Translate

Saturday, August 4, 2012

July 11 - 12


Bea arrived and we'd finished up the last few touches on the trip. The morning arrived, everything was together,  we were on our way and I was doing okay.

Until, we left the little boys at the entrance of the airport.  Bea had one by each hand and I saw Middle Child start to tear up. We turned and rode up the escalator and I started to cry.

All the emotions – 20 years of wondering about Q-Boo,  17 months of paperwork and worry, two weeks of “get it done!”  and the feeling of we’re FINALLY heading to China, plus leaving my babies was too much.

 K-Man said, "Well. That explains a lot.”

He nodded his head, “That explains a lot. You’ve been like a robot for two weeks.”

I sniffed, “Well, here comes the breakdown. I hope I don’t CRY for the next two weeks.”



















"Bye-bye, Alabama!"

"Hello, Detroit!"

"Bye -bye, Detroit!"

Yes, I cried when we left on that plane, the one to Seattle, Washington ...

"Hello, Seattle"

...and then I smiled  like a looney bird, “We’re going to China!”  all the way through boarding the one that would take us from Seattle to China.

I think I was already too tired to cry anymore.


Taking Ting the Owl to meet her MaMa!



















"Bye-bye, USA!"



During the 13 1/2 hours of flight time to Beijing, I thought about the Things That I’ve Learned, So Far:

*If someone refers to my husband as my childrens’ “grandfather” in the elevator on the way into the airport, he will talk about it all the way to Detroit and randomly while in China. "I'm such an old guy."

*Mt Rainier, in Seattle, is impressive. Seriously, just wow.

*Adoptive families WILL find each other in the airport and compare stories - their stories turn out to be surprisingly similar.

*It is possible to sleep sitting straight up. Not for long, but it can be done.

*We Bought A Zoo is an awesome movie (and ironically is about having the guts to seek your own adventure) but I think that it will always miss something if I ever watch it without the Chinese subtitles.

*If you try hard enough you CAN get your legs up onto your tray table…but it won’t help that kink in your hip. However, laying your head on the tray table does help, a bit.  Also, if you wait until your hubby is too tired to fight back, you can put your legs into his lap, which is also somewhat comfortable for a short time.

*Left to its own devices my hair will turn into a sideways mullet-party on the left, business on the right.


When you fly west and “chase the sun,” it never sets.  If it’s 1am Alabama time and still daylight, that’s just weird.  Never have I wished for darkness so much (ever?) The sunlight just seemed to seep in around the windows, even though they were all shut. I finally gave up around 4am our time and put on my eye mask  and put in my ear plugs.  I don’t  know how much I slept- I slept in one position until it became too uncomfortable and then I switched to another, which means I moved A LOT.

I woke up enough to be coherent around 8am Alabama time and it was finally dark outside the plane. Pitch black. I leaned against the window and let my eyes relax, finally, into the darkness.  Slowly I began to see the stars above us. It was so nice, to just sit there and soak in the darkness and watch the stars.

Then I saw them and my heart fell into my stomach –stars on the ground- the lights off the coast of Beijing.

CHINA!!! WE’RE IN CHINA!!!

(Good grief, I STILL tear up when I read those words.)

We landed in Beijing at 9:30am (July 12) Alabama time and 10:30pm (July 12-almost the 13th) Beijing time.  Poor K-Man had been up for roughly 26 hours straight and it’d be another 2 hours before he’d crash.  After which I'd sit down at the computer, make a few notes, and crash myself.  The next day we'd head to the Great Wall!

1 comment:

  1. The stars on the ground were Beijing...wow! Just wow! (and We Bought a Zoo is the next movie we are going to watch - in your honor!)

    ReplyDelete