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Travel Date: 1/17/2009
Subject: Flying the Friendly Skies

What we did today:
Today was our first traveling day with Hui Dong. We were very concerned about how she would handle flying. She HATES the seatbelt in the van we’ve been riding in all week, and driving in a busy Chinese city makes her terribly carsick. Trust me on this one though; riding in any vehicle or even crossing the street in China is taking you life in your own hands. Charlie told us that when crossing the street we should just start by closing our eyes. (Joke…but it helps)

She fell asleep in the van on the way to the airport. So much for her sleeping on the plane ride! Charlie had told her that we were going to the airport to fly on a plane. She just told him that she wanted to fly like a bird.

When we got to the security check, she waved good-bye to Charlie and passed through like a pro. No fear and no tears. Our greatest struggles started when we got to our gate…right next to the TCBY counter. I can’t remember how to say it, but I know well what “I WANT ICE CREAM!’ sounds like at the top of you lungs in Chinese.

Plus I made one little mistake…I decided to go to the bathroom by myself. Poor Christopher! Up until this point I have never left other than to take a shower (usually while she’s asleep) or use the bathroom in our hotel room. Evidently he was left with a little girl throwing a huge fit, screaming for her “Mama”, and running away from him.

He asked when I got back if I heard any of it from the bathroom, but I had concerns of my own. This may be more T.M.I. than you care to read. So sorry, but it was a pivotal moment in my life. All throughout this trip, I have avoided something at all costs. The Squatty Potty! The typical Chinese toilet is not our Westernized, sit-down, porcelain throne. It is a hole in the floor. I mean it! A lovely porcelain hole with places for your feet on each side, and it even flushes. To do your business, you squat and hover. Ugh! With a plane flight ahead (and I hate airplane bathrooms too), I faced my fear and lived to tell about it. But that’s all the more I’m going to say about that. YUCK!

Back to the ice cream thing. We really thought about buying her some as we walked up to our gate. But I just can’t do it! I can’t give in to a screaming child! I can’t reward horribly negative behavior with the very thing desired! Call me a bad parent or at least think it like all the Chinese people around us did.

But I love this kid too much to allow this lovely behavior to continue, even here in China. That’s almost becoming a joke between families here. “What happens in China stays in China” thoughts. You see this isn’t real life. Living in a hotel? We’re all trying to bond and attach with our kids not matter how old they are – tiny babies, two and three year olds, or the senior citizens of the group at six and seven. Some how you have to communicate love to these kids…all the loving that they’ve missed. So, yeah, we let her use her yogurt straw to draw smiley faces on the top and then lick them off. She has blown bubbles in her milk (drives Christopher crazy). But some where in there we are also trying to find a balance. For us…It’s the ice cream scream.

So we make it on the plane. I can’t begin to describe in words how odd it feels when you really feel like a foreigner. Though there are 56 ethnic groups in China, 90% of the population is Han people. Even within this group, they identify themselves by the geographic area they come from. Mostly northerners and southerners. They can tell a difference. But trust me; they aren’t nearly as different as Christopher and I are. We’ve been photographed and videotaped! So here we are on a plane, and we are the only two non-Chinese people. The only ones who don’t understand Chinese. Even our daughter understands Chinese, but not us.

Okay…okay. We are getting ready for take off and Hui Dong happily starts eating a Tootsie Pop. Couldn’t have planned it better! She laughs and smiles as our plane takes off. I, however, am fighting back tears…one escaped. Just like that! After all that waiting…all that paperwork…and even all our time in Chongqing. As the wheels of the plane lift off, Hui Dong is leaving behind the only home she has ever known. Will she ever get a chance to go back? I’d love to bring all my kids back to China, but I really can’t say if that will ever happen for any of them…not even my little Chinese daughter.

She was great on the flight. We worked our way through all our entertaining treasures. Even got out the DVD player, which was a real treat because she got to use headphones! Ooo, and on Air China flights that last even only two hours, you get a full meal! Now it is Chinese, and we never really know exactly what we are eating. But it is way more that a bag of tiny pretzels. Landing was hard on her ears because she was not interested in another lollipop. But she made it.

We found our guide Maggie quickly and easily. Yeah! But we were the first of several flights coming in around the same time. Maggie had to go to another terminal to meet two other families so it became Christopher’s personal job to corral all of the group.

Since we were first and since the princess is now accustomed to having the undivided attention of not only her parents, but also our guide Charlie and our driver both of whom she totally enchanted, she did NOT respond well as other families joined the group. First of all, her parents could talk to these people and were not focused entirely on her. There were babies and other children even some other little girls who had previously been adopted from China. OH MY! She let all of her mischief show! I think the other children and maybe even some of their parents are frightened to be around her now. The rest of our time here could be very interesting.

Once we arrived in our hotel room, we began to settle in, and she began to settle down…a little. After trying to get our bearings a bit, we realized that we needed to eat dinner soon and get her heading off to bed before it got too late. NO WAY were we going to do a nice meal at a nice restaurant! So we headed to KFC right outside near the hotel. As we looked at a picture menu and tried to figure out what to order, Hui Dong spotted the ice cream picture. Yep, you guessed it. She went right back to begging for ice cream! Let’s just say I don’t have enough Chinese to even begin to explain to her that she must first eat a good dinner before she gets ice cream.

Christopher ordered and brought us our food (not ice cream). She dove into her chicken nuggets with gusto, but wasn’t interest in any mashed potatoes and gravy or delightful coleslaw-ish corn salad stuff. She did think she needed to eat half of Mama’s sandwich and then twist Baba’s arm for his last chicken finger. After eating and eating and licking the bone clean (literally), she was thrilled when we bought ice cream after dinner…and she didn’t even have to beg.

I’m really tired, but wanted to write something about our adventure before heading to bed. Tomorrow will be our first shopping day here in Guangzhou. There is a Chinese church we could visit, but with our unpredictable hurricane in tow…I think we will not even give it a try.

Photos... (click image to enlarge)



Not smiling because Baba has his camera out again



Flat Stanley joined us in flight



Hui Dong finds Flat Stanley interesting



No pictures please



Incredibly cool in my shades



Welcome to KFC Guangzhou



Check out the corn slaw and mashed potatoes



Flat Stanley and the Colonel