It's hard to believe that we've been home for about a month already.
Our Journey Home and Homecoming
According to our itinerary, we were scheduled to leave Guangzhou, China on Sunday, April 9th at 10:00am. We had to take a domestic flight from Guangzhou to Beijing. Domestic flights in China are very strict about the amount and weight of carry-on luggage, so we had to check everything except our backpacks. We expected this to be a challenge, so we arrived with plenty of time. Fortunately, the luggage checking went smoothly. However, when I looked at our tickets to find the gate number, I noticed the flight departure time was actually 9:00am and we needed to hustle to our gate. We made it just in time to board.
Boarding a domestic flight in China was a new experience. You hand the agent your boarding pass. She scans it and hands it back to you along with a card the size of a business card and points to a nearby ramp that is leading outside. Once you are outside, you load onto a bus filled with everyone going on the flight. The bus drives over to the airplane and you climb a staircase into the airplane where another agent takes the business card you were handed and verifies you are on the correct flight. I'm sure to them, this process makes sense, but to us it was very confusing and chaotic.
As far as we knew, this was going to be Cheyenne's first time in an airplane. Kevin used Mandarin to tell Cheyenne what would happen and she understood. We were prepared for her to be scared, but she seemed as if she's been doing it her whole life.
Once in Beijing, we had about 4 hour layover. However, we had to get our checked bags and then go through the International Security there. Oh. My. Goodness - that was NOT fun. First, the security agents did NOT like the fact that our boys' Passports only had their middle initial listed, but their boarding passes had their full names. We had to wait for a supervisor to verify that we were legit. Then, they didn't like our pocket chargers and tried to confiscate them. Next, I had to go to the ticketing counter to get a boarding pass for Cheyenne because for some dumb reason, they couldn't get hers to print in Guangzhou. The lady at the ticket counter was very confused and upset by the fact that we had checked five bags in Guangzhou but were not checking them to Detroit. I tried to explain to her that we only had a very short time to go through customs and immigration in Detroit and did not want to waste time getting our checked luggage and wanted to carry on all luggage. Eventually, she (and her supervisor) understood and let us get on our way. By time we got to our gate, we only had about an hour to spare before boarding the long flight to Detroit.
We are so incredibly blessed how well all three of our kids did on that long flight. Fourteen hours is a very long time to be sitting in one small area. Thank God for individual movie players in the seat backs. Cheyenne was a trooper. She got a little upset when Kevin and I forced her to lay down across our laps to take a nap, but she slept well and was in much better spirits upon waking.
We originally only had an hour and 45 minutes in Detroit before taking our final leg to Cincinnati. We were extremely nervous about missing our connection because we knew we had to go through customs and we had special immigration paperwork for Cheyenne. The paperwork has to be reviewed and approved by an immigration officer and once that is completed, she officially becomes a US Citizen! Fortunately, the pilot made good time and got us there about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We made it through customs and immigration with time to spare.
We landed in CVG around 9:30pm Sunday night. Keep in mind, this is 9:30 Monday morning in China which means we had essentially been up for well over 24 hours by this point (minus one or two cat naps on the flight). My mother was scheduled to pick us up at the airport. She was supposedly waiting for us in the Cell Lot. Instead, my mom, all three of my brothers, my sister-in-laws and my nephews were waiting for us in the welcoming room. They all had signs saying welcome home and welcome Cheyenne. It was SO great to see familiar faces. I was exhausted and emotional and immediately started crying when I saw them. Cheyenne went to each one of them and collected their signs and gave each one a hug. When she noticed that I was crying, she had me pick her up so that she could wipe away my tears. :)
Our Journey Home and Homecoming
According to our itinerary, we were scheduled to leave Guangzhou, China on Sunday, April 9th at 10:00am. We had to take a domestic flight from Guangzhou to Beijing. Domestic flights in China are very strict about the amount and weight of carry-on luggage, so we had to check everything except our backpacks. We expected this to be a challenge, so we arrived with plenty of time. Fortunately, the luggage checking went smoothly. However, when I looked at our tickets to find the gate number, I noticed the flight departure time was actually 9:00am and we needed to hustle to our gate. We made it just in time to board.
Boarding a domestic flight in China was a new experience. You hand the agent your boarding pass. She scans it and hands it back to you along with a card the size of a business card and points to a nearby ramp that is leading outside. Once you are outside, you load onto a bus filled with everyone going on the flight. The bus drives over to the airplane and you climb a staircase into the airplane where another agent takes the business card you were handed and verifies you are on the correct flight. I'm sure to them, this process makes sense, but to us it was very confusing and chaotic.
As far as we knew, this was going to be Cheyenne's first time in an airplane. Kevin used Mandarin to tell Cheyenne what would happen and she understood. We were prepared for her to be scared, but she seemed as if she's been doing it her whole life.
Once in Beijing, we had about 4 hour layover. However, we had to get our checked bags and then go through the International Security there. Oh. My. Goodness - that was NOT fun. First, the security agents did NOT like the fact that our boys' Passports only had their middle initial listed, but their boarding passes had their full names. We had to wait for a supervisor to verify that we were legit. Then, they didn't like our pocket chargers and tried to confiscate them. Next, I had to go to the ticketing counter to get a boarding pass for Cheyenne because for some dumb reason, they couldn't get hers to print in Guangzhou. The lady at the ticket counter was very confused and upset by the fact that we had checked five bags in Guangzhou but were not checking them to Detroit. I tried to explain to her that we only had a very short time to go through customs and immigration in Detroit and did not want to waste time getting our checked luggage and wanted to carry on all luggage. Eventually, she (and her supervisor) understood and let us get on our way. By time we got to our gate, we only had about an hour to spare before boarding the long flight to Detroit.
We are so incredibly blessed how well all three of our kids did on that long flight. Fourteen hours is a very long time to be sitting in one small area. Thank God for individual movie players in the seat backs. Cheyenne was a trooper. She got a little upset when Kevin and I forced her to lay down across our laps to take a nap, but she slept well and was in much better spirits upon waking.
We originally only had an hour and 45 minutes in Detroit before taking our final leg to Cincinnati. We were extremely nervous about missing our connection because we knew we had to go through customs and we had special immigration paperwork for Cheyenne. The paperwork has to be reviewed and approved by an immigration officer and once that is completed, she officially becomes a US Citizen! Fortunately, the pilot made good time and got us there about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We made it through customs and immigration with time to spare.
We landed in CVG around 9:30pm Sunday night. Keep in mind, this is 9:30 Monday morning in China which means we had essentially been up for well over 24 hours by this point (minus one or two cat naps on the flight). My mother was scheduled to pick us up at the airport. She was supposedly waiting for us in the Cell Lot. Instead, my mom, all three of my brothers, my sister-in-laws and my nephews were waiting for us in the welcoming room. They all had signs saying welcome home and welcome Cheyenne. It was SO great to see familiar faces. I was exhausted and emotional and immediately started crying when I saw them. Cheyenne went to each one of them and collected their signs and gave each one a hug. When she noticed that I was crying, she had me pick her up so that she could wipe away my tears. :)
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