One Year Ago . . . January 23rd

We were up very early this morning to finish packing and have breakfast before leaving for the airport. Remember that China was 14 hours ahead of our time, so we planned to leave China early this Friday morning and arrive home late this same Friday night.

We arrived early at the Guangzhou airport and settled in to wait for our first short flight, which would take us to Shanghai. We learned that we would have to pick up our luggage in Shanghai and re-check it for the international flight. Kellin was not happy with all the holding as we went through security and he made it known to everyone. It was very awkward to hold him as he wiggled and fussed, and also take care of coats and bags. Once we could sit and he could be left alone for a bit, he calmed down.

Waiting in the Guangzhou airport - so far, so good!

Our first flight was only a couple hours and went smoothly. We were served a meal of somewhat unfamiliar foods, including this "Herbal Jelly" (pictured below) that we could not identify at all, even after opening it up. We were not brave enough to eat it.

We reached Shanghai around 10:00, I think. I immediately put Kellin into the baby carrier for walking through the airport, which of course did not make him happy but made it SO much easier for me to carry things and hang on to him. When I was holding him just with my arms, it was nearly impossible to hang on to him while he pushed at me and squirmed to get down, and my arms would be aching very quickly. Our next flight (to Detroit, USA!) was not until around 5 that evening, so we had planned to check our bags right away and then explore the airport, which was very large. Unfortunately, when we approached the desk, we were told that we could not check our bags until 2:30, which meant we were stuck baby-sitting our luggage for several hours. So much for exploring. Kellin did pretty well hanging out for the next few hours, and drank his bottle nicely. 

When it neared 2:30, we joined the line for checking our luggage, which included several other adoptive families. I tried holding Kellin and when that grew exhausting as he cried and fought against me, I put Kellin back into the carrier and he continued to cry and scream. I swayed and rocked and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle" over and over, but he would not be calmed. Finally, one of the airline employees unhooked the rope and ushered us through ahead of the other waiting people.

We checked our luggage and found our gate. There were plenty of empty seats in the waiting area, so Kellin and I sat down to calm him, while Dad bought a few things and then found a place to change our remaining Chinese currency to American dollars. I changed Kellin into a sleeper for the long flight and measured out formula and rice cereal into his bottles, so they could be easily made up on the plane just by adding water. We were as ready as we were going to be!

We boarded our flight on time. We were seated near the back of the plane and there were other adoptive families seated near us. This turned out to be a good thing, because for what felt like forever, Kellin cried. And cried. And cried. I think it was actually maybe 45 minutes, but I could not calm him, no matter what I did. I tried rocking him, singing to him, giving him a bottle, holding him, putting him down - everything. And nothing worked. I felt so desperate at that point - what if Kellin cried the entire flight?? We were in a row of 4 seats, and the fourth was not booked, so Dad and I took the end seats, leaving two seats between us for Kellin to lay down in. After his crying spell, he fell asleep. We sat on the plane, not moving, for too long, before the pilot announced that there was a line for the runway and we would be taking off much later than planned. This caused quite a stir around us, because most people (including us) had connecting flights to make that they would probably miss because of the delay. I think we finally took off about two hours late.

This was a long flight. There is no other way to describe it. On the flight to China, I hadn't had Kellin, so I had managed to sleep some and relax. During this flight, Kellin thankfully did sleep about 8 hours, but that meant I spent those 8 hours making sure I stayed awake to watch him so he didn't roll off the seat. I played some games on the screen in front of me, but mostly I watched Kellin sleep. I shouldn't complain because I know I was more fortunate than some, in that Kellin did sleep for more than half the flight and when he woke up, he was pretty calm as long as I left him alone to "stim" in his seat.

As we approached our landing in Detroit, we knew our chances of making our connecting flight were slim to none. I was so disappointed that I wouldn't be seeing my family or going home this night. When we finally landed, everyone was off the plane at top speed, hoping to make flights or get on another flight yet that night. We had to go through some special line so Kellin's paperwork could be processed, which thankfully was able to be done quickly.

Kellin was getting stressed out again at this point in the baby carrier, and I sang endlessly to him as we collected our luggage. While we were waiting for our luggage, a man approached and asked how Kellin had done on the flight. He said he had a child who was 15 months old who would need to make a long flight soon, and he guessed that Kellin was about that age. How sad that my 3 1/2 year old son was so small and delayed that he appeared to be that young. It was about this time that our flight out of Detroit took off, so we knew we had no chance of making it.

Once we had our luggage, we joined the line of people who were rescheduling their flights. There were a few other adoptive families in line, and I think that all of them were able to get on flights later that evening to their home cities. We were not as fortunate, since there were no more flights to our city that evening. We re-checked our luggage and then the airline booked us a hotel room and gave us directions to the hotel shuttle pick-up area.

The positive here was that Kellin had entered the U.S., paperwork processed, and was now an American citizen. The negative of course was that we were so close to home, and yet couldn't go home until the next morning.

Once we reached the hotel, I was able to call my family on my phone without having to deal with internet or computer issues, and it was great to hear their voices (the time on the picture below is not accurate - it was evening).

We were exhausted and soon went to bed. It was a bit tricky, since we did not have our luggage, only our carry-ons, and while I had enough diapers and formula for Kellin, I hadn't packed anything extra for myself to wear. I would be sleeping in jeans this night!

We tucked Kellin in to the provided playpen and went to bed ourselves. Kellin slept a couple hours, but of course he had slept on the flight so he was not too tired. I was so exhausted that I managed to sleep through his noise for a few hours, but none of us got much sleep that night.