We're Home

Friday, March 6, 2009 FIRST WEEK HOME Today we finally leave for home! We got up early so we could leave our hotel about 6:30. The morning went smoothly but we were a little pressed for time. We caught a cab for the airport where we had the first of our daily surprises. Upon arriving, the meter in the cab said 122 Hong Kong Dollars. Our cab driver asked us for something like 156 dollars or 176, I don’t remember. We expected it to be about 120-130 based on what the hotel told us. Our driver said it was because they called a cab and had it waiting for us, which they did. Still, I wasn’t sure if he was trying to get extra money, so we gave him the 140 dollars Suzy had gotten that morning from the hotel and told him, “Sorry,” that’s all the hotel said we would need and I pointed back to the meter. He asked if we had any US dollars, and I said, “No.” Not any that were earmarked for him. We left it at that. We went to check in at Northwest. The line could not have been slower. I rushed the girls to the bathroom while Suzy went to check in. I came back and found that they had moved her to one of the self check kiosks. This only delayed us more since we still had to get back in the same line afterwards to check our luggage. That’s the reason I didn’t want to use the self check in the first place. This allowed many more people to get in line ahead of us. We were literally the last people to check in. No one came behind us. I don’t know why it took them so long to check our bags after we did the self check, but we finally headed off to security. Upon arriving there, the security person noticed that we had a picture scroll sticking out of our bag. It is in a box that is three inches square and less than three feet long. She informed us that we needed to go back to the baggage check in to “make arrangements” for our package. Our stroller is much bigger than the scroll, but apparently you don’t need to “make special arrangements” for that. We went back to the check in counter and they gave us a tag for the “oversize” carryon. I think it took them a minute to realize why we even needed it. The only thing it said was that the carryon was subject to the approval of the airline attendants once we got on the plane. No joke! Now we are wondering if we will even have time to get some food for the girls and some coffee. We decided to stop at a Starbucks on the way to the plane. We picked up two quiches, a pastry, a coffee, a steamed milk, and a bottle of mango juice. Our plane was already boarding when we got there. While we were getting our stroller tag, we were told that we couldn’t take our coffee and steamed milk on board. Really? So we spent a few minutes outside drinking it while the girls finished their steamed milks. We then proceeded to board the aircraft. As we were going down the breezeway, they had one more random bag check before entering the aircraft. They went through our bags and discovered the unopened bottle of Mango Juice. Apparently you can’t take anything onboard that is purchased in the secure area of the airport. (Actually, I don’t think they train the security people for this kind of check. They just take people from the main security line and put them in boarding security without telling them there is a difference.) I drank the mango juice in front of him and left the empty bottle on the table. Finally, we’re on the plane! The real irony is that when we got home, we found and open water bottle from our hotel room in our carryon bag that made it all the way through both main security screening and boarding security check! I didn’t want to do anything else wrong, so I asked the flight attendant what I should do with the picture that I had to go through all the hassle to get a tag for. She looked at me funny and I had to ask her twice and point to the tag before she even understood what I was talking about. She said, “Oh, I’m sure that will fit in the overhead bin. Let me know if you have any problems,” a commonsense reply. The flight attendants were great. We had a pretty good flight. We were able to bring the food on the flight so we fed the girls as soon as we sat down. They did well on most of the flight. We were served lunch on the plane and I proceeded to feed Mina way too much food. The girls took a nap after lunch and we soon ‘noticed’ that Mina had a blowout. We let her sleep until the plane was ready to start its decent. I then woke her up to take her to the bathroom and change her diaper. Afterwards, we got buckled in for our final descent. It was a little turbulent and Mina was getting upset. Suzy thought she just didn’t want to be in her seat belt any longer. I thought she was nauseous since she acted similarly on the trip to Fengcheng. I was right! Although, I wish I hadn’t been.

LiLi on the plane At Denny's with cousins Back Home With Grandma Hot Pot Night

I was feeling a little nauseous, too, so I took off my sweatshirt on the way down to cool off. After we landed, I looked over to see Mina playing with some noodles from lunch. How did I miss that?? Then I looked down and saw it. All of her lunch and breakfast were in the worst possible place. She had her head down in the back corner between the seats. I cleaned up as much as I could, but it was impossible to reach everything. Poor flight attendants, I hope they can call security to clean it up! As we were getting off the plane, it became apparent that LiLi had to really use the bathroom. I assured her that as soon as we got in the building I would take her to the bathroom. We left Suzy and Mina to wait for the stroller and headed out. As soon as we got into the airport, what did we find? No bathrooms; more security! We’re in Japan now. Apparently, on international connection flights, they want to screen all your carryon bags as you EXIT the plane. Next, you go through another security check point where they ask you for you boarding passes. Boarding passes? We are using a different airline. We don’t have boarding passes yet. Does this mean we have to exit the international section of the airport to get our boarding passes at the main terminal check in? We can’t do that with Mina, she doesn’t have a Japanese visa on her Chinese passport. We can only remain in the international section to transfer flights. (You can’t even do that in Canada, which is why we didn’t fly through Vancouver. That is another long story that you can ask Suzy about. It’s kind of fun!) As it turns out, the security man was very nice and he said he just needed to see our flight itinerary. Fortunately, Suzy has copies of all that information so she showed it to him and we finally were able to enter the international section of the airport. (If you are a world traveler, you probably already know all of this.) LiLi still needs to use the bathroom and is ready to burst. No bathrooms in sight! It’s like being in the Hong Kong subway system all over again. We actually have to ask the information desk in order to find one. LiLi made it. Yeah!! One less child to clean up. Oh yeah, we decided to throw Mina’s shirt away on the plane. She has a zip up sweatshirt that she is wearing now. She likes to unzip it though; which can be a little awkward, since she doesn’t have a shirt on underneath. We decided not to take any more chances with time so we went back to the information desk and found out where we could get our United Air international connection boarding tickets. She told us and we proceeded until we found the United ticket counter. It was dark. We saw a woman there who informed us they were not open yet. At 1:50 in the afternoon, are you kidding? She said they would be open in ten minutes. We said we would be back. When all was said and done, it was 2:35 before we got our boarding passes; a good 45 minutes after we originally got to the counter. Good thing we didn’t have a tight connecting flight! The only assumption I can come up with is that United doesn’t have any flights until late afternoon. We have a four hour layover in Narita, so we had lunch at good old McDonalds. There was a great area in the airport that had some different cushioned, seating areas. It is hard to describe since I am not actually trying to write a book. We took a nap there and I think everyone fell asleep except for me. I got some good rest though. After LiLi woke up, I took her to the bathroom again and then we decided to proceed down to the area where our plane was. You know, get there early? We discover that our plane had been bumped up 15 minutes and is just about boarding when we get down there. We make a conscious decision this time not to buy anything before boarding the plane. Everything else went well and we went through boarding security check again. I think our bags have been checked five or six times. (They also obviously missed the open water bottle that came from our hotel room in Hong Kong. Isn’t that supposed to be the purpose of the X-ray machines that our bags went through three times?) LiLi got about 4-5 hours sleep on the plane. Mina only got about two. We had to wake LiLi up for landing but Mina was already awake. After landing, we did our immigration paperwork for Mina. She is now officially a United States citizen!!! We got our bags, went through customs, and exited the last security check point out to the main terminal. We are free!!! Our adoption process is finally over!!! Jennifer Mayes was waiting to pick us up and Kelly Keyser was there with Chenyi to greet us. It was a wonderful surprise! We all proceeded to the Denny’s next to the airport for breakfast where we met up with other family members. It was great catching up with everyone and having a real American breakfast. We got back to the house and got to introduce Mina to her new home. She really likes all of the toys in different rooms of the house. LiLi never played with many of the things she has, but now that Mina is interested in them, they seem interesting to her too! Grandma came over and played with the girls for awhile while Suzy and I rested. The girls stayed up playing all day together and we finally put them to bed at about 8:30. Mina fell asleep in less than a minute. I was surprised she made it that long after not sleeping the night before and not having a nap. The Rest of the Week Suzy here! :) Well – note to parents coming home with kids with possible jet-lag. Do not let them sleep until noon and expect them to go to bed that night! The second night back was definitely worse for all of us as far as getting our body clocks set. The girls did not finally fall asleep until about 3am (and that was after their “banshee” episode – long story, but we have excerpts on video). By the end of the week, we got on schedule, I was back working (well, never really stopped, but back consistently – LOL) and evenings went a lot easier. Mina has been very happy ever since we came home. She loves playing with toys – blocks, strollers, dress-up things. She sometimes looks amazed that there are toys surrounding her. It is fun to watch! LiLi, for the most part, loves having a little sister. She and Mina play with blocks together and just giggle and giggle as their towers fall down. The hardest thing for her is learning that Mina is not her ‘doll’ that she can tell what to do. Add to that, Mina expressing herself in Chinese and you have a fun mix! There is one thing that turned out to be quite unfortunate . . . it seems that Mina was attacked by bedbugs. We are not exactly sure if she got them in Nanchang or at the White Swan, but we started noticing these little bites on her legs towards the end of our stay in Guangzhou. At first, there were just a few small red ‘bites’ and we figured that she simply got bit by some flees or small insects. However, it was apparent by the time we left China, that her legs were getting covered in bites that, as she scratched them at night, would turn into large bumps. Though she wore ‘footie’ PJs while we were in Nanchang, we switched to footless PJs for the rest of our trip. We think that is why most of the bumps appeared on her hands and lower legs. By the second day home, and she was still getting new bites on her legs, we figured that it was bedbugs. So, everything in the bedroom and everything that was in our suitcases got washed in hot water and dried for over an hour on high heat. Poor thing! She was just miserable with the itching. (Note: We did have Jill (nurse) examine Mina and she did not appear to have chicken pox, measles or the like.) Since thoroughly cleaning the room and clothes, she has not had any new bites and her legs are slowly healing. I have been putting a lot of vitamin E on her legs each day with the hope that she will not have bad scarring. Other than that, Mina seems to be very healthy, full of energy and just a joy to have in our family. She loves seeing her LaLa and has fun exploring our yard and her new tricycle. For those of you interested in how Chloe is doing (our cat) . . .she was very happy to see us, though a little put off that we returned home with not one, but two munchkins. Actually, she seems to be unphased that we have multiplied. In fact, Mina freaked out when she saw her. Not only is she not used to animals, she is definitely not used to them living in the same space! However, after a day or two, Mina has decided that Chloe is simply a moving stuffed animal and giggles and laughs whenever Chloe enters the room. (Watch out Elmo!) Mina has also learned that her tail is not for pulling. Chloe has been surprisingly patient and is such a good kitty. Our week ended with a wonderful party hosted by the Keysers! Our church has a terrific group of families who all adopted children with various backgrounds, ethnicities and ages. We get together about every quarter to trade tips, get advice and encourage one another. This time, it was a celebration “Hot Pot” in honor of Mina’s home-coming. It was such a fun night and it was great to see everyone. A big Thank You goes out to Del’s sister, Andrea, who prepared a few dinners for us so that we could just relax once we got home. Jill also stopped in at the end of the week to take care of the girls and left us with dinner as well. Finally, Miriam (Suzy’s cousin) also came by with Denis to visit and make us dinner the following Monday. Thank you, guys! All of those dinners were such a great help and blessing to us! Mom and Dad Schreiner are coming out next week to help out with the girls and visit for a few days. We can’t wait to see them and are so grateful. Mina and LiLi are so fortunate to have two Grandmas and a Grandpa who love and care for them so much. No doubt they will have a wonderful time! We wanted to say a big Thank You to all of you who send us notes and words of encouragement while we were away. They were wonderful to receive and always brought a smile.

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