Happy Anniversary Elli-phant!
Parker ready to start his day 
I wanted to take a picture of Parker getting out of the car, but he insisted I take a picture of his new backpack :-)
Yes, he really is this excited
I would have taken a picture of Carter and Jacob, but they didn't want to get beat up at school because of their mushy mom snapping pictures...can't say that I blame them.
Lonely without my boys,
Rodney, Marcy, Carter, Jacob, Parker, Anna & Elli
Anna getting dried off by one of her favorite people.
"I need a towel, I need a towel!"
The night before leaving China...a little Ore@ and juice celebration!!
You gotta love Ore@os - you just gotta!
On June 18th – the Thursday we left China, we got up at 5 am to get ready to leave, which was 4 pm Wednesday afternoon CST, aka “our time”. I had everything pretty much packed up the day before other than what we needed that morning. Since we would be traveling for several hours and then greeted with flashing cameras, I tried to spend a little more time on the hair…I mean I was going to be inside the majority of the time, so I took that extra effort for hair and make up that I hoped would last for the 24 hour period. I had arranged, rearranged and guesstimated the weight of the bags with the added items purchased. Finally I was pretty confident we were a go and we left the room. Elli was in good spirits, which was awesome, because if she is woke up she is usually ill…like her momma I guess ;-)
We got to the Guangzhou airport, which honestly I don’t think was any cooler than 90 degrees…seriously. I could feel the face getting sweaty, but the gate was a bit cooler. We didn’t have to wait long to board the plane which felt like 85 degrees, maybe. I was burning up! Elli was fit to be tied when we had to buckle her for take off. She was furious, kicking, screaming, oh joy. It took her about 3minutes to figure out how to unlatch the belt. For about the first 20 minutes of the flight, it was not fun. When we finally got “up”, I let her out of her seat and she could play. Landing wasn’t any better, but we survived.
We arrived at the Beijing airport and had to claim our luggage. We got our baggage and went to the check in desk just on the other side of security. We stood in line and the lady told us we had to go upstairs to check in our luggage…as in up the escalator! As we were walking, I with my backpack, pulling a suitcase, shopping bag that held Elli’s tea set, camera bag and Elli’s hand, who had a backpack with her toys, we along with Rodney, who is wearing a backpack, pulling a suitcase, the laptop bag and a shopping bag with Elli’s other breakables, start walking to find the escalators. We go through the double doors and are in one of the main parts of the airport. There are tons of people hustling through and we are trying to find our “Connecting International Flights” sign. This is when Elli decides she isn’t going to walk any longer. I am trying to tell her just a little more and she falls out on the floor, while I am still holding her hand. Like a wet noodle, I am trying to pull her up to her feet. Elli is yelling something to me, I don’t know what, but from the looks that we were getting from the ones passing by, I would say it wasn’t very nice.
Rodney tells me to pick her up and he will take the other suitcase. We finally find the escalator and make our way up. I honestly don’t know how Rodney managed to do it….but he did, God love him. He looked like a pack mule! We checked in our luggage and were told that they couldn’t get us 3 seats together…Rodney was seated on the opposite side of the plane. He acted disappointed, but at this point, I don’t know that he was!!!
We made it to our gate to wait for boarding. There wasn’t many food choices in the area, so we ate a St@rbucks sandwich, fries from some cafeteria type place and waters. During this time, I realized through a series of events that I only packed one diaper for Elli…and no extra undies. So, we had to use our diaper much earlier than I had anticipated… “please let it last” I prayed!!
Ready to head for the States!
***Kids are up and I have to get dinner*** 5 hour lapse & I have the kids in bed ***
We boarded the plane and some saint agreed to switch seats with Rodney. Of course, it was a smart move, who would want to sit with a sweaty, flat haired, melted make-uped woman with a 3 year old? I would have moved too ;-) As we were walking back to our seats, I had Elli’s backpack that contained her toys tucked under one arm and Rodney was packing Elli. I knew that someone was checking me over and I looked over to see a little elderly lady staring. When our eyes met, she starting telling me something and pointing. I obviously didn’t know what she was saying, since I can’t speak Chinese, but she was saying something she wanted me to know. The person in the row with her was looking in agreement with her statement. As I got closer to her she was getting louder and pointing and then starts making gestures to her face then back at me…no not me, the backpack…no the doll. I smile and turn so she can see it and say, “It’s her’s.” She then began to laugh and say something else. Okay, didn’t understand that one…anyway, we walk further down the aisle. About 15 rows back, there was an English speaking woman that gasped and grabbed her chest as I was approaching, “Oh my gosh…I thought you had a baby in that bag!” Yep, that was what the Chinese lady was thinking too.
Same story as the first flight, hot plane, screaming baby when we had to buckle her and we waited for the seat belt light to go off…but it didn’t! For nearly 6 hours, we were in turbulence. It was absolutely horrible. I have never gotten sick on a plane before, well, until then. It started with like just motion sickness, then I got a horrible head ache and then nausea. The plane calmed just a bit and they decided to serve dinner and I forced myself to eat because I knew it would be a while before I could eat again…don’t know that was the best decision. Soon after they had collected the trays, the plane started going nuts again and I got worse. As if “using” the restroom on a plane isn’t bad enough – throwing up – it’s horrible! I felt better, but it didn’t last. After about 20 minutes, I had to go back for yet another scarring experience. I got some cold paper towels and put them on my neck and face. Rodney got me some ginger ale and we put Elli between us so I could try to sleep it off. Just looking around the plane with the bouncing around was making me worse. I finally went to sleep after taking some Benadryl…okay maybe I do have a problem (just kidding!! Diphenhydramine is good for nausea too…really!)…after Elli passed out and when I woke up a couple hours later, the turbulence had finally stopped.
Elli slept for probably 5 or 6 hours on the flight and it was such a blessing because I felt awful and Rodney was tired. We were able to sleep in between Elli’s sleep kicks!! We finally, thankfully arrived at Newark around 5:30 pm EST. We reclaimed our baggage, went through immigration (Elli’s envelope was opened – that means her citizenship was processed), customs and then rechecked our baggage. We had to change terminals and ride the monorail from one to the other. Just as we got on the rail, we got a call from a good friend of mine that lives in New York. She was parking at the airport and meeting us at our terminal before we went through security again.
Jeanne had adopted a little girl from the same orphanage as Anna, Foshan Nanhai. In fact, her daughter and Anna are only 12 days apart, both cleft lip and palate. We took pictures of her sweetie when we visited the orphanage 2 years ago. We have kept in touch and when she found out we were coming through Newark, she wanted to meet us. It was sooo good to see her in person. We have talked for over 2 years and seen pictures, but never had that personal meeting. It was nice. And to see Annabelle again…how she had changed! She is even more beautiful than she was when we first saw her.
Funny thing, while we were waiting for them, we put our bags down against a wall. We were talking away and a woman, probably mid to late 20’s walked by, then turned around and came back and walked up to our bags and started laughing. She looked at us and said, as her hand was on her chest, “I thought you had a baby in there.” About 5 minutes later, a man, in a business suit and suitcase, came just barely passed us then turned around came back, looked at Elli’s backpack and then walked away….I crammed that baby dolls head in the back pack as far as I could. It doesn’t even look real, at least not to me.
After we chatted for a while, we made our way to our gate with about 1 ½ hours to spare to grab something to eat before we boarded the plane. As we made our way through security and to the gate, there were people everywhere….in the floor, empty seats at the gates were scattered and the eat in restaurant was packed out! As we found three seats together I noticed that our flight wasn’t listed on the “Next Flight” at the gate screen. I went up to the desk to ask about our flight that was scheduled to depart at 8:35pm…it was delayed until 11:05 pm! I am not a cry baby, or at least I don’t think so, but it was seriously all I could do not to totally have an emotional break down. To think for two weeks that you are going to get to see your other babies at 10:35 pm on June 18 and then to be told no, you will still be in New Jersey at that time…it was crushing. I had been in China for 2 weeks and yet finding out that I was going to have to wait another 2 ½ hours…it was just too much. But, I dug down, took some deep breaths, realized that if I lost it in an airport, they would take me away as a suspected terrorist and got it together.
We sat for a while, played with the gifts from Jeanne (Life Saver!) made conversation with those around us and ate a $15 burger and fries…gotta love airport food! I soon realized that I had forgotten to get an extra diaper or undies out of the luggage before we rechecked it….and the 18 hour old diaper had to come off!!! So Elli went commando the rest of the trip! I had a dress to change her into because I knew she would get filthy eating on the plane, but since no undergarments were available…I looked in the gate shops, she just wore her pants and the dress. If she weren’t so stinkin’ cute, she would have looked like a hobo!!
Finally we were told around 10:15 pm that we could board the plane. We got on the small commuter plane and began to taxi for at least 30 minutes. Elli fell asleep and slept the entire flight. I got up and brushed my teeth, washed my face and came to the realization that no matter what I did, I just looked gross, felt nasty and was pretty sure I had to stink! It had been 33 hours since I had showered, I had my shirt stuck to me at least 3 different times due to sweating profusely and had thrown up twice…it was inevitable. But “stanky” or not, we were almost home!!
We got off the plane, which I had already cried on about 3 times just knowing that we were almost there, and made our way out of the gate towards the baggage claim where I knew my babies were waiting. As we rounded the corner, there were flashes and waving and Elli’s grip on my hand tightened. The kids came towards us and we just grabbed and hugged. I bent down and picked up Elli and Anna…neither was letting go. Anna was rubbing my face and Elli just didn’t know what to think about the whole gang of people staring at her. Everyone was very conscious of the fact that she didn’t know them from Adam even though they have waited for this moment for many, many months. Slowly, people began to sneak in a little rub on the arm, gentle stroking of the hair, etc. We were so happy to be home.
We made our way to the car and headed home. The kids, at nearly 2:00 in the morning, tell us they are starving. So we stop at McDon@lds for an early morning snack…guess how much it takes to feed a family of 7 at McDon@lds??? If you guessed $34.00 you are right! Elli likes Mickey D fries by the way ;-) On the way home, the kids, especially Carter had really tried to talk to Elli. By the time we got home, it takes about 1 hour from the airport; Elli was laughing at the boys and really having a good time. We got home and she walked in to the house and started checking everything out. Within the first 15 minutes, she let Carter pick her up, then Jacob and they were so excited.
They played for a while and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I was pretty sure that Elli would want to sleep in our bed and Anna made it known that she too would be sleeping with me. Rodney made himself a bed on the couch, Parker snuggled up with his daddy and I told Carter and Jacob to go to their beds. Before I even got on my pjs, Parker had decided he too would sleep with me and then came Jacob…then Carter. They started yelling for their daddy to come and he came in the room and lay on top of several children, I guess just to say we were all on the bed. Rodney got up and said we were going to break the bed. I couldn’t tell some of the kids they could sleep with me and others they couldn’t….soooooooo, we pulled mattresses of the beds and put them in the middle of the living room floor. I had to assign sleeping orders because everyone wanted beside of Elli – who wasn’t going to leave my side. By this time it was nearly 5:00 am and the sun was starting to peek through the blinds. After about 30 minutes or so of me begging and pleading people to quit talking, they finally all went to sleep.
Since that first night at home, we have made some progress at night, but not much. Carter and Jacob are sleeping in their beds fine, Anna, Elli and Parker – not so much. So nighttime can be a struggle…as is naptime. Elli wants to be held until she falls asleep, which is troublesome because so does Anna, yet, Anna won’t be still if Elli is up playing and visa versa. I have tried holding both, one on one leg, one on the other…nope. Elli puts her head over on Anna’s side of my chest and Anna screams or kicks or hits and then she will put her hand over on Elli’s side…sharing seems hopeless at this point. So I have had to be the mean momma and just put them to bed. We are only on night 3 of this cruel and unusual punishment, but tonight does seem better than 1 and 2; they are still awake, but not crying.
Our first outing as a family...Elli hates her car seat.
Elli and Anna in their room checking out the view ;-)
All the kiddos at "home"
Parker loves his girls!!
Rodney with his dad and all the kiddos on Father's Day 
How can you not just love that face!?!?!First, I don't know why that last post repeated, but oh well....
