August 24, 2005

The night didn't remain peaceful for us. Hannah couldn't get settled throughout the night and continued to wake up. We tried the doing a warm bath again, but this time Hannah would have nothing to do with it. She just seemed angry with the world this time and nothing would settle her. We are thinking that her restlessness may be due to our departure and the preparations for it. She may have sensed more change coming and was not happy about it. She also hadn't had a dirty diaper in over a day, so she may be fighting some constipation which would understandably make her very cranky. Whatever the reason, the only thing we could do was for Victoria to sit on the carpet at the foot of the bed while consoling Hannah as she cried next to her. She didn't want to be touched or talked to, so Victoria just let her know that she was there with her no matter what she did or how loud she screamed. She eventually wore herself out and fell asleep in the wee hours.

I awoke to find Hannah still sleeping at the foot of the bed and Victoria next to her. Victoria crept up into the bed and we discussed our breakfast options considering it was going on 9:00 a.m. We decided that it wasn't wise to try to take Hannah to the breakfast buffet this morning, so instead I ran out to pick up some rice congee for Hannah at the coffee shop and returned to the room. Since Hannah was still asleep, Victoria and Abigail went down to get breakfast and I stayed to watch over Hannah. They returned in about a half-hour and I took my turn at breakfast. I returned to the room to find a very happy Hannah sitting on the floor playing with odds and ends while Victoria was organizing our stuff for the return trip and Abigail was playing games on the computer. I was told that she woke up in a good mood and ate a large helping of congee, which may have settled her stomach a little.

We had planned on picking up an extra piece of luggage before we left so we could pack all of the dirty clothes in the new bag and use that as our one checked item while keeping all of the important paperwork and more fragile souvenirs in our carry on baggage. We also wanted to buy one more bag of the local formula that Hannah was used to since we might need it to help her transition to one of the brands in the U.S., and we needed to return the stroller we borrowed from Jennifer's Place before we left. We organized the room the best we could, then headed out to complete our errands. While doing this shopping Victoria purchased more dresses for the girls and a hand painted miniature tea set. I was tempted by the watches again, but managed to resist since they had no Submariners or GMT Masters on display. The piece of luggage we purchased at Sherry's Place cost us 100 Yuan, or about 12 U.S. dollars, and we put all of our purchases inside it as we shopped. When we returned the stroller to Jennifer's Place we purchased some ceramic soup spoons and a set of chopsticks which also ended up in the luggage. Since she had no stroller to ride in on the way back to the hotel, Hannah decided to walk part of the way back and proudly announced her presence with her squeaky shoes. Once we got back to the room she and Abigail were ready for another nap.

Now that we had our extra piece of luggage and our last souvenirs we were able to truly get packed for the trip back. We (mostly Victoria) sorted through our belongings and began deciding which items would go where. We managed to get all of the dirty clothes, a good bit of the scrapbook paperwork and quite a few odds and ends packed in the extra bag. Rather surprising considering it was only slightly larger than our carry ons. The important documents were packed in the computer bag so I could get to them easily when we got to Immigration in the U.S. Victoria's backpack was loaded with pre-filled sleeves of formula, a Thermos of freshly boiled water, a couple of bottles of fresh water, finger food and toys for Hannah. Everything else was packed as carefully as possible in our carry ons. Eventually there was nothing left to pack and all that remained was to wait for our time of departure from the hotel. A bellboy was to arrive at 4:30 to pick up all of our bags and we were to meet up with Jophy and our group at 5:15 in the lobby to be taken to the airport.

We decided to get one last meal from Lucy's before we left, but decided to eat it in our room instead of going there. We wanted everyone to be as well-rested as possible before we left. I went out to pick up our meal and once I got back we woke the girls and had our dinner. The bellboy showed up a little while after we had finished and then we went downstairs to wait for the rest of the group. By a little after 5:15 we were in the bus and on our way to the airport. Hannah managed the ride surprisingly well, but began to have one of her fits just before we arrived. She doesn't like staying in enclosed spaces for long periods of time, so we're kind of apprehensive of the flight to L.A. Jophy escorted us as far as she could at the airport, then we gave her goodbye hug and moved toward the gate. We had to stop and fill out an emigration form for each person in our party, then had to wait in a long line to be processed through Chinese Emigration. Again, Hannah had decided she had waited long enough just prior to reaching the person reviewing the forms and began to act up. We managed to get past the official with only a little screaming from Hannah, then Victoria managed to appease her with a bottle on the other side.

We only had about an hour to wait once we got to the departure gate, but once we got settled we were approached by three police officers who asked for our passports. I assume it was a routine procedure to randomly check passengers, but why us? The officers were nice and polite, but they examined each document with magnified UV lights and the entire procedure took about five minutes. I was beginnig to wonder if we had problems with the passports for a while there. Everything seemed to check out, though, because they thanked us for our cooperation and handed the passports back to us. I could not wait to get back home to the U.S. where the only I.D. I regularly had to carry with me was my driver's license. Eventually the boarding call was made and we moved to our seats.

I am so grateful that we decided to upgrade to Premium Economy seats on the return flight. They are worth every penny of the extra expense. There is significantly more room in and around the seats, and even if the seat in front is fully reclined you can get in and out with ease. The only down side to these deats is that the armrests don't fold up to allow extra wide seating (or sleeping) spaces. One armrest holds the tray table and the other holds the personal video monitor. While on the trip over we had six channels of video feeds to choose from, but on the return trip we had twelve channels to choose from and separate audio feeds as well if we didn't see anything we wanted to watch. Abigail was seated in a window seat and thoroughly enjoyed watching the takeoff, even if it was getting dark. Once we were in the air the girls dropped off to sleep and we all settled in for the thirteen hour long flight to L.A. The flight was pretty uneventful and Victoria and I were able to sleep on and off througout the flight, at least until we got close to the end. Hannah had another fit which we couldn't control, and eventually another passenger offered to hold her while she cried and screamed. She wrapped Hannah up in a blanket and held her close, singing to her and trying to soothe her. Eventually she began to quiet down a bit, and when she was handed back to Victoria and realized she was now with her mother she just seemed grateful to be back with her and got happy again.

Since this report has already crept into the following day due to crossing the International Date Line, I'll report on the scene at Immigration and the delights of collecting luggage for a connecting flight at LAX on the next page.