The One Place I Call Home

Well, it is 6:45am on Friday and we are all up over here at the Tubesing house. Our trip yesterday went very well (all considering) so thank you to whoever prayed. So on the flight from Guangzhou to Beijing, Lilla and Song Yi were content drawing (and making Mark and I draw) most of the time, so that was easy, and they also both slept for about an hour. In Beijing, we had a pretty short layover, so we walked around a bit and couldn't find much food, only duty free shops. We had to spend the rest of our RMB, so Mark bought juice for all which unfortunately was confiscated at the gate even though we bought the juice after we went through security...

We stayed healthy, we caught all of our flights, and we even got upgraded to "Economy Plus" on the Beijing-Chicago leg (aka the way economy seats used to be configured before they started wedging people in like sardines). So we had a little extra legroom and space to spread out on the long flight. Thankfully they fixed our seats as they originally had Song Yi sitting by herself about 4 rows up! Song Yi liked the in seat entertainment and tried to take the ear buds provided by the airline from all her neighboring passengers. Besides having to take Song Yi to the potty about 85 times, the flight went smoothly. I am so glad to be home where I don't have to squeeze myself and child into a 2 x 2 disgusting bathroom, all while one of them is screaming (sometimes me) because the potty is dirty, loud or the seat is too big.

Song Yi slept about 7 hours total on the flight and Lilla slept about 4. Mark and I slept about an hour or so each unfortunately. They did really well and enjoyed sticking stickers on paper more than you would think possible. And they each ate about 5 Dum Dums suckers which always helps pass the time. I feel certain that Song Yi has had more sugar in the last 2 weeks than in the rest of her life. I feel kinda bad about that...

If this post seems incoherent it is because I am stopping every 1.5 minutes to talk to the kids, put on a band-aid, tell someone she can't get in the fireplace, protect the guinea pig...you get the idea. Song Yi is intellectually 5 years old, but because of the language barrier and her lack of life experience, it is more like having a 3 year old for now.

So landing in Chicago we felt so good like, ahhh back in the USA, the journey is nearly over, there's no place like home. WELL, not so fast. It was a poorly run nuthouse. First we were told by our agency several different times that we had to get in the VISITOR line to go through customs because of Song Yi's passport (M:She travels on a Chinese passport with US Visa for the time being). So we did. And apparently it is generally known to be the line where all cultures where shoving and breaking in line is okay. Besides some well behaved Australians I noticed, it was a jostle fest. (M: I think this is definitely one of those cultural things where we think of Asians as very ordered and fair. That is apparently a Japanese convention. Chinese...ahh... not so much.) We had to vigilantly keep our place in line and the line was LONG. We were there for about an hour and a half. With 2 tired 5 year olds, one too big to carry, one who doesn't want to move when the line moves (which makes it easy to jump us in line). FINALLY our travel mates, the Hales, flagged down an officer who said we could actually be in the citizen line. I actually called out Praise the Good Lord!! when she told us. So the officer who finally looked at our paperwork was very nice.

Then we had to claim our bags and and go to some "pen" and wait with other people who were trying to get green cards or become citizens. One lady told us she had been there nearly 3 hours. We hadn't had any water in several hours and the kids had HAD IT. The officers were kind of rude and I did feel so bad for the people who had been through who knows what to get to that point in life. One man who didn't speak much English was trying to ask an officer about food for his baby and the officer was like so? We didn't see water or bathrooms. Anyway, apparently and fortunately for us adoptions get bumped to the front of the line so we got out of there pretty quick. We then had to take our bags through customs and a security scan. Then we had to go to some madhouse of a rechecking luggage area where a lady was just kind of yelling out, drop your checked bags and go get your flight! (M: And the poor Chinese travel group didn't appear to have an English guide, so they were VERY confused. Did we mention it was nutty? Crazy airports and disoriented travelers are not what you look forward to after only having 2 hours of sleep in the last 24...)

So we did and then had to catch a train to the proper terminal. At this point I could tell Song Yi was like what the $%#@ is going on here! After the train we had to wait in line again with 2 very tired 5 year olds and go through security AGAIN and at this point we were so thirsty I was about delirious. So even though we had a 3 hour layover, as we got to our gate, the plane was boarding! Mark ran and bought us some water and popcorn and I thought so help me if they confiscate this water I will cry! They didn't thankfully and we got on the plane. I spent most of my time back and forth in the potty which was mercifully clean. Song Yi says something that sounds like wo wo liao for potty and it is usually in a panicked voice. So now whenever Mark and I have to go, we like to say WO WO LIAO!!!

Ahhh, landed in the ATL and immediately saw grammy and grampy waiting for us. Song Yi went right to them and said Hello! Then we saw granddaddy and she went right to him and gave a hug. Lilla was happy to see some familiar faces too. Remember the madhouse bag rechecking area? Apparently one of our bags was misloaded in the melee and it was not in Atlanta when we were. We are hoping to get that early today. Okay have to let Mark finish this one...Lilla is actually going to school today for a little meet the teacher time. (M: consider it finished for now. :) I'm so exhausted and the day hasn't even started.)