The year was 2007, the place .... somewhere over the beautiful mountains of China. We had left Beijing and we were on our way to Shenyang. The view out the window was not incredible in and of itself .... what made it an awesome experience was knowing where we were, and better yet, where we were headed. We were finally going to the province where our daughter - to - be lived.
It is amazing how years of talking about adoption, years of paperwork, and one picture with the words "approved" next to them, can get you really worked up for the "Big Day". Well, all of that was running through my head as we flew through the clouds over China. As the mountains thinned, the landscape turned to more of an agricultural appearance. It seemed the further we went, the more secluded we were becoming. It became even more apparent as we landed in Shenyang.
When we got off the plane, we went to the baggage claim. We could see people standing all around at the gate exit. We scanned and scanned ..... looking for our names on a piece of paper or cardboard .... anything ....... What we found ...... was nothing. We told each other we must early or they guide must be a little late. We finally decided to move out of other people's way and found a waiting area. We were asked a couple of times if we needed a taxi. At least that is what I think they were asking. :-) Shenyang is not what you would call a tourist city; therefore, the number of English speaking individuals was very limited.
Today as I sit here and reminisce, I am not sure how long we waited .... It was well over an hour and we never saw our guide. Luckily, Michelle gotten the phone number of the guide we had just left in Beijing. After some explanations of our situation, we flagged down a cab driver. Michelle handed the phone to him and our guide talked with him. From that point on, things went really fast.
We briskly walked outside into "winter". We were ushered to a cab at the far end of the parking lot. Everyone was trying to keep together plus lug our many bags with us. As it turned out, the driver had a car ....... a car was way too small for the small house we had brought with us. Shortly after, I noticed another car. Two men started loading our luggage and we suddenly realized we were being put into separate vehicles. Bryant went with Michelle, and Alex and I rode in the other car.
This may seem like a very common thing and a very natural event at an airport, but keep in mind that we were unable to speak with our drivers, we had no idea if they knew where we were to go, we had no idea if BOTH drivers knew where we were supposed to go ...... WE had no idea where we were going. Talk about putting your faith on the line. I know I was praying AND trying to memorize cab numbers on the back of the car Michelle and Bryant were in, while scanning the buildings and landscape for markers or anything I may need to find my way back from wherever we were being taken.
As it turned out, the drivers were very cordial and they did get us to the right hotel. Once there, we had problems checking in due to a discrepancy with the number of people that we had and the number on the registry for eating. Thirty minutes later, we were finally in our room. As it turned out, the guide had the wrong arrival time for us. If we had not made that phone call, we would have been sitting there for another couple of hours.
Two days later ...... the stress of our arrival in Shenyang and the many hours of preparation seemed to vanish when we FINALLY met our daughter Pan Suo. Our lives have never been the same since and it is impossible to remember what our lives were like before we met Elle.
No comments:
Post a Comment