Truly, this day was the LONGEST day of our lives! Imagine yourself in some sort of Star Trek time warp where hours pass, and yet, the time doesn't change. Over the course of the day, we crossed back over 14 time zones, spent over 15 hours flying, sat in two ER's, ate nothing but airplane food, and drove over six hours in a car. Ken was really, really uncomfortable at this point and feeling pretty miserable. ElleAnna was nervous about what was going to happen next. We were lugging around 8 stuffed suitcases plus several carry ons. We were all excited to be headed home, but growing more and more tired as the day went on. If anyone caught a nap, it was short and not very restful.
.We left our hotel in Guangzhou, China at 5:20am to board our first of three flights. We said good-bye to the other families and our wonderful guide, Cordelia. That flight was from 8:25am - 9:05am and took us from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. There, we sat in the airport until our 12:50 flight to San Francisco. When that 12+ hour flight was over, we landed in San Francisco and headed through Immigration to allow ElleAnna to enter the United States. We had to show all her documents and prove that we were her family. Once that rite of passage was over, we went to wait for our next flight. Of course, the plane going from SF to Denver had problems and the new plane had fewer seats. Most of our seats were effected, so we had to go beg to get on the same flight together as a family. When we landed in Denver, it wasn't even 2:15pm... We were tired after being up so long, but less than 90 minutes had passed since we boarded the flight to San Francisco.
.Add to this ElleAnna's intense rage about being strapped into a car seat for the first time. She screamed bloody murder for at least the first 90 minutes, but we couldn't let her out. We had intended to stay in Denver with a friend that night, but with Ken's urgent medical needs, we headed to a hospital hopes of getting him some help. That was a waste of time. We left the Med Center in disgust at their lack of professionalism. We decided to start heading home and would find another ER.... ElleAnna had fallen asleep in the car with the boys while we were in the ER, so she at least was calm for the next few hours.
.When we finally got Ken some medical attention, the doctor was very concerned. He wanted to admit Ken to their facility, but we begged to head on home where we could see our regular physicians - and at least allow some of us to sleep in our own beds. It had been an unmerciful long day.... He gave Ken a shot, opened the wound to clean it out some, and then packed it. NOT GOOD!
.We got back in the car and traveled the rest of the way home, arriving at about 1:15am on the 29th. With all the time changes, its hard to do the math, but it looks like we were awake for at least 37 hours straight... YIKES! Thank goodness that Bryant was able to help me drive because Ken was in no condition to help. We were all so glad to get into our tiny house and crash. ElleAnna didn't want anything to do with any of the beds or sleeping with anyone else. She kept her feet on the floor and slept with her head in the recliner most of what was left of the night. Ken slept on the couch as he couldn't let anyone get near his arm.
.We were glad to be home, but our journey had ended on a rather sour note... we needed Ken to get well so that we could enjoy our time as a family!
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