Bringing Hannah Home

We continue our journey with our 1^st flight. We are up at midnight after a nap, we have all 29 bags packed and ready, a friend arrives at the house with a “large van”, we fit all 29 bags 7 passengers and a driver, (I get to ride shotgun) after all I have to make sure the passenger “brakes” work in the vehicle. We drive from Stafford VA, to Dulles airport in Washington DC, an almost 2 hour drive. We arrive and unload the van onto 3 luggage carts, and we find the ticket counter does not open for another 45 minutes or so. We settle in to wait with the bags, the boys, and no one else in line, After James gives the Airport etiquette and rules talk and takes the boys to the bathroom, a counter person arrives, she is very energetic and “devoted to the RULES of her job, which is partly to set up the snaking pylons and webbing that forms the twisting and turning lines up to the counter. She tells us we have to move behind the pylons, no further behind, no all the way to the windows, ( on the other side of the room, OK I am beginning to get the idea, this women either did not get enough rest and is cranky OR she really loves her job…….we are 1^st in line remember? And there are now quite a few people behind us that keep eyeing our mounds of luggage, finnaly the rest of the counter help arrive, 3 of them to about 45 counters, OK we are called first, yes now we are getting somewhere. We are herded like sheep through the line, she actually opens the web for us to go through after all the admonishing to get behind the pylons. All the counter people quickly avert their eyes from us.

We finally get the entire luggage checked, get our boarding passes, we get directions to our boarding gate. Everyone is assigned a child to be in charge of, except me, (age does have its privileges). I get to bring up the rear and watch for stragglers so no one gets left behind. Each child is in charge of their own carry on which becomes a story in itself in a little while. David is actually in charge of 2 carryon’s, his and Hannah’s, did I forget to tell you that each bag (on rollers ) has the child’s name in big letters on it? Well David has his and Hannah’s’. Which Janine is using and also has some things for Hannah in it. Also Hannah has her own suitcase we are bringing over filled with Clothes that Janine has been collecting for a year, beautiful, cute little outfits. I actually have things in my bag that are for Hannah from Papaw Ken and I, cute magnate paper dolls, that I almost packed with my computer when my brains were asleep.

I get a great aisle seat on the plane, where the children behave so well, it is a wonderful flight and in no time,(4 ½ hrs) we are landing in San Francisco. Where we have to go to another part of the airport to board our connecting flight to Beijing. We travel on elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and under our own steam, and get to the correct gate. We only had 1 ½ hr between flights. While in the waiting area the boys get out their Nintendo DS’s to play, they each have one in different colors, you got it, Elijah cannot find his, he had it out in the last area when we got off the plane and James was hunting Ibuprofen,(the ONLY med I did not bring). So James rushes back to last waiting area, meanwhile they start to board our plane , Sarah and Janine are at the restroom, I am there with 3 boys and one is very unhappy. I call James on the cell, tell him they are boarding, everyone gets back in time for our section to board, and you guessed it NO Nintendo, someone picked it up. Did not turn it in to anyone. His brothers commiserate with him, but he knows it is gone for good.

We indeed get aboard, it is a huge plane to the boys, 2 aisles, 9 seats across, each seat has its own little built in screen to watch movies, OR you can watch the progress of the flight, 2 hrs out, we are at 34000 feet, at 561 MPH, we have traveled 1353 miles, have a tail wind at 2 MPH, We are near Juneau Alaska.

We have watched a movie, eaten a meal, and tried to nap, oh yes, I am in a row of 5 seats, on the aisle, next to me is David, next to him is Elijah, and then Sarah, in front of david is Janine, next to her, Gabriel, then James, with other people on both aisles, then next to Sarah is a man.

The sun continues to shine; we will not have night time, so they turn out the lights to make you think it is dark. David promptly dumps (accidently) a full glass of ice water over his lap and mine. OK and we have 10 more hrs to go. David and I finally laugh about it all. We mop up the water, MOM and Dad are sleeping, we sit on our complementary “pillows”, The outside air temp is MINUS 51 degrees Celsius…….oh yes they pass out questionnaires and ask if we have been exposed to the flu, where we have been, EACH city in the last 2 weeks, and have we touched a PIG?

I think I will take a nap, and not even try to go change my clothes just let them air/pillow dry……

Labels: continuing journey

# posted by deemercerRN @ 9:03 AM