We are at the end of our first day home, and as a family of four now, we look back on this adventure in awe. Angie and I were up early having coffee this morning, because of course we were still on China time and with Aidan quietly playing and Alex still asleep we just looked at each other and said "Weren't we just in China?" As long as the trip home was, it also seemed to have gone by in a blink.
Not to bore you with details, like I haven't been doing that all along? But our trip had a couple of interesting things - mostly security checks! We arrived at Guangzhou airport and our escort from Lotus Travel, Raymond, marched us through baggage checks and up to the customs line, where he bid our intrepid band of new adoptive parents adieu. A quick stroll through customs and we were at the security checkpoint. The big red sign said "Liquids allowed on aircraft..." This after super-strict in-country travel rules with zero tolerance for liquids and only one carry-on bag allowed. Great, we thought. International flights must be different. The bottle of water in our bag should be safe. NOT! Apparently the little guy doing random checks didn't get the message. "No water" he said with a wave of his hand. And off it went. Little did we think to go to battle over it "for the baby." David and Tammy convinced their security guy to allow water through for their child. Oh well. Picture that we are carrying six carry-on items, one being a box with our beautiful souvenir tea set. I thought for sure at some point in the day I'd have to untie the string and unpack each piece. Not once did anyone even think of questioning it. I suppose the x-ray was indisputable. Besides the water hiccup, we practically had to undress. Shoes - off. Belt - off. Wait a minute - my belt buckle is plastic, which I make sure I use for airports. What's the deal? OFF! DVD player - take the case out of the carry-on bag. Take the player out of the carrying case bag. Put it all in bins. We were lugging Aidan through the line and we had literally 10 pieces going down the conveyor belt all piling up at the end. There was no where to sit to put our shoes back on and we were already worn out and hadn't even boarded our first plane. Fun times! It was so confusing I almost walked away without the tea set box. Our friend Frank completely forgot his bag and had to go back. Angie was lugging Aidan all the while, because now she was his favorite parent. I guess she got what had wished a few days before. I was carrying four of the carry-ons. She was sweating and ready to faint because she hadn't really had much for breakfast. But we made it to the wait area and finally to the plane. Four hours to Tokyo went by relatively easy. Just a few of the seven babies had fussy spells. Aidan did fine, although he never stopped squirming in his seat and on our laps.
So then we had to go through Tokyo security. Apparently they do not trust the previous airport screeners at other international airports so we had to queue up and go through another checkpoint. Not so bad except for the contraband (sippy cups that had been filled with apple juice on the previous flight) that was found and had to be dumped out. No liquids allowed. And again the DVD player had to be taken out of it's cases and put in a bin. At least I could keep my belt on. We found a spot to sit and then Aidan took over the terminal. First, he was in desperate need of a diaper change. I volunteered, knowing there was a changing room in the men's room where I could spread him out. Since he was now Mama's best buddy, and I was now chopped liver, he screamed all the way to the men's room, shrieked all through the diaper change, and cried for Mama all the way back to our seat. At this point Angie needed to talk to the gate agent about switching our seats on the 747 for the 12-hour flight to Detroit. We had only two middle seats and a single in the row behind. That spelled disaster for someone - either us trying to keep Aidan occupied, or the row-mates who would be a part of that whether they liked it or not. Since Aidan would have no separation with Angie, she carried him into the line while I manned the seats and all of our bags. She got there just in time to be stuck behind a lady who monopolized both gate agents with some obscure request. I watched as she struggled to hold Aidan, all 26 pounds, for a lengthy wait. She finally temporarily broke ranks and brought him over to me and got back to her place in line. Then Aidan made himself known to all of Narita Airport. He screamed bloody murder. I tried snacks, toys, and anything in our bags to divert attention. The lady behind us actually got up and moved because of his ear-piercing shrills, or maybe it was also because his tears and runny nose were dripping on her. Not quite sure what the big deal was. Finally, after about five minutes of that, I had to march him back to Angie in the line where he quieted down. Later, on the plane, our Steward joked that he heard and saw him in action while boarding.
Angie finally got us three good seats together and came back and collapsed. Just in time for the EARTHQUAKE! Yep, that's right, we heard a BAM! and then the building swayed and the large terminal windows rattled for a few seconds. And we're thinking, great, either this is going to be the big one, or even worse, our flight will be delayed. Nothing else came of it, and we were finally off for the big 12-hour torture session.
We were extremely lucky on the flight to Detroit. Aidan fidgeted off and on from lap to lap, mostly just trying to get comfortable. He slept about half the time and the rest was really easy to deal with. Those international flights with the on-screen flight tracker are always so maddening because it takes forever as you literally watch minutes go by. But finally we were in Detroit for friendly and easy accommodations. Yeah right. Anytime the words "Immigration" and "Customs" are used in the same sentence spells disaster.
Because Aidan is not yet a US citizen, and carries a Chinese passport and visa, we had to go through the "Visitors" line at Immigration. We did this with Alex at Dulles Airport in 2004 and it took us 1.5 hours to get through that line. In Detroit, we were third in line and things moved right along. Our Border Patrol agent in the booth was very friendly knowing our adoption situation and us being fellow citizens. He quickly and politely pointed out that we had to go to Line 37 to finish our entry. OK, line 37 had one family ahead of us and we dutifully got in line. Three other adoptive couples found themselves in line with us. And there we waited, and waited, and waited. Apparently, the party/family of six from an African or Caribbean nation were going through a full entry scrutiny with every "i" dotted and "t" crossed. We literally waited over on hour to go through what was a five minute exercise for us. Other flights arrived and those folks were easily through the regular lines, but not ol' Line 37. We waited. And chased the kids around. And ate snacks. And joked that we can't even get across our own border, but how many Mexicans sneak through every day... I will say that it was simply a bad place at a bad time and the officers working the line were very apologetic and congratulatory, knowing we were adopting. After this fun and frolic, it was off to collect our checked baggage, run through even more security at Customs, and then re-check our already checked bags. And at this point I had to hike all the way back to Immigration because the first nice officer that sent us to Line 37 forgot to rubber stamp our declaration card. I didn't offer to take out the DVD player this time - let them figure it out on the x-ray machine...
Aaahhh, Detroit to Baltimore. One hour and five sweet minutes. Aidan was so tired he fell asleep in my arms not soon after take-off. The beautiful flight path rounded north and east of Baltimore, then headed down toward Annapolis. My beloved Chesapeake Bay stretched as far as I could see, glimmering under a setting sun. I got to see the North Point and Rock Creek Wednesday night sailing races from above. The Magothy River race was on a full spinnaker run. Annapolis Wednesday night racers were on their way to a weather mark just outside of the Severn River. As we turned upriver for the usual Severn approach path, I could see Pasadena almost right below us. We were home.
This is where it gets mushy.
When we brought Alex home from Korea, our trip was full of a sense of the beautiful Korean sights, culture, and people. Such a vibrant, yet stoic country. Modern. Ancient. Polite. Respectful. As our plane left the ground, I shed a tear or two for the fact that societal circumstances led to the crossing of our paths. Alex would have a wonderful life with us, but yet it could have been just as wonderful there. Not meant to be, and yet, meant to be. Fate played such a heavy hand on our precious little guy. But as we left the ground in China, there was not the same sense of sadness for Aidan. Maybe it was our grueling two week trip. Maybe it was the dust, grime, and constant smog. Maybe it was the 130 degree heat index. Or possibly the constant parade of bikes, scooters, motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, wheelchairs, and pedestrians making their way around city streets without hardly following a rule or law. Somehow they do it without even a fender bender. My apologies to any Chinese friends reading this, but you've got to admit that making one's way in life, in China, competing against one billion others for the same right turn or the same Yuan, is a hard way to go.
As we taxied to the BWI terminal it hit me hard. There were more than just a few tears this time. Aidan was still asleep in my arms. During the past 10 days we had bonded without a hitch. His angelic sleeping face looked so much like Alex. Thoughts of how much I missed Alex and our new home washed over me. Also were thoughts of a place Aidan had left 26 hours earlier, and what his life will be like in this wonderful country, with our wonderful family and friends, with a stable and beautiful home. His opportunities in life are now endless. Aidan, Alex, Asian, Adopted. Brothers in ways we will never fully comprehend. They can be anything they want in life except the President of the United States.
Our plane slowed to a stop. The seat belt sign went off. In the frenzy to hurry up and wait, others jumped up to grab their bags. I was in no rush. I grabbed a tissue. I wiped my eyes. I bent down and kissed Aidan on his sleeping forehead, whispering "WELCOME HOME AIDAN."
Not to bore you with details, like I haven't been doing that all along? But our trip had a couple of interesting things - mostly security checks! We arrived at Guangzhou airport and our escort from Lotus Travel, Raymond, marched us through baggage checks and up to the customs line, where he bid our intrepid band of new adoptive parents adieu. A quick stroll through customs and we were at the security checkpoint. The big red sign said "Liquids allowed on aircraft..." This after super-strict in-country travel rules with zero tolerance for liquids and only one carry-on bag allowed. Great, we thought. International flights must be different. The bottle of water in our bag should be safe. NOT! Apparently the little guy doing random checks didn't get the message. "No water" he said with a wave of his hand. And off it went. Little did we think to go to battle over it "for the baby." David and Tammy convinced their security guy to allow water through for their child. Oh well. Picture that we are carrying six carry-on items, one being a box with our beautiful souvenir tea set. I thought for sure at some point in the day I'd have to untie the string and unpack each piece. Not once did anyone even think of questioning it. I suppose the x-ray was indisputable. Besides the water hiccup, we practically had to undress. Shoes - off. Belt - off. Wait a minute - my belt buckle is plastic, which I make sure I use for airports. What's the deal? OFF! DVD player - take the case out of the carry-on bag. Take the player out of the carrying case bag. Put it all in bins. We were lugging Aidan through the line and we had literally 10 pieces going down the conveyor belt all piling up at the end. There was no where to sit to put our shoes back on and we were already worn out and hadn't even boarded our first plane. Fun times! It was so confusing I almost walked away without the tea set box. Our friend Frank completely forgot his bag and had to go back. Angie was lugging Aidan all the while, because now she was his favorite parent. I guess she got what had wished a few days before. I was carrying four of the carry-ons. She was sweating and ready to faint because she hadn't really had much for breakfast. But we made it to the wait area and finally to the plane. Four hours to Tokyo went by relatively easy. Just a few of the seven babies had fussy spells. Aidan did fine, although he never stopped squirming in his seat and on our laps.
So then we had to go through Tokyo security. Apparently they do not trust the previous airport screeners at other international airports so we had to queue up and go through another checkpoint. Not so bad except for the contraband (sippy cups that had been filled with apple juice on the previous flight) that was found and had to be dumped out. No liquids allowed. And again the DVD player had to be taken out of it's cases and put in a bin. At least I could keep my belt on. We found a spot to sit and then Aidan took over the terminal. First, he was in desperate need of a diaper change. I volunteered, knowing there was a changing room in the men's room where I could spread him out. Since he was now Mama's best buddy, and I was now chopped liver, he screamed all the way to the men's room, shrieked all through the diaper change, and cried for Mama all the way back to our seat. At this point Angie needed to talk to the gate agent about switching our seats on the 747 for the 12-hour flight to Detroit. We had only two middle seats and a single in the row behind. That spelled disaster for someone - either us trying to keep Aidan occupied, or the row-mates who would be a part of that whether they liked it or not. Since Aidan would have no separation with Angie, she carried him into the line while I manned the seats and all of our bags. She got there just in time to be stuck behind a lady who monopolized both gate agents with some obscure request. I watched as she struggled to hold Aidan, all 26 pounds, for a lengthy wait. She finally temporarily broke ranks and brought him over to me and got back to her place in line. Then Aidan made himself known to all of Narita Airport. He screamed bloody murder. I tried snacks, toys, and anything in our bags to divert attention. The lady behind us actually got up and moved because of his ear-piercing shrills, or maybe it was also because his tears and runny nose were dripping on her. Not quite sure what the big deal was. Finally, after about five minutes of that, I had to march him back to Angie in the line where he quieted down. Later, on the plane, our Steward joked that he heard and saw him in action while boarding.
Angie finally got us three good seats together and came back and collapsed. Just in time for the EARTHQUAKE! Yep, that's right, we heard a BAM! and then the building swayed and the large terminal windows rattled for a few seconds. And we're thinking, great, either this is going to be the big one, or even worse, our flight will be delayed. Nothing else came of it, and we were finally off for the big 12-hour torture session.
We were extremely lucky on the flight to Detroit. Aidan fidgeted off and on from lap to lap, mostly just trying to get comfortable. He slept about half the time and the rest was really easy to deal with. Those international flights with the on-screen flight tracker are always so maddening because it takes forever as you literally watch minutes go by. But finally we were in Detroit for friendly and easy accommodations. Yeah right. Anytime the words "Immigration" and "Customs" are used in the same sentence spells disaster.
Because Aidan is not yet a US citizen, and carries a Chinese passport and visa, we had to go through the "Visitors" line at Immigration. We did this with Alex at Dulles Airport in 2004 and it took us 1.5 hours to get through that line. In Detroit, we were third in line and things moved right along. Our Border Patrol agent in the booth was very friendly knowing our adoption situation and us being fellow citizens. He quickly and politely pointed out that we had to go to Line 37 to finish our entry. OK, line 37 had one family ahead of us and we dutifully got in line. Three other adoptive couples found themselves in line with us. And there we waited, and waited, and waited. Apparently, the party/family of six from an African or Caribbean nation were going through a full entry scrutiny with every "i" dotted and "t" crossed. We literally waited over on hour to go through what was a five minute exercise for us. Other flights arrived and those folks were easily through the regular lines, but not ol' Line 37. We waited. And chased the kids around. And ate snacks. And joked that we can't even get across our own border, but how many Mexicans sneak through every day... I will say that it was simply a bad place at a bad time and the officers working the line were very apologetic and congratulatory, knowing we were adopting. After this fun and frolic, it was off to collect our checked baggage, run through even more security at Customs, and then re-check our already checked bags. And at this point I had to hike all the way back to Immigration because the first nice officer that sent us to Line 37 forgot to rubber stamp our declaration card. I didn't offer to take out the DVD player this time - let them figure it out on the x-ray machine...
Aaahhh, Detroit to Baltimore. One hour and five sweet minutes. Aidan was so tired he fell asleep in my arms not soon after take-off. The beautiful flight path rounded north and east of Baltimore, then headed down toward Annapolis. My beloved Chesapeake Bay stretched as far as I could see, glimmering under a setting sun. I got to see the North Point and Rock Creek Wednesday night sailing races from above. The Magothy River race was on a full spinnaker run. Annapolis Wednesday night racers were on their way to a weather mark just outside of the Severn River. As we turned upriver for the usual Severn approach path, I could see Pasadena almost right below us. We were home.
This is where it gets mushy.
When we brought Alex home from Korea, our trip was full of a sense of the beautiful Korean sights, culture, and people. Such a vibrant, yet stoic country. Modern. Ancient. Polite. Respectful. As our plane left the ground, I shed a tear or two for the fact that societal circumstances led to the crossing of our paths. Alex would have a wonderful life with us, but yet it could have been just as wonderful there. Not meant to be, and yet, meant to be. Fate played such a heavy hand on our precious little guy. But as we left the ground in China, there was not the same sense of sadness for Aidan. Maybe it was our grueling two week trip. Maybe it was the dust, grime, and constant smog. Maybe it was the 130 degree heat index. Or possibly the constant parade of bikes, scooters, motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, wheelchairs, and pedestrians making their way around city streets without hardly following a rule or law. Somehow they do it without even a fender bender. My apologies to any Chinese friends reading this, but you've got to admit that making one's way in life, in China, competing against one billion others for the same right turn or the same Yuan, is a hard way to go.
As we taxied to the BWI terminal it hit me hard. There were more than just a few tears this time. Aidan was still asleep in my arms. During the past 10 days we had bonded without a hitch. His angelic sleeping face looked so much like Alex. Thoughts of how much I missed Alex and our new home washed over me. Also were thoughts of a place Aidan had left 26 hours earlier, and what his life will be like in this wonderful country, with our wonderful family and friends, with a stable and beautiful home. His opportunities in life are now endless. Aidan, Alex, Asian, Adopted. Brothers in ways we will never fully comprehend. They can be anything they want in life except the President of the United States.
Our plane slowed to a stop. The seat belt sign went off. In the frenzy to hurry up and wait, others jumped up to grab their bags. I was in no rush. I grabbed a tissue. I wiped my eyes. I bent down and kissed Aidan on his sleeping forehead, whispering "WELCOME HOME AIDAN."
The grand entrance
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