So, as you know Mike and Owen were scheduled to come home on the 9th and Lily and I were not supposed to come home until the 13th because our US Consulate appointment was originally the 10th and we would have had her visa before the night of the 12th. Since we were able to complete all of the paperwork and medical stuff early, and we were miraculously able to get an earlier consulate appointment for the 5th, we were "done" early.
Now I would have been OK if I had to stay the extra few days in China, but I really wanted to come home. I was not feeling really well and the kids missed us. The dog was really sick and Mike was tired. I sent an e-mail to our travel agent to see if Lily and I could change our tickets to come home with Mike and Owen. I believe that I explained that mess in a previous post. There was no way we could or would pay $2,500. Plus that flight was over sold. I could have used our tickets to come home through Hong Kong, but with the change fess and the hotel expense that I would have incurred, that was not an option either. I attempted to use my frequent flier miles to buy a new ticket from Hong Kong in order to see if we could do this cheaper, but the dates were blacked out and we would still have to change Lily's ticket anyways. It did not seem that there was any way to get us home early. Yep, I was going to have stay in China and come home on the 13th as planned.
I decided to check out Orbitz just to see what the cost would be to buy a new ticket on a different airline. I assumed that since it was so late in the game that there was nothing that I would be able to find or afford for that matter, but was I wrong! There were several options that came up for Saturday and Sunday. The fees for Saturday were a couple hundred dollars less than Sunday (which is when Mike and Owen were leaving) so we discussed Lily and I coming home a day earlier than Mike and Owen and how we would arrange my pick up in Chicago and a ride home to Wisconsin. I waited to do anything for one more day- because we had to determine really if this was worth it and could we afford it. I was glad I did because the next day the fees for the Sunday flight dropped and it was VERY cheap top buy two new tickets. And the best part was that our flight landed 34 minutes after Mike and Owen's did on Sunday. I booked them! Now I had to fly from Guangzhou to Shanghai and there was over 6 hours between the flights, but it was worth it to sit in Shanghai for 6 hours in order to get home at the same time as my husband and son.
Since the flights were so cheap and I booked them through a Chinese airline, I was not convinced that this would all work out. Plus, I had never booked through Orbitz before. We chose not to tell the kids (or anyone other than my mother and Mike's brother in law who was picking us up.) We wanted to surprise the kids and in case it did not work out, we did not want them to be disappointed.
Everything was just fine! The flights were nice, the Shanghai airport was clean and comfortable and we made it home safely. Lily slept a lot on the flight home which was so nice. I watched a couple of movies and chatted with the crew (turned out to be an American Airlines flight) and some other passengers. Everyone was amazed at how well Lily was doing on the plane! And for only knowing me for 2 weeks, how closely she was bonded to me.
Immigration and customs in Chicago proved to be the biggest hassle of this entire trip. Let me just say that Lily and I were not importing any contraband and my daughter is not on a terrorist watch list. We do not treat foreigners as nicely as we could when they come to the US. Now I know there were a couple of incidents while we were gone, but how much harm can a 2 year old and her frazzled US citizen mother do? This is my 4th international adoption trip and I have been through DC and Chicago before and never had as much trouble as I did this time. But, we made it through, the one officer had mercy on me and decided not to hand search my bags saving me some time, and Lily is now officially a US citizen! We met Mike and Owen on the "other side" of the doors and were all united once again. Our ride arrived shortly after we did and we picked up 3 very excited children when we got home!
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support. It meant a lot to us!
