Monday, June 18, 2012

We're Home

 

Arrived at Detroit airport and headed to our on time departure.  As soon as we scanned in for boarding we rounded the corner and noticed that the jetway was packed with people. They weren't letting anyone board the plane because the ground power was not working.  We about passed out in disbelief when they announced that we had to go back to the gate area.  During this brief interlude, Ellie had a screaming tantrum, I think that her fun was done. Rob took her to the bathroom and was able to calm her down by allowing her to play in the automatic sink. 

 

The final flight to Peoria was uneventful. Ellie made it through most of the flight just fine, but ended up having another tantrum in the last 20 minutes of flight. Rob switched seats with Dana and then Dana was able to calm her down. Apparently toddlers need more than 10 hours of sleep in a 3 day period J.

 

Grandma Jo, Kyle, and Megan met us at the airport. It was a great coming home celebration and Ellie was not at all shy with the kids. We had brought a picture book that showed our family, house, etc. and Ellie would look at it several times a day. On one page, there was a family picture and Ellie would want us to go over each person's name and then she would repeat their names. When Ellie finally met the kids, it was like she already knew who they were. The kids played in the airport while Rob went and got the vehicles. We thought that Ellie was going to have a fit being strapped into a car seat, but it didn't seem to bother her at all. Finally, when we arrived home, Ellie got to meet our dog Tika (a.k.a Woof-Woof from the picture book). She wasn't at all afraid of Tika, but doesn't like it much when Tika licks her hand.

 

First night at home was a rough one for the travelers.  Rob and Dana and Ellie were all restless between midnight and 4am – but eventually went back to sleep. Ellie woke up getting sick at 6am, and again at 7.  Hopefully this is a temporary bug related to change in water and/or milk.

 

Nick returned home today as well, so we are all together again…. Feels good to be complete!

 

We will make one additional post in a few days once we are over jetlag and through the initial transition phase.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

So close and yet so far

 

Made the 15 hour flight from Hong Kong and it was primarily uneventful.  We originally did not have seats together, but Rob was able to change his seat, so we had a row.   Ellie did great on the flight, slept for probably a total of 6 hours, which we were pretty happy with.

 

Arrived in Detroit at about 1pm we think (time is becoming a blur) – customs and immigration were smooth – Ellie had a near meltdown when we had to get rid of our luggage cart and go through security – but a sucker goes a long way with a 2 year old.

 

Our flight to Peoria was delayed an hour – not a big deal we thought – the hardest part will be staying awake.   Then the flight was delayed another hour, as they were waiting for our inbound aircraft.  Delayed again with a new departure time 8:15pm.  After our plane arrives and we see light at the end of this trip – they tell us there is no crew available and that the crew is arriving from another flight. After about another 30 minutes, they inform us that the flight has been canceled.  We had been in the Detroit airport almost 8 hours at this point.   To top it off, Delta claims that the flight was canceled due to weather problems even though it was a beautiful day in both Illinois and Michigan.

 

We waited in the line for meal vouchers and rescheduling.  The system had automatically confirmed Dana and Ellie a seat on the morning flight, but Rob was listed as confirmed, but without a seat number (which in airport talk that means you will only have a seat if there is room i.e. you are flying standby).  After waiting in line almost 2 hours, we all have confirmed seats on the morning flight and were able to get to an airport hotel (Delta gave us a room in the Days Inn, but we decided to use Marriott points to get a room at the airport Marriott), finally checking in at 1130pm EST.  All airport food had shut down by the time we were leaving, so we used some of the meal vouchers to purchase trail mix, juice, and a bottle of water for dinner.

 

We don't have luggage, Ellie is the only one with clothing choices, as we packed her as the priority passenger with our carryon options.  

 

Ellie was really great with our extended layover.  As we walked the moving walkways and escalators, we wondered if she thinks this is what her new life has become – hanging out in airports and waiting in lines.   After riding the airport tram, she blew her top when it was time to get off and screamed for almost 20min.  She then took a nap for about an hour.  All in all, she held up better then we did – we just wanted to curl up and cry when we realized we would not being seeing the rest of our family.

 

We went to bed at about midnight EST and woke up at around 4am (got to love jetlag). Ellie however is still asleep at 6:30 and we will let her sleep until about 7:30. Our flight is at 10am and we are close to the airport. Hopefully today will be the end of this long journey. We long to hug our other kids and to have them be able to finally meet their new sister. If the flight is delayed or canceled, you might see Rob on the local news being hauled off in handcuffs. We have been patient and understanding, but enough is enough.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Last post from overseas

 

Hong Kong really is a whole different world – street/traffic organization – it is just good to be back here.

Ride to Hong Kong was a ride for sure. We shared a minivan with the G family and we all had plenty of room.   The guy kept oscillating between about a 5mile an hour range – up and down, up and down.  The Chinese roads do not exactly support cruise control, but some sort of regularity would have been nice.  At one point we were cruising along at about 150 clicks (93mph!)  We  thought their son didn't look so good so we got a bag and toilet paper ready.  The driver took this wild clover leaf configuration to bypass some traffic – it was enough to put us over the edge – slow around corners would have been nice.   While we turned up the a/c and tried to look forward, Ellie couldn't handle it and puked.  As if the driver has been through this before he just handed us some wipes.

 

 We had joked with the G family that at the end of our ride we would all agree to be friends and live with the other kids tantrums. No tantrums to be had, but the last hour and a half of the ride smelled great!  The kids really did do great as far as attitudes.  They both started to get a little restless at the end (3 hours total), but did great.

 

Immigration and customs to Hong Kong were uneventful –although the passport guy got a supervisor to look at Ellie since her passport picture is about 6 months old.  But c'mon – who looks like their passport picture J

 

Marriott near the airport is great location   We made it in time for snacks/dinner at the Executive Lounge.  Ellie had a complete meltdown tantrum before bedtime.  She does not like the change and didn't eat much for dinner.  There was a party or some group of people make a lot of noise last night.  We are not sure if they are on a boat on the water (we are directly above) or in the hotel.  Between that and the normal anxiety of sleeplessness before a big trip- the adults are not exactly well rested to start this marathon home. 

 

We appreciate your prays for us all (and whoever sits near us!)


Tuesday, June 12, 2012


Heading out for the Pearl River cruise.



Dana and Ellie dancing on the boat



Dinner buffet on the boat. We had a table by the windows.



Our dinner cruise boat.



Here's the stadium that we were talking about that isn't used for sporting events.



The New Guangzhou TV Tower was definitely the highlight of the cruise. It would continually change colors. 
The rainbow colors would move up the building and out the tip of the building. It was a beautiful site. Rob took about 100 pictures of this building.



All the bridges light up as well and also change colors.



"Bun Bun" sporting the hotel slippers.

Tuesday night we had dinner on a Pearl River cruise.  Not the choice activity for a 2 year old, but we haven't had many choices in our tours. The cruise I am sure would have been a lot more interesting if we could have understood something.   Our facilitator did not go with us and they did not have any English handouts or anything.  We went up and down the river with a dinner buffet.   The way the assigned seating works, we ended up sharing a 4 top table with other people; Ellie didn't have a ticket, so she was on our lap. The food was very local – things with heads still on them. We had a lot of fried rice and noodles.  The bridges and buildings were cool – everything lights up at night.   We are not sure which Asian city started this trend of lighting up the buildings, but it is cool. We rode by this cool looking stadium, which only had seats on one side.  Later we asked our guide about it and she said they built it only for the Asian Olympic games (or something like that).  It was used for the opening ceremony and now is only used once in a while.  The floor is a floating floor and they can remove the floor and boats can come in and park.  They light it up every night for all to see - gives a whole new angle on government spending.

 

At the end of the cruise they had a juggling act accompanied by some Latin American/Salsa type music.   The music was refreshing and Ellie was totally loving the music. It was raining a bit and that added to the fun as Dana and Ellie danced to the music on the outside deck.

 

Wednesday - We will be sharing a van with the G family from Utah – going to Hong Kong to stay the night before flying home.   We don't check out here until late this afternoon, so it will be a slow and probably long morning.   Depending on which version of the story we hear from our facilitator the van ride will either be 2 or 4 hours.  

 

We are hopeful that Ellie will sleep a lot on the flight tomorrow.  She usually "shuts down" when out in public and becomes very shy – so we hope the stress of it all just knocks her out and we don't end up with a tantrum at 37k feet.   We are sure our fellow passengers feel the same J  15 hours to Detroit then a final 1.5 hours to home.

Today, we went to the U.S. Consulate for paperwork needed for Ellie's visa. We will receive the visa tomorrow and that is the last step in this long 1.5 year process to bring Ellie home. That seems like a really long time, but it is our quickest adoption yet.  Our visit to the consulate was uneventful and a simple process.

 

We talked to our friends who are staying at the Garden Hotel. They finally decided that they were going to switch rooms.  They were given a new room where the hallway smelled worse then the first one.  They then asked if they could be given a room on a floor that had tile and not carpet.  The front desk explained that the agency rate is for the old part of the hotel and that for $70/day they could upgrade to the new section.   They only had 2 nights left, so they decided to do it. The agency rate is about $125/night, so the extra $70 for a decent room makes the room rate $195/night. Even with our rate increase on Monday, our averaged rate over the 6 nights ended up being $142/night (taxes/fees included). Our hotel has been fantastic. Our room is a suite with access to the Executive Lounge where we have free breakfast (in the Lounge or the main restaurant), free beverages throughout the day (bottled water, pop, coffee), and finally free dinner at night including wine etc. The hotel staff have been excellent and attentive and most speak English very well. We highly recommend staying at the China Hotel by Marriott rather than the recommended Garden Hotel. We would have taken a cab each morning to the Garden Hotel if necessary in order to be able to stay at our hotel of choice. We also learned that the Garden Hotel does not allow Papa Johns to deliver to the hotel.  Don't know if that is because Pizza Hut is nearby and they have an agreement?  At the Marriott, there is a host of families that are using Bethany, CCAI, Holt and others, so there are plenty of other adoptive families here as well.

 

We are at the end, which is always the hardest – you just want to be home already.   We have watched more TV than we usually do and we can't help but think of all things we could be doing with all this "down" time.  It just seems inefficient to be doing nothing J.

 

Today we walked over to a city park across the street.  It is a HUGE park.  Guangzhou is the city of rams (or something like that) – there is a story about how the fisherman didn't know how to grow rice and some rams flew in with rice in their mouth and showed them how to it, and everyone lived happily ever after. Ok, that is the American ending to the story – but they got rice in the region.  Anyway there is a statue of the rams in the park, so we thought that would be our destination.   The park is maybe 100yards from the hotel – however we felt as though we had gone to the twilight zone again with all the people staring at us.   We joked when we would take pictures that we don't want to look like a tourist. Rob even changed out of his American flag t-shirt that he had worn to the U.S Consulate so that he would blend in, ha ha J  A lady even took a picture of Dana and Ellie – made her feel like she was an animal at the zoo. The maps at the zoo were not the easiest to follow, but we eventually found the stairs leading up to the ram monument. Dana stayed with Ellie and Rob forged up the several flights of stairs to get to the top of this hill where the statue was. The heat index was once again over 100, so after we captured the picture, we decided that we were done and headed back to the hotel.

 

We ate Papa Johns for lunch today – Ellie is not a big pizza fan, but she will eat the crust.  She doesn't realize yet that being a Hofmeister implies that you LOVE PIZZA.  One of our sons had this problem when he first came home, but now he has "seen the light" and enjoys pizza now and Ellie will in time also.  We are REALLY craving a big salad.  They have all this great looking veggies on the buffet, but if you can't peel it, we don't eat it.

June 12 -- Pictures

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We have some catching up to do with pictures - so here is a few from the past few days.
 
 The photographer on the island doing the photo shoot

The model who you might see in a magazine someday.

 
Statues on the Island - Ellie would not get out of the stroller for pictures, but it was over 100, so we really didn't want to carry her anyway.
Wow my husband is really good looking.
 
Cool trees - these lined the street

 
Ellie with a cat in one of the stores - she REALLY wanted the cat - gave it BIG hugs!  
We thought we would have problems leaving this store, but the cat found a place to hide, so we weren't the bad guys. 
These are some of her blinged out pants we were talking about.
Local footwear - very common
Snacks of the day - mystery flavor on the left and cucumber on the right.
The cucumber chips were a bit strange - but the mystery flavor was really good.
Several wedding parties having pictures done - sorry this it out the car window and not a great shot.
A painted wall at the zoo - and doesn't this look like a happy mural for children to enjoy???
 
For a few extra bucks, you could feed the giraffe... It looked pretty scary from our angle - they are just really big up close.
This gal got the hang of it - but we had no idea they had really long tongues

 
Panda's  - look just like the ones on TV.
Sign near the pool - sometimes local culture is better explained in pictures.  
We are glad someone at least put up the sign.
 
Boats you can rent at the park - don't they look happy?
The Ram statue Rob climed the hill for. Guangzhou is the City of Rams
Ellie using the map as a hat.