China for several extra days, as each step of the adoption process depends on the things before it.  But the worst part was that no one would give us any explanation.  It's bad enough in your own country when you can't get help, but in a foreign country with the language barriers, we had no idea why or for how long or what.  I just sat despondently in a hallway watching some kids play.  Heath kept going back to check on the status every 20-30 minutes.  Of course, they dont' put any information on the computer.  You have to actually wait in line, get to the counter and ask, only to be sent away again and again, still with no explanation.  Finally, at one point he came back saying that she had said we could check in!  I think that was about quarter to 9.  So we waited in line yet again.  When we got to the front she said they'd had to put us in first class because economy was booked.  (Aw, shucks.)  She printed our boarding passes and put tags on our luggage, and I was finally ready to breathe a sigh of relief.  But then she said she couldn't give us our boarding passes yet; we needed to take our luggage and come back at 9:10.  What/?!?!  That got me to thinking maybe this was just a stand-by ticket, and she was waiting to see if there was room.  We left again, and got back in line again at 9:05, got to the front, and she tells us to please wait.  So we step aside while person after person goes through the line, and we are forgotten (or so I thought).  I finally just sat down on the floor, thinking all kinds of horrible thoughts about the airport, the country, and the way things are done.  Then, about 20 minutes later she says, "OK, here you go."  She handed us our boarding passes and told us to take our luggage to this other place.  We did that and then hurried to our gate, since we didn't even know what time it was leaving.  The boarding pass said boarding time had started 25 minutes ago (while we were sitting there waiting), so we were panicked that after all this we'd miss our flight!  So we got our exercise getting to the gate, only to find a sign that the flight had been moved to the other end of the terminal.  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!  So we rushed back the way we came, finally made it to the gate, and waited in a mob to get onto the bus that drove to the other side of the tarmac to take us to our plane.  We got on board and were indeed in first class.  Heath asked if that made up for all the trouble, and I said that it certainly did not--it's only a 2-hour flight!  However, if we get bumped to first class for the 13-hour flight home, I'll call it even.  :)

We got all buckled in and were served breakfast on fine China while still at the gate.  We could stretch our legs out all the way straight, and had SO much room!  I felt like quite spoiled!  The pilot made some announcement in Chinese, which I didn't even try to understand.  Then it came on in English, and I started to ignore it as the usual pre-flight jabber, until I heard the words "the Beijing airport is currently shut down."  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Because of weather again, all flights were frozen for at least an hour.  Well, at least we were on the plane.  I went to sleep, and it's good I did, because while I slept Heath saw other planes de-boarding!  If I had seen that it wouldn't have been pretty!  But I slept through it all, and soon we were on our way.  We both slept through the entire flight until we were awaken to put our seats up straight.  And we finally landed in Nanchang....only about 16 hours late.  Our guide sent someone else to pick us up (who'd been waiting for us for 4 hours), and we were taken directly to the Civil Affairs Office, where Rayanna was waiting for us!  Nothing like meeting your new child after 2 days of travelling with little sleep and no showers and extreme exhaustion!

But, nonetheless, we were very excited to see her!  It was a whirlwind.  We met her, signed a bunch of papers, got some official pictures taken, met the other family travelling with us and their new daughter, went to the police station for another picture, went to a notary's office, and finally to our hotel.   It's over 100 degrees here, and the air conditioning in our van is useless.  I was holding Rayanna and was literally dripping sweat from riding in there.  Yuck.  But we did finally get to the fancy hotel with a shower and two beds.  (I was worried we'd be sharing one full-size bed, which would've been almost as bad as the airport floor!)  After a good night's sleep we are all feeling good and ready to enjoy the day. 

Next post....all about Rayanna!