Leaving China (Thursday, May 30th)

Six AM came way too early this morning. I am so glad we got everything packed last night. The bellboy came at 6:30 to pick up the luggage instead of 6:45! I am so glad we packed last night. For most of you that know me, I am not usually early! When we got downstairs, John and the kids went to get a carryout selection from the breakfast buffet as they had just opened up. I went to check out of the hotel. The front desk lady asked me to please wait while they checked the room. She then told me that we owed 10 yuan (about $1.50) for 1 missing spoon! Earlier this week we had to pay 28 yuan (about $4) for a broken glass cup. That's when I went and bought a bag of plastic cup's from Beatrices! By the way, all the stores on the island have American names! :) Lucy's, Michael's, Jennifer's, Sherry's, Judy's, Beatrice's, etc. We were originally planning on taking the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, but when we got Guangzhou Peter suggested we should consider other options. Because Mom was in a wheelchair, Peter said that the train wouldn't be a good idea. The station had lots of stairs and getting into the train would be very difficult. He looked into the airlines but they would be about $400 per person, so he suggested the bus. Because there were 6 of us (Camryn counts as a full person) we were able to get a minibus to take all of us to Hong Kong. However, we actually had to take 1 minivan to the Hong Kong border and then another from the Hong Kong border to the airport because the respective vehicles don't have a licence in the other's country. We got to the airport and had an easy check-in as we were 3 hours early. There were no lines and we were able to switch to bulkhead seating (seats in the front of a section that have extra legroom and bassinets in the walls that fold down.) I very glad now that we left so early. I would recommend Cathay Pacific anyday. We ate lunch at Popeye's Chicken and ordered Congi for Camryn. We were told to be in a certain area 1 1/2 hours before the plane was to leave. A lady met us there and took us through to pre-boarding. While we were there, John and the kids saw 3 military guys with machine guns march by! We were loaded on and everyone was very nice. The service on this airline is excellent! They were always checking on us.This airline hands out little orange bags with socks and toothpaste and toothbrush. They also gave me a little bag for Camryn with diaper rash medicine, 2 diapers and a baby hand cream and then folded down the bassinet so Camryn could sleep and play in it. Today we are all finally a bit gritchy as my sister-in-law, Karen, would say. Everyone has done so well, but this last leg of the trip was long. Dalton had a bit of a melt-down and I didn't respond very well. Mom slept a lot of the flight and John got some sleep. Sydni and Dalton had a hard time sleeping because of the time difference. All the experienced travelers ( a lot of Chinese people and college students) went right to sleep as soon as they were on the plane (1 PM China time but 1 AM LA time) but we had a hard time with that. Camryn especially had a hard time. She & I played a lot while she was in the bassinet. She didn't like sleeping in bassinet because she likes to stretch out when she sleeps and the bassinet is very confining. We are glad to be in America! The LA layover was long. We landed an hour early at 10:30 AM. It was strange to hear so many people speaking English and understand what they said when we were going through Customs. We got a new guy named Oscar that helped us with Mom's wheelchair while we were going through the Customs process. He was very nice but didn't really know what he was doing. Also, the first Customs guy looked at Camryn's passport and commented that it was a Chinese passport and sent us on to get our luggage. Luckily they had carts and we were able to load all 15 suitcases and carryons onto 2 carts. After waiting in 2 more lines, the security guard wouldn't let us out because we hadn't gone through immigration to give Camryn's Chinese papers and get her approval to get into the country! That first Customs guy didn't send us to the right area. Luckily one of the security guards took us back to immigration and showed us where to go. Another example of God's Hand at work - The guard told us it could be a couple of hours, but there was not one person in line when we got there. Oscar took Mom on the wheelchair shuttle to the Southwest Airlines check-in and rest of us walked. It was easier to walk outside a half mile than try to catch a shuttle bus with all the luggage! We should have just taken Mom with us because Oscar got lost. He took Mom to the wrong area and it took him about 1/2 hour to drop her off at the right place. We got in line at Southwest (no pre-service for wheelchair people here!) and waited about 20 minutes and then were told that we could get our boarding passes but they wouldn't check our luggage until 4 hours before the flight so we couldn't go into the airport for another 2 hours! Jetlagged, middle of the night in China and we are sitting in the outside waiting area of the airport. I am ready to be home! When we finally got through security, we stopped for hamburgers at McDonalds and Cami had a bottle. She's wanting to go to sleep, but we are keeping her up so she will sleep on the flight. We played until we got on the plane and then she crashed. Actually, we all crashed. The plane left at 6:50 pm and we arrived in Kansas City at 12:30 AM Friday morning. We are so grateful to Jim and Edna. They drove our Yukon up to Thrifty rental and left it there overnight, so we could just take the airport shuttle, load up in the car, and drive home. First time in 2 weeks that we have had to use a carseat. No such thing in China! We arrived in Topeka at 2:30 AM and dropped Mom off at home, because John wanted to see Mom. Imagine that! When we got home all the electricity was out. We were greeted by signs on the garage welcoming us home thanks to Ben and Claire! More surprises were inside, but we didn't see them until we got some light. Apparently the storm that had just gone through knocked the power out. We looked around for flashlights and candles and then brought suitcases. Again, Sydni and Dalton were a great help! They thought it was an adventure. After we got some light in the house, we found more surprises. We are blessed by wonderful family and friends! Mark and Wendy had cleaned the house and put up Camryn's fan! I can't tell you how good it felt to come home to a clean house! I had left it a disaster! We are so grateful for their help! My friends Stacey, Cori, Kim and Michelle had been in and left us food in the refrigerator, a wonderful basket of goodies, a bowl of fresh fruit, a crockpot meal, and welcome home signs! (I hear I missed a good party! :) Bethany and Bailey ( with help from Mom & Dad! :)) had left their beautiful doll furniture for Camryn to play with and a wonderful note from Bethany! We feel so loved and WE LOVE YOU ALL! We were in bed by 3:30 AM (lights came on at 3:35 AM) :) and we sleep until almost 1 PM Friday. Glad to be home!!