Saturday, April 14, 2012

When it rains, it ....... delays planes

Friday was our scheduled travel day in which we were to catch a flight to Guangzhou. Our flight was schedule for evening, so we would be sure to get Sophie's Chinese passport delivered to us. That morning was pretty low key with nothing formally planned, mainly just packing up. However, it was a beautiful day so we could not resist a morning stroll to the martyr's park nearby our hotel.
Wouldn't you know it as we were walking along the park this rat appeared. It looked like Mickey but as many other things in China, he too was just a forgery (they sale IPhones 4S here for $50 on the street corner, right next to the Rolex watches).
We have been discovering that Sophie is quite attached to Chris, and sometimes actually prefers him. There is no secret as to how this has occurred. Chris learned from our last adoption that food is a powerful tool. And this little girls loves strawberry oreos.

We checked out of our hotel room at 3:00 PM and waited in the lobby for our guide to pick us up at 5:00. Traveling makes for long days, because you are stuck "in transition". After 3, we had no hotel room to relax in and not enough time to sight see. So we just waited and tried to make the best of the situation. Then our taxi arrived to drive us to the airport. So we then waited in rush hour traffic. We finally arrived at the airport and got checked in, said goodbye to our guide, then migrated through security. Then we waited for our flight at 7:45 PM. It really is not a long flight to Guangzhou, just about an hour and 10 minutes. Problem was, a severe thunderstorm passed through Guangzhou and delayed all flights into the city. Normally not a problem, however this is the Trade Fair season in Guangzhou and business men from around China and the world are flocking there. After the boarding delay in the airport, and then sitting on the tarmac for awhile, we finally arrived in Guangzhou at about midnight. We thought we had it rough until we spoke with others in our adoption travel group that were flying in from different provinces. Many of them were delayed for more then 5 hours. Through the more then 10 hours of "in transition" time, Sophie did quite well. She has been doing amazing in the last two day and is finally opening up. The problem is that she does not do well between the hours of 1 - 4 AM. This has caused some sleep deprivation on our part, but we are doing well. When we were checking into the hotel at 1 AM, I turned to Tamra and asked what she had done with the diaper bag. She quickly responded, "You mean the one your carrying on your sholder?" Ugh, I just want to sleep.

Saturday after breakfast, our group headed out early to the medical clinic to get the children checked out for the US immigration process. We left shortly after breakfast because our guide said that the clinic would be busy today with up to 60 families. It takes a lot of patience to wait in a room packed full of people with no air conditioning. The outside temperature is about 75 degrees outside with terrible humidity. Inside it's much worse.

However, it is an amazing and overwhelming experience to see all these American families in the clinic. You see a wide variety (age and special need) of children that as of one week ago had no family. Now, all these children will have a family!

2 comments:

  1. Derek says, "I can't believe they sell iphones for $50 there"

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  2. That's a different medical clinic....it's not on the island any more? Sophie is beautiful! You all look great!

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