Bags were out the door at 5am and we headed down for a quick breakfast at 6, the bus was to leave at 6:15. Neither of us felt too good this morning, I think the stress of the day was already getting to us. We were preparing ourselves for the worst (remember Jaden's first flight?). Anyway, onto the airport we went...
Flight #1-Guangzhou to Beijing
The Guangzhou airport was absolute bedlam. Apparently the Chinese New Year is the busiest time of year to fly and here we were flying on the Friday before the holiday. After a long wait, we got our bags checked and were ready to go. We were on a 777 which was very full, but we weren't that uncomfortable. Jaden was really good, much to our surprise, and her ears didn't seem to bother her at all. She slept some, played, snacked on some crackers and Cheerios the rest of the time.
Flight #2-Beijing to LA, THE BIG ONE!
Everything went well when we first got to Beijing, we all got our luggage and headed for the next place to check in. We finally get to the counter and the lady tries to tell us that our seats aren't in business class. After several minutes of arguing with her, we finally got it straightened out and then I swear we went through 10 different security checks. I wish I had counted how many times we had to show our passports. Anyway, on to the plane...once again we were reminded how much we LOVE business class and we settled into our big comfy seats and unpacked our stuff so we could find the bottles, formula, etc. Jaden got a little restless early and took a small nap for a while. We had to walk around with her sometimes to keep her quiet, but overall she did very well. She slept about 6 hours total during "the night" and though Derek and I did have a little trouble eating our meals, it went much better than we could have ever imagined. Derek had told Jaden early in the morning that if she was good all day that he would buy her a new car when she turns 16 and so far she's earning her car!
Flight #3-LA to DFW
OK, here's where the fun really begins. We actually got through customs fairly quickly but then it took several minutes to get our luggage. We were cutting it close on catching the DFW flight and were starting to stress out. We finally got our bags and took off-we didn't even really get to say proper goodbyes to everyone and I feel bad about that now. We had no idea where to go next and one guy said the United terminal was "across the street". Well, it looked like a parking garage was the only thing across the street so we ran down to where other terminals were to ask someone else and sure enough, they told us the same thing. So off we go, running across the street in the middle of traffic, with a baby, 2 backpacks, and 4 suitcases. Needless to say, we were stressed to the max by this time and I was on the verge of tears. We finally get to the terminal and there were no signs to tell you where to get in line, so again, we wasted precious time trying to figure out what to do. We ended up screaming across the counter at the ticket agent so some people let us cut in line (I'm sure we were quite scary to others by this point) and we finally got through and made the flight. Jaden was exhausted by then and so were we. She melted down a few times on the flight but the people around us still made a fuss over her, so it must have not been as bad as we thought. We walked off that plane and had never been so happy to see DFW airport in our lives. We had a quite a crowd waiting for us-Mom, Dad, Jakob, Karen, Don, Aunt Jean, Angie, Adair, Penny, Wade, Corrie, John, DiAnn, Sarah, Rick, Michelle and Grant were all there to greet us. I was so happy to see Jakob and was surprised how big he seemed. He wasn't really sure what all the fuss was about but warmed up to Derek and I quickly and gave me lots of hugs and kisses on the way home while Jaden screamed at the top of her lungs on her first ride in a car seat. Mom, Dad, Karen and Don came over later and stayed for a little while to see her. She was pretty clingy to us. Jakob just kind of looked at her and then would run off to his room. He hid behind me once, jumped out and said "BOO!" which made her laugh harder than she ever had before. It was very cute.
Meeting Jakob for the first time
Checking each other out
WE ARE SO HAPPY TO BE HOME!
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