Day 16: The Never Ending Thursday

We awoke to a BEAUTIFUL view from our Hong Kong hotel window--blue skies and happy clouds to begin what was to be the longest, most stressful day of our 16 day trip. We were up at 6 am to prepare for our departure and Skype with Wild Man and Little Miss before we took to the friendly skies. On CST, we started our day Wednesday at 5 pm though technically we began on Thursday morning Hong Kong time. Thus the title...26 hours of travel time from HK airport to home airport...40 hours of travel time from Guangzhou to home airport. Any way you look at it, it equates to the Never Ending Thursday.

We had no problems at the airport and breezed through the health inspection area without a second glance at MeiMei's rash. Woohooooo a second time! The airport itself and the views outside the terminal were amazing. I wish I had taken more photographs while we were there but I was so anxious I forgot all about the camera. Once we found our departure gate, we spent $117 HK dollars on drinks and breakfast at Starbucks. Before you have a stroke that's only about $15 USD but $117 looks ridiculous on a receipt from Starbucks. If only they had told us the 5 drinks we bought for the plane were not allowed past the jetway. Ugh--NOW you tell us!!

We boarded our chariot for the next 15.5 hours and took off at 10:25 am as scheduled. Homeward BOUND!!!! We were all less than thrilled to be on A plane but ECSTATIC to be on THE plane that would take us home to the US.See what I mean? Look at the Chief in this picture (he's going to kill me BTW). Ready or not... here we go. We've been asked several times, "How was the flight?" and I'm not sure how to answer it. It was about as MISERABLE as you would imagine a 15.5 hour flight with a toddler. :-) I know the people around us wished they had chosen a different cabin. Honestly, I wish I could have chosen a different cabin as well but the screaming baby belonged to me. No flames--just keepin' it real. I'm pretty sure she would have gone to an Asian ax murderer if he had reached out his arms. She was crying out for "Mama" and "Baba" to every Asian face in sight (and there were A LOT of Asian people on the flight). There were a few times I wanted to pull out our adoption papers just to prove she was our baby. No one thinks a thing about BLATANTLY STARING at you FOR MINUTES, not seconds, in China and there was A LOT of that to go around. It could have been worse. It could have been better. I won't be making that flight again any time soon.

I can't tell you how many times we looked at each other and said, "Oh no, they seated us in the wrong cabin. Our seats are in the front of the bus?" "Where's the warm nuts? The grapes and fancy cheese? The ice cream sundaes?" "What? No linen napkins? No Continental china? No fresh rolls? No butter patted in little shapes?" LOL! We had to find some kind of humor to keep us sane. I had mediocre hopes for the food but we drew the short straw this go round. For lunch...steamed sole or black bean chicken anyone? For snack...chicken fajita wrap with WARM gooey lettuce? For breakfast...egg omelet or noodles? I would like to note that the omelet was called an omelet but there was nothing inside. Soooo...doesn't that make it a scrambled egg? Maybe omelet sounds more gourmet? Either way, the Chief and I ate a roll and a few bites of vanilla ice cream over the 15 hour flight. The best part of the menu was the fact they had Mr. Pibb on the drink cart. You can keep your nasty black bean chicken. Just hook me up with a Mr. Pibb. Now it was not the real deal but it came close to giving me the Dr. Pepper fix I NEEDED.

The good news for the day was somewhere between Russia and the North Pole MeiMei decided I wasn't Satan reincarnate. Actually, it wasn't the greatest timing considering I was on the verge of throwing up most of the flight but I guess beggars can't be choosers. It's scenarios like this that confirm to me that the Lord has a strange sense of humor. MeiMei has nothing to do with me for 11 days but decides to like me in the midst of my least favorite activity. Just when I was dangling from the end of my rope she decides to mall all over me for the last eight hours of the flight? Perfect timing MeiMei. Perfect timing. :-)

She slept a total of two hours and the Chief and I slept less than that. Apparently no one in the Womble family can sleep on an airplane. I would look at the screen and it would say something like "7869 miles to your destination". In what felt like an hour later, I would look again and it would say "7861 miles to your destination". At one point, in my delirium, I said "I think I can DRIVE HOME faster than this". Believe me, I would have attempted if there wasn't that thing called an ocean between us. I did not think we would EVER get over Russia--do you know how stinkin' big Russia is? It's huge! HUGE I tell ya!

We landed in Newark on Thursday at 1:30 pm, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Wooohoooo! We handed over the INFAMOUS brown envelope to the immigration officer and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I wanted to know what was inside but the Consulate made it very clear it was NOT to be opened by anyone except immigration. Once we relinquished it to the immigration officer, he said, "You know, they act like this is such a top secret document. It's really not that big of a deal. You already have copies of almost everything in here anyway." We had been guarding that thing with our lives since our Swearing In Ceremony thinking the world might stop if we cracked a corner. LOL!

MeiMei automatically became a United States citizen the second her feet hit the ground in Newark. I purposely made sure her feet did not touch until I had camera in hand. This is the official moment MeiMei Womble became an All American girl. She wasn't going for the "waving the American flag while smiling sweetly" pose I've been hoping for all these years. Instead we have the "expression-less non-waving feeble attempt to pacify me while Daddy bribed her with fruit snacks" photo opportunity. After 15 hours of misery, I didn't make many attempts before I threw in the towel. This one will have to do...

Welcome to the USA MeiMei!