The Trip Home

I forgot to mention in my last post, that at about midnight the night before we left, the fire alarm in our Hong Kong hotel went off. It scared the heck out of me. I jumped up, started puilling on shorts, told Jerry to grab the baby, and ran next door to get my mom, Doug and Katie. Meanwhile, everyone started coming out of their rooms. Someone recommended calling the front desk, so I did, and was told it was a false alarm. We went back into our rooms. About 15 minutes later the alarm went off again! This time someone came around, letting us know it was a false alarm. Luckily, Doug and Katie did not wake up, and Zoe went right back to sleep, and so did the rest of us, but the whole thing was unnerving. As Joe said in his last e-mail, the last thing you want to hear in the middle of the night, when you're on the 21st floor of a hotel, is a fire alarm.

We chartered another bus to the airport the next morning. We left at 7:15 a.m. and arrived by 8 a.m. On the way, we saw some more of the beautiful Hong Kong scenery, and passed the entrance to Hong Kong Disney.






While in line to check our bags, we recognized some families from the White Swan. After getting on the plane, we learned there were 19 adopted Chinese babies on our flight. I think at least one was crying at all times during the flight -- not fun for the other passengers, I'm sure.

Our flight left on time, at about 10:30 a.m. This time, Mom only had to throw away a few things -- a tube of Cortizone cream, the file on her nail clippers, and a bottle of water.

Three of our seats were on the bulkhead, which was nice because there was some extra room for Zoe and Molli to play. Also, there was a place to hang bassinets, where we thought they would sleep. Ha! Zoe slept in one for awhile, but woke up screaming, and never would get back in during the rest of the flight. Her crying woke Molli, and that was the end of that. Here is a picture of Zoe, before she decided she hated it.



This flight was 16 hours, because Guangzhou is so far south. We all dreaded it, but for some reason, it wasn't as bad as the flight over. Maybe because we knew what to expect. Doug thought it was great because he watched the movie "Nacho Libre" 4 times. At about 4 p.m. Hong Kong time, I dosed all 3 kids with Benadryl, and they all slept for several hours. We ended up making a bed of pillows on the floor in front of us for Zoe, and she liked that much better than the bassinet.

The hardest part of the trip was our layover in Newark. We got in at 2 p.m. EST and were not scheduled to leave until 8:30 p.m. We camped out at one of the empty gates, and everyone except the grandparents, Sean, Jason, and Don, crashed. I woke up once, looked around, and decided I had to document this:









At 7:30, we woke everyone to move to our gate. We were due to start boarding at 8:00. At 7:45 they announced that the plane was ready, but they had no crew, and we would be delayed until 9:00. That later changed to 9:15, and then to 9:30!

The two and a half hour flight to Jacksonville should have been a breeze, but we were spread out all over the small plane, and somehow I ended up behind Doug, Sean, and Katie, who were seated all in a row. I was also holding Zoe on my lap. Jerry & Don were a few rows ahead of them, but promplty fell asleep. Everyone else was in the back of the plane. Zoe slept for a little while, but the other 3 were totally hyper, and kept getting up every 5 minutes. Both Doug & Sean spilled their drinks. The women sitting next to me started dogging Jerry: "Typical man, sleeping, while his wife has to handle 4 kids!" It was funny, but I had to defend him, and explained we'd started about 27 hours earlier, and that I'd slept quite a bit during the earlier flight. Still, at one point after Zoe woke up, they told me it was time to wake Jerry, and give him the baby.

We finally got in at about midnight. We were happy to see Jule and Kyra, waiting to meet us at the airport, but didn't get to spend much time with them, as we were all anxious to get home. Of course, once we got home, everyone was wide awake, and hungry. Our friend Janet had made us some delicious white bean chilli, and Julie had stocked us up with milk, eggs, bread, and bacon, so we were in good shape. Then, the kids had to play with our dog, Rosie, check on their watermelon and pumpkin plants, and jump on the trampoline. I also wanted to look up Zoe's rash, which seemed worse again. I looked in my Mayo Clinic reference book, and decided she might have 2 rashes, and that the one still bothering her was a prickly heat rash. They recommended keeping her clean and dry, and Calamine lotion for the itching. So, I gave her a bath and slathered her in lotion. We didn't get to bed until about 3:30 a.m.

The good news is, everyone slept until almost 1 p.m. on Saturday. The bad news is that Saturday night (actually Sunday morning) Doug, Katie, and I all woke up at 3:30 a.m., and as I write this at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, we are all still awake. Zoe, the kid who has been on China time her whole life, slept peacefully all night in her crib. She is so easy!

Julie, Kyra, my mom and dad al came to visit on Sat. afternoon. Zoe was shy at first, but by the end of the visit, had warmed up to the "new" family members. We also went for a walk, and she got to meet our friends, the Holts. Today we plan to go to church, where she will meet a whole bunch of new people.

The only thing Zoe has not been pleased with is Rosie. The first night she cried every time Rosie came in the room. Saturday she only cried when Rosie came close to her. Hopefully, she will get used to her soon!