The day started at 4:30 am when I rolled out of bed to get ready and finish packing. Our luggage needed to be outside the room at 5:15 and we were to meet our guide and the other couple traveling with us at 5:30 in the lobby so there was no time to waste. We decided to let Ian sleep as long as possible. As he lay sleeping, I could not help but think about how trusting this little boy is already. Here we were, a couple people he calls Mah and Bah but that he barely knows, and yet he trusted that we would not slip away in the middle of the night and leave him in the hotel room alone. I am not sure I could be that trusting. He was very excited when we did wake him and dressed in a hurry. The hotel packed breakfast for all of us and we were off to the airport for our first flight. I asked the guide to explain to Ian that we would be taking many flights before arriving home. He nodded his head with a serious look on his face. You could tell he was nervous and excited all at the same time. The first flight was pretty uneventful. It was a three hour flight and Ian was a very good boy. When we arrived in Beijing, we had to collect and then recheck our luggage before sitting down for a tasty lunch at an overpriced airport restaurant. Ian was everywhere, into everything and managed to spill water all over his shorts. Poor kid, I packed some pajama bottoms for the next flight but did not pack an extra set of clothes so he was stuck with wet shorts for a couple of hours. After lunch he thought it would be funny to run away from us in the airport. He thought it would be even funnier to get on a people mover and run back and forth while I tried in vain to catch him. Actually, everyone thought it was funny but me. Afterward, while waiting for our flight, Ian had a mini melt down. We were stumped as to what he was so upset about. A Chinese woman came over and told us that he wanted to go to the bathroom. So that is what he had been shouting in Chinese. Of course, we felt like total idiots and thank goodness boarded the plane shortly after. The flight from Beijing to Newark was 13 and a half hours. Ian, the little button pusher, called a flight attendant to our seat before everyone had even boarded the plane. He also discovered a button that controls the light above his seat, off and on and off and on. He managed to push the attendant button in the bathroom, four times, in one visit! He did sleep through both meals and all in all was pretty good. When the plane landed in Newark, little Ian became a US citizen. He was so excited and ready to go home. The problem is we had to go through customs, collect and recheck our luggage and go through security again! Crazy. apparently, Ian did not understand this and had a little melt down in the Newark airport. Well he started crying and then I started crying. It was really pathetic. I asked a woman sitting next to me that I was pretty sure was Chinese since she had flown with us from Beijing to explain to Ian that we still had one more flight before we would finally arrive home. He went from frustrated to just plain mad, his little lower lip sticking out, pouting and sniffling his nose. It broke my heart. A kind American woman came over to talk to us. She is a teacher and many of her students come from a nearby orphanage. I would have loved to chat with her but I was just too tired and felt sick to my stomach. She did talk to Ian and he seemed to come around after that. Our last flight was delayed by 45 minutes, of course. When we finally boarded we taxied for another 40 minutes before we could take off. Matt had to go to the bathroom but was refused access. Then little Ian had to go so they both were given permission. The flight was full of unhappy business men and us. Two of them were executives in the company I work for. I was literally sick with all the possibilities of how this flight could go horribly wrong but Ian was a really good boy and actually slept most of the flight. We finally arrived home after midnight and with the 12 hour time difference traveled just over 24 hours!
