Coming Home!

After a long night of packing and carefully weighing our suitcases on the hotel's bathroom scale, we received a wake up call bright and early at 4:30 am. After jumping in and out of the shower, brushing our teeth and hair, we packed the remainder of our items into our checked luggage and put it outside of our room to be picked up by the bell boy. After checking over our room one final time and getting our carry on luggage set, we headed down to the lobby and left for the Guangzhou airport around 6:30 am.

There were four different families headed to the airport at this early hour and when we arrived our guides did an excellent job of getting us all where we needed to go. After taking care of one family, Rebecca trekked us all the way across the terminal to the Air China check-in counter and got us and our luggage all checked in for our three hour flight to Beijing. Unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy ended up with seats in different rows and Madison was just a lap ticket. We were not looking forward to the flight!

The plane to Beijing was as big as the plane we had flown all the way to Beijing from Washington D.C. They took us out to it on buses and we were one of the first groups our to the plane. After everyone from the buses got situated, there were several empty seats, so Daddy had Mommy move back with him and Madison. Soon after that, it became apparent that another two buses of passengers began loading the aircraft. We stood our ground, maintained our three seats and ended up breathing a sigh of releif when the passanger in Mommy's seat simply switched with her. Then came the third wave of passengers and it we were certain we were going to have to move to two seats and put Madison on our laps. That would have happened, except that the older Chinese gentleman that was assigned the seat next to us demanded that he was not going to sit next to our screaming baby all the way to Beijing. We just played the part of dumb tourists and they eventually found him another seat and we were all happy. Way to go Madison!!!

Once we arrived in Beijing, we had to retreive our luggage from the Air China flight, walk to a completely different terminal and get checked in on our United flight to Chicago. We were somewhat worried about how easy this would all be since we were now without any guides and in a strange airport in a foreign country. In actuality, it went as smooth as it could have possibly gone. We got our luggage and followed the signs dirrectly to the other terminal. All of the signs were in Chinese but had English in smaller letters below that. We actually arrived at the United counter early. They had not opened yet to begin checking passengers in for our flight. After waiting about 30 or 40 minutes there, we got checked in and headed to our gate.

We had about three and half hours until our flight departed so we stopped and got lunch and then found a small children's play area where Madison was able to play for an hour or so.

The twelve hour flight to Chicago was pretty uneventful. Madison slept for much of the flight - across two of the tray tables. We had three seat on this flight and we upgraded to the premium economy seat, so we had a whole row to ourselves and an extra five inches between us and the row in front of us. When we got to Chicago, we had been up and travelling for a full 24 hours and now we had to navigate customs and immigration.

The line waiting to enter customs was the hardest part. Since Madison was technically entering the U.S. as an immigrant and was travelling on a Chinese visa, we were required to wait in line with all of the other foreign people coming into the coutry. Once we got through that line we retreived our luggage, again, and were directed to the immigation officer. Here, he stamped and approve whatever documents they had given to us the day before at the U.S Consulate in Guangzhou. Then our baggage was scanned and we were told we were free to move about the country. Luckily we did not have to re-check luggage in Chicago. We were able to simply leave it with the airline after we got through customs.

Here is where our O'Hare adventure begins! In Chicago, we had to navigate our way to different terminal as well, just like we did in Beijing. In all honesty, it was at least ten times more difficult to navigate our way through this U.S. airport than it was to find our way around in the Beijing airport! We were taking elevators and escalators up and down, crossing parking garages and genrally being confused. We still are not sure how we made it to the security check point to clear security so that we could board the final leg of our trip. After that and grabbing a drink we discovered our flight had been delayed. Argh!!!!

Actually, it was only delayed an hour, but we had travelled so far and we were so close to home we could smell the Orlando air. We didn't need this delay - not now! We had travelled halfway around the world and back, including three different flights in China, without one delay. But now we had to wait, one more hour.

The short flight to Orlando, seemed as if it were the longest flight of the trip. Madison had slept on the long flight, so she was wide awake and squirmy as ever for this one. Luckily for us, the couple seated behind us, had a fun time and did a good job of keeping her entertained. As our plane landed, excitement and andrenaline began to fill our hearts. We de-boarded and walked through the same dirty, under construction, terminal we had left from two weeks earlier. We could wait to see our family. We couldn't wait to introduce Madison to everyone. We couldn't wait to see the little girl we left behind for two weeks to bring home her big sister and we couldn't wait to intoduce Madison to her little sister Hannah. It all happened sometime close to midnight on September 27, 2007 in the baggage claim area of the Orlando International Airport. Welcome home, Madison!!!

May God bless you as much as He has blessed us and our family,

Angie and Mike