We were up bright and early at 4:00 am this morning to take showers, get dressed, and throw the last few things into the suitcases. Our plan was to be checked out of our room and in the lobby with our luggage before 5:30 am when we would load the shuttle for the trip to the airport. We did it!
Six suitcases and one box to check, two strollers that we had purchased in China, but decided were dispensable if they posed any problems on the way home, and six carry-ons were all neatly stacked and ready to load. Steve had checked out of the room. Five kids in varying states of consciousness were lounging around. And two parents were ready to face the trip home.
We loaded the bus with our guide, Shery, and our new friends, Steve and Heather Erickson, their new daughter, and great friend, Carrie, and headed for the airport right on time. We arrived at the airport in Guangzhou and checked in, which was our first interesting experience of the morning. First, they didn’t have the people on duty yet who ran the little machine that tied up stuff like strollers. No problem, we were to take them over to the oversized luggage area and those men would fix us up. Next, there was, THE BOX to deal with. If you ever go to China with boys (we’re including husbands in this use of the word “boys”), and those boys decide even before the trip that they need to purchase swords, start cringing. Do you know how long swords can be? Do you know they will not fit, no matter how hard you try to maneuver them, in luggage, or duffels, even diagonally? Do you know that it will seem like no one in China has ever been faced with packaging swords for travel? Well, THE BOX, containing THE SWORDS, was oversized so it was back to the oversized luggage area for us.
Side note: Steve and Joe went in search of swords. Their search included the whole family since, because of their interest, we were to be similarly interested. We visited all the swords, possibly, in Guangzhou (not true, but it seemed like it at the time). They found an antique store that had six swords, all very old, and all very sharp. We visited that antique store several times to gawk at the swords, and negotiate prices. We then left that store to go back and gawk at some different swords, as well as discuss the antique swords, and, during that time, we met up with our guide, Leila. Remember, Leila had been our guide since we’d arrived in China and she was so good to us. We told her about the sword search, our antique sword find, and she offered to help us in our negotiations. Well, back to the antique shop we went with Leila. We were shocked at Leila, our very shy and quiet, up until now, guide. She entered the antique store and, before our eyes, was transformed into some kind of Chinese sword expert. Wow! She pointed out every flaw, every instance of a lack of care, etc., all to support her demand (asked very respectfully of course) of a lower price. Needless to say, she negotiated the price down to a level that our sales women had to call her manager to get permission to sell the swords to us for that price. She then requested that the swords be packaged for shipping, at no additional cost mind you, and we’d be back in about twenty minutes to pick them up. When we came back, that’s when the boys became excited and Heather was mentally wondering how in the world would that box of swords fit in our luggage. Well, when we returned to the hotel, toting the sword box, it took only a brief moment to realize that that box wasn’t fitting into anything. Then, to make matters a little more precarious, Steve and Joe went out shopping the next day and, much to Heather’s surprise, returned to the room with two more swords. YIKES!!! Well, Steve, Joe and Hana went in search of someone who could possibly add an annex to the first box that would house the new swords. When they finally returned to the room, they announced that they had found, after numerous stops, someone to box their swords. Well, they were boxed, but very long and very awkward to carry. Anyway, the point of this is to be prepared when you buy swords to get them packaged for the return home. Also, don’t get concerned when additional swords are purchased since once you have some number of swords, adding more just makes the packaging situation that much more interesting.
Well, we made it through the check-in and didn’t have to pay any additional money for our oversized items. We also learned that the oversized area people do nothing to strollers other than toss them, in whatever state they happen to be, on the conveyor belt and off they go with you left wondering whether you’ll ever see them again, and if you do, in what condition. We weren’t concerned, though, because we had mentally written those strollers off thinking they’d never make it home.
Our next stop, now that we had left check-in and had said goodbye to Shery as we went through security, was customs. We found that nothing was in English, but there was a piece of paper that had to be completed that would tell China if we had anything to declare. We didn’t, since we hadn’t spent all that much, so we quickly filled out the form, stood in line and then moved on to the next station. There we managed to identify the next form that needed to be completed. We completed one for each member of the family and then stood in line again. After a fairly lengthy wait, we reached the customs official, who asked for another form, which we had somehow missed, so we had to go back, fill it out, and stand in line again. As we were in line, we learned that Zeke’s form was supposed to be completed in Chinese. Heather, deciding the situation was desperate, decided to fill out what she could, attempting to figure out what the different blanks might pertain to, but then realized that the name was supposed to be written in Chinese characters. Never thinking anyone is really a stranger, she proceeded to identify the man behind her as being Chinese and asked him for help. Luckily he took pity on her and filled in the rest of the information. Somehow, this time when we reached the customs official, she took the forms without questions and we moved forward to the next security checkpoint. By the time we finally reached the gate for our flight, with the Erickson’s right behind us, they were boarding the plane. That was a little close for comfort.
Our flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong was only 30 minutes. On arrival in Hong Kong, we though, this will be a breeze since we’ve already checked bags and THE BOX, and gone through customs. Also, our strollers were waiting for us as we walked off the plane – that was a surprise so we took them, plopped the two little ones in them, and trooped off. We found our way from the domestic terminal to the international terminal and were faced with three different security checks along the way. The security personnel were all very nice. We didn’t lose anything during the first two checks, but the third one, just before the gate, was a little more stringent. Everyone walked through the metal detector, was frisked (even Han and Zeke), and carry-ons thoroughly searched. Emily had to explain what the tool was for her latch hook rug she was making, and lost her water bottle and chap stick. Heather lost her chap stick and four water bottles. The security officer was so apologetic when he asked for permission to throw stuff out. We sure didn’t mind and had expected that, before the flight, we’d lose this stuff. By the time we got through security we only had a few minutes before boarding this flight.
Our flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco was about 12 hours long, although no one remembers exactly. There were several good movies this time and Zeke and Hana really did well. The flight was fairly uneventful and incredibly long.
We landed in San Francisco and went through the line for new immigrants. When bringing a child from another country into our country, through adoption, they are considered immigrants and thus the whole family will come through the immigrant line. It’s a great line to go through because all of the other lines for “Americans” and “Foreigners” are incredibly long, and the line for immigrants, in our case, at that moment in time, was just us. We made it through, gave all the pertinent paperwork for Zeke, and his passport was stamped – indicating that, at that moment that the stamp touched the paper, he was an American citizen.
We completed our customs paperwork, collected our luggage, and then re-checked all the luggage. Note that THE BOX had been opened in China by customs as indicated by the tape all over it stating, “opened for customs check.” See, even they were skeptical when they saw the x-ray of what was in THE BOX.
We finally made it from the international terminal to the domestic terminal for our final flight of the very long day. San Francisco to Albuquerque was only about 2 ½ hours and the flight went well. We arrived at about 3:00 and finally got to our home at about 5:00, about 25 hours after we started this very long day.
We all made it home safely. Our luggage, including THE BOX, made it home safely, and even the strollers managed to make it home in one piece.
Our good friend, Linda, had dinner cooking in a crockpot in the kitchen, and salad and bread waiting for us, not to mention, stuff to eat for breakfast. Our dinner was great and so needed after such a long trip. You saved us Linda.
Thank you for all the prayers and support through this journey. That meant so much to us. We will provide updates monthly through January, Zeke’s 3rd birthday, to let you know how he’s doing. Again, thank you for being a part of our Journey to Ezekiel Yiguang Allen. Many have told us that these children being adopted are so blessed; however, we feel that we are the ones who are blessed by these children. We can’t wait to see where our journey to Zeke takes us now.
Zeke waiting for the next flight in Honk Kong.
We’re back in Albuquerque.
Joe is having trouble staying awake until night time.
