September 28th, 2018
Ni Hao friends and family! Finally after weeks of chaos making the necessary preparations to move and an intense and unrelenting 48 hours of travel, we have arrived safely in Hangzhou and at last I’m able to sit down (hallelujah) and record ALL that has happened in the beginning of our journey.
The few days leading up to our flight consisted of last minute arrangements to get our luggage to Grandma Sharon's house in Salt Lake then driving up to Cache Valley to visit our family there. Shout out to Ginger Harris, a wonderful friend who offered SO much including: family photos, hours of help cleaning and packing the house, dinner, and a car. It was absolutely amazing thank you. And thank you to everyone else who offered help, words of advice, beautiful fresh peaches (❤), luggage, thoughts and prayers and anything else. We are deeply grateful.
Summary: We missed our connection from San Fran to Shanghai and were rescheduled to fly to L.A., fill an eight hour layover with productive things, and then fly out to Shanghai at 1a.m. (but it was MUCH more exciting than that...)
After relaxing with our family in Cache Valley over the weekend we made it back up to Salt Lake to repack and hopefully trim down our 16 pieces of luggage to something slightly more manageable.
We also shopped for a few last things such as size 14 shoes for Reese, deodorant, and a few other essentials that are hard to find in China. We were up late but were able to cut down to TWELVE pieces of luggage, six backpacks, and two instruments. We took two Uber minivans to the airport and just like that we were boarding our first flight of the day headed to San Francisco at 9am. In San Fran we would have two hours to catch our connection to Shanghai.
We were ready for lift off when the intercom crackled, it was the next announcement from the captain that put a *bit* of a wrench in our plans. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just been notified by Air traffic Control that there is dense fog over the runway in San Francisco and they are not allowing any landings at this time. We are not able to take off until the fog has cleared which should be no more than an hour and ten. We will do our best to be wheels up before then, thank you for your patience, we will keep you notified.” I glanced at mom who looked a little worried and asked if it would be a problem. The flight attendants said that the only the people traveling to Puerto Vallarta were at risk for missing their connecting flights and all other connections were fine. So with naïve trust in authority we assumed there was nothing to stress about, it was out of our hands anyway.
We took off about an hour later. The flight was short but when we finally landed in San Fran there weren’t any gates available and so we taxied for another twenty minutes. The flight for Mexico was being held for the 5 passengers heading there. We inquired again to make sure we would make our flight and were assured there was no problem. At last we made it off that stuffy airplane and ran to the international terminal. All us kids were "starving" and mom had to pee really bad but we really did just hustle as fast as we could which is saying a lot for people like us who are habitually late to life.
So we walk up to the China Eastern check in desk. There was no line. Just three people behind the desk giving us very uh ... non-encouraging stares. We said we needed to catch the flight to Shanghai. Which was leaving in 30 minutes. AND we still needed to go through security.
They said, “Oh no. Sorry, there’s no more passengers allowed. You had to check in 15 minutes ago.” We casually pleaded to somehow be allowed through saying how we were moving and work was planning on us, la la la. They weren’t having any of it.
“Boarding is over, there is no way you can get on.” This brought on another point of concern, what about our 12 suitcases that are labeled to get on this airplane? They explained that if the passenger doesn’t get on the flight the bags won't either. That was kind of a relief. But they couldn't confirm anything. We asked if there was a different flight. They gave us some numbers to call. Some nice lines to stand in for WAY too long. But finally Sarah (a wonderful person who actually does her job and does it well ❤) helped us get rescheduled and back on our way.
This was when our 13 hour flight turned into another 1 hour flight to L.A., an 8 hour layover there, and then a nice red eye to Shanghai. Sarah told us to talk to the Baggage Service Office (BSO) and they could help us locate our bags.
Turns out BSO had no idea where our bags were. We had 45 minutes to catch the L.A. flight and although I’m sure mom and dad wanted to really freak out, they kept it cool and somehow we felt very okay about the whole situation. At some point mom said something along the lines of, “I know that moving to China is the right thing because the opposition just doesn’t stop!” Now that we’re seven days on the other side of this whole ordeal I’m glad we just trusted that “it will all work out.”
Because it DID! We made it to L.A. and we were able to visit our great grandma Belle before leaving. She’s 84, sharp as a tack, and she had been praying that some how she would be able to see us before we left. What a blessing for all of us!
Reese was also able to find new basketball shoes that hopefully will fit him for at least a year… :/ And we stopped at this adorable ice cream shop to more formally celebrate Audrey’s 12th birthday. Who knew beet and fennel ice cream would be an amazing thing? Psych I didn’t actually order the beet flavor because I don't like my food to touch and vegetables should NOT mix with dessert.
Next up: A See's Candy Blessing and the Last Minute Miracle
When we got off the plane in Los Angeles the first thing we saw was a See's Candy booth. Since we understood that chocolate is hard to find in China and judging by the way the trip was going thus far we figured a box couldn't hurt anything. With a 16 oz. dose of "A Happy Habit" under my arm and a revived spring in our step we went to catch a shuttle to take us to a car rental place.
Dad however was concerned about the rebooking for our China Eastern flight that supposedly Alaska Airlines reserved for us. So we made a detour to the China Eastern desk. Luckily we caught, Celene just before she was heading out for the day. She was the last employee at China Eastern until 7 pm that night when the new shift began. Dad asked her to check our reservations to make sure we had seats on the 1 am flight to Shanghai. Guess what?? WE DIDN'T. This news called for a piece of See’s candy. We opened the box and passed it around. We waited and watched as Celene searched the database for what seemed like decades. My hand was getting tired of holding the See's bag and I noticed this perfect little hook on the corner of the counter. With the bag in a perfect place, my hands free and our situation getting sort of worked out everything seemed a little brighter. Celene ended up giving us her personal cell phone number to call her when we had the info we needed from Alaska. That was definitely the epitome of customer service.
After talking with Celene, we learned that there were 7 seats left on the flight, we had to somehow get a confirmation number from somewhere, and feeling a little uneasy about whether we would be flying out at 1 am or not, we headed to the car rental place to pick up a van and hopefully relax for a couple hours.
While happily riding on the shuttle Audrey was the first to realize that no one had the box of See's chocolate. I had left it hanging in it’s bag on the corner of the China Eastern counter! That was kind of the straw that broke us all. With the way the day was going my parents ordered additional insurance on the mini van, just in case.
Grandma had dinner waiting for us when we arrived at 6:20 pm. We visited with her and played Yahtzee. She goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm and wakes up at 4 am to do her bible study and prayer. So around 8 pm we said good bye and left to finish up some (very) last minute errands.
We arrived back at the international terminal just before 11:00 pm and the line at the counter was huge. Dad and Audrey stood in line while mom and the rest of us sat with our load of luggage. We waited and waited and sat until our legs forgot how to do anything else. Finally when dad got to the counter there was some good news and some bad news. Goods news: An employee had found our candy and kept it safe in the office. It was a simple reassurance that everything would be okay. Bad news: They said we would have to wait until 12:15 am because we were going to fly stand-by! Wait? What?! Yep. Six very tired travelers still not sure if they were getting on the plane to Shanghai. We had to wait for an hour to find out our fate. This is when we busted open that box of chocolate like it was the only thing keeping us from losing our minds because it really kind of was.
At 12:15 am Dad went up to the counter and a moment later, with a calm look on his face we were assured that we had seats on the flight. MIRACULOUS!!! Mom said she had known all along that we were going to make the flight. But it sure felt better to have boarding passes and a nice China Eastern worker to escort us through security.
These last hectic moments in the United States became all the more precious and exiting with the daunting unknown waiting for us on the other side of the world. Things did work out; in a wonderfully messy way. And now with only the glory of a soft place to sit pulling us forward we waited to board a flight that wasn't just taking us to a new place; but also to new habits, new perspectives, and new found love for ourselves, each other, and life itself. Yes, our unexpected travels in the U.S. were over, but now our real adventure could finally begin.
"Let everything happen to you, beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final." —Rainer Maria Rilke