Tuesday, December 22 in the afternoon we went to the US Consulate on the bus to take the 1 sentence oath and get the paperwork to give to Immigration when we got to LAX. The bus trip to the consulate pretty good with only minor crying over sitting down, etc. Once we left. it was back to the room and mental preparation for packing. I hate packing alot. I decided to go back to 7-11 for dinner food and got noodles and more bread for pbj's. After dinner, the kids watched Chinese cartoons (they are pretty violent at times) and Daddy and I set to get everything out to pack. We had four suitcases and managed to get it all in with a little space left. We all slept pretty good, and in the morning, got up and went to a little later breakfast at the White Swan and then back to finish up and chill out. We had to have out bags out for the bellman by 11:00 a.m. and they arrived right on time. We went down to the 2nd floor shortly thereafter and then it was off on the bus to the airport. There were 2 other families on the bus, but most of our group had left on really early flights that a.m. I am glad that we were not on the 8 a.m. flights since we would have had to be out of the hotel by 5 a.m.
Once we arrived at the Guangzhou airport, the Horse didn't want to walk and was acting not so good in the check-in line. We finally got checked in and they would not check our bags through to LA. Something about that it wasn't the first or second flight of he day where they will check through. This makes no sense at all, but what are you going to do. The flight to Beijing went well and we had pbj AGAIN in the airport prior to boarding the flight. We had a 3.5 hour layover in Beijing and it took the entire time to get bags, get re=checked in and get dinner and to the gate.
While checking in, the guy was taking way too long, so I asked if there was a problem. He said "yes, blacklist" I immediately thought that there was some issue with The Horse's passport, but it turned out to be my Dad. We had to get out of line and wait "for the American Police". It seemed longer than it probably was, but then a lady who worked for the airline showed up and took the passport, gave me the other 5 boarding passes and disappeared again. By the time she came back from God knows where, the issue was resolved. Apparently this has happened to my Dad before.
The flight to LAX was pretty good till the last 2 hours, when the Rooster got sick again. She was pretty miserable and I used a few sick bags. Once it was all out, she seemed to start to feel better. I was relieved when we landed.
We went to go through Immigration and had a really long line. It was pretty miserable with 2 tired kids who wouldn't mind. We finally made it to the front and then had to go in a separate room and wait again! When they finally finished, the lady said that the Horse's Green Card would come in about 6 months. WHAT!!! I said that he was automatically a US citizen and she then got flustered and said that sometimes they send a green card first before the Certificate of Citizenship. I decided that I didn't have it in me to get into the issue at the time. If they did something wrong, I will just have to sort it out later. I know that we had the correct paperwork, so I think that she just didn't say the correct thing. I HOPE!! I need to look at the Rooster's Chinese passport and see if the same stamp is there and contact our agency for advice.
Since out last flight was on South West, after Customs, we couldn't just give back the bags, but had to go to the next terminal and re-check in. Unbelievable. Once we finally got that done, we went to eat again. I wouldn't let the Rooster eat much because I really didn't want her sick again. The flight was delayed by 30 minutes only, and we finally boarded at 8:40 p.m. to come home.
We arrived and got out luggage successfully and the limo was waiting for us.
We arrived at our house at about 12:30 a.m. on Christmas Day and were SOOOOOOO HAPPY to be home. The Horse recognized the Orange Dodge Truck in the driveway from the pictures that I sent him last Spring and got really excited be to be here. After we got the stuff inside, the kids ran around the house and the Horse was really excited. The kids went to bed at about 2 a.m. and we went at about 3 a.m. I had to do 2 loads of laundry (at least one full wash and dry and another wash) It felt great to get out of the travel clothes and get in our bed. It took about 28 hours to get to DIA from Guangzhou -- way too long.
Home Sweet Home.
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