Coming Home

Warning, this is a long one. But as our day was nearly 36 hours long, we figured, I’ll only hit the highlights.

Our day started at 4:45am with alarm clocks and wake up calls. We were told that we needed to be down by 5:30am so the bus could leave at 5:45am sharp to make it to the Guangzhou airport in time for our flights. The bus did leave at 5:45-ish. Everyone was in great spirits, but the loopiness was just beginning. You wouldn’t believe the jokes we were making on the way, everyone was happy to be going home after all this time.

Guangzhou has an elevated, ringed freeway system that encircles the city, and goes through buildings with surface streets beneath. There are periodic exits down to the surface.

We’d been traveling for about 20-30 minutes when the driver drifted over to the narrow shoulder. Our guide had just been briefing us all on how we needed to hustle when we got to the airport, but that there should be plenty of time. So why was the driver pulling over? Then we heard the engine repeatedly turning over, and catching, and then dying. Over and over. He made a call on the phone, and then we started rolling backwards! What was going on? We soon realized that, yes, the bus was broken, and the driver was going backwards to get the big tour bus out of the traffic (remember the narrow shoulder?) About 100 meters back was a two-lane off ramp. We coasted back to the off ramp, but then the bus was blocking both lanes of the ramp. Luckily traffic wasn’t that heavy yet.

The driver made some more calls, and I think our guide made some calls too. Another bus was on it’s way and it would be there in 20 minutes or so, and the plan was to transfer the baggage, and get to the airport (in plenty of time, of course). One funny part is that after all our wise cracking, and the bus breaking down, the driver asked for two guys to help push the tour bus out of the road so the lanes weren’t blocked. (It was funny that he thought two guys could move it!) Four of us hopped up and gave it the ol’ Guangzhou try and did manage to get it to the side. The picture is a little blurry, but hopefully will corroborate this crazy story. I’m sure you can only imagine where this is headed.

So the relief bus screamed up, parked in front of us, and we did a transfer of the baggage. Then the driver sped us to the airport at what seemed like 50-75% more speed than the other cars. It was like the Beijing traffic dance in fast motion!

When we arrived, we said good bye to the one family that had a different routing—instead of flying Guangzhou to Shanghai, they were first headed to Beijing. They were bummed about the longer route, but they were glad to be going home, too.

Getting to the airport, we really hustled with our guide over to a check in counter while our guide then raced over to a supervisor’s desk where she worked some magic. The check in agent where our group had been parked was frustrated that we didn’t have our passports (the guide and the supervisor had them), and we had 3 families to check in, all in about 4 minutes (before the flight closed, at 45 minutes before departure). I ran over to where the guide was and she was checking us all in there. You know how long it takes to get checked in for a flight sometimes. Checking 6 adults and 4 kids onto a flight in 4 or 5 minutes is literally amazing.

After we checked in, the other agents checked our bags, and it was off to the races again, this time to get through security and then go all the way to our gate. At security we got to go through the “I’m late for my flight gate”, and they whizzed us through. David commented that in the U.S. they’d say “sorry Charlie” and tell you to take the next flight. A good thing they didn’t in this case.

We made it to the gate, and were able to get on the flight to Shanghai. Grace was able to get a nap in on the flight, and things were so far going peachy. I think there must have been a lot of prayer cover, as we’d already had some close calls and some incredible allowances made to keep us on the tight schedule we ended up on. Much of the day, in retrospect, seemed to be providentially guided.

In Shanghai, which by the way is a crazy-big airport, I was tempted to go for a ride on the mag-lev train (advertised to go 30km in 8 minutes, not bad for a passenger train), but we stuck to our schedule. We had a few hours, but needed to get set on our international flight.

One funny thing that happened when went to go check in. We went up to the United desk to start the process. I told the man that we had two adults and a baby with a ticket to check in. The man said he only had middle seats left in the airplane, and no two together! I said “she’s 11 months old, what can you do”. He said “there’s nothing I can do”, but you can check with the folks at the gate. Something didn’t feel quite right. We were still like 4-5 hours away from our flight. That’s when Kathy had the smarts to ask “is this the flight to Chicago?” He said “No this is to San Francisco!” We had a good laugh over that one. It turns out that you go to a specific gate at a specific time to check into a specific flight. We were told to come back in an hour or so.

So after checking in and saying good bye to another family traveling on another airline, we went through security. Rounding the corner we saw a big long line snaking through the retractable belt pole thingies. Then a man approached and asked to see our tickets and passports (always makes me a little nervous, I don’t know why), and then ushered us all through the “VIP” line for passport control, and the VIP line for security screening. It really had a red carpet, too! Then after a short* wait (*-An hour? Two hours? That’s short in this day), we got some more VIP treatment by being escorted to the new gate after a gate change, and we got to pre-board before everyone else!

You’d think there wouldn’t be much to report on a 12 hour flight over the Pacific. Actually, we didn’t ever cross the Pacific. From Shanghai to Chicago, the normal route takes you over Japan and the Pacific, but due to the captain’s concern over a warning of a radiation cloud over Japan at our altitude, he thought it wise to spend an hour getting a new clearance to fly around the cloud. We did get that clearance, finally, and then, against a 70 km/h headwind we flew to Beijing! (So Howard and Beth, you guys lucked out getting to skip Shanghai! J) Being so far east and north of where we started, our new route took us over Siberia, the pole, and down over Hudson Bay, approaching Chicago from the North. The rerouting approval and the longer flight time made the total flight about 14 hours. Even though they explained a few times over the PA system and apologized for the delay, we didn’t hear anyone complaining about not getting to fly through the radiation. After the first couple of hours, Grace settled down enough to sleep. Kathy and Grace got some Z’s in; I got a in movie and a book.

The most exciting part (for us) about the Chicago connection was: Grace became a citizen! Also, it was another tight connection.

Touching down in Denver at 9:45 pm MT, and exiting the plane about 10pm (no one to drive the jet-way over to the plane), Brooks, Sam and Gramma were waiting for us at the top of the escalators. It was so good for us all to see each other again, and for the boys and Gramma to finally meet Grace. I noticed the on-lookers also enjoying our reunion. That felt kind of good.

It is nice to be home. Finally. Our hearts have been in China with Grace for far too long. It’s good to have them all back under one roof again. I rocked with her in the glider chair in her room last night. With great relief, it was the first time that I cried about this. As the jet-lag wears off who knows what will happen. Thank you, Lord. You’re the one who led us and saw us through this big adventure. Or should I say the first part of this big adventure.