We are in CHINA!

I can't believe it, we are here after all of these years.  Surreal is the best way to describe it.  We got in after dark last night and it was pouring so we could not see much but today we will be going on a tour of some of the sites in Beijing.  I'm very excited to see my daughter's home country.  But getting here was a little stressful so let me back up.

We were so excited to get to the airport in Jacksonville, walked to the check-in counter about 40 feet into our trip and Mom says "well all is good so far" and we giggle like silly girls.  We tell them our names to check in and the guy looks us up and tells us that there are two people registered as Kelly Wilson and no Sandy Parkes on the entire itinerary.  I wipe out my copy of the itinerary and show him Mom's name on everything but he tells me not in his system and that is was an error by the travel agency... and only the travel agent can fix it.  Ok, major problem because it was 6:00 EST and our travel agent is in California where she will not be into the office until who knows when.  They try several things to fix it and NO ONE can.  Supervisors come, they call everyone they can think of, it's obvious to everyone what the mistake is and common sense says it should be and easy fix but nope.  We spend the first hour and a half of our trip at the check-in counter as we watch our flight time rapidly approaching.  So finally we did the only thing we could do to buy some time and that was to buy an over the counter ticket for Mom to Atlanta where our connection to Asia was hope we can reach the travel agent during our layover.  So, we got on the plane, not elated like I wanted to be as we began our trip but stressed about what was going to happen.

So we get to Atlanta and immediately head to the check-in desk, tell our story all over again and still no one can help but the travel agent they tell us.  We have left half a dozen desperate voicemails, a few emails, I even looked up her name on White Pages and left a message with someone who probably was not her.  And no response...heck it's still 8am there.  The ticket counter tells us if we don't have it fixed by 12:10, then Mom is not getting on the plane.  We start working on Plan B;  Mom says for me to get on without her.....what?!, after all this go without her and pray she gets there the next day on her own?  No, I will go the next day if that is the plan.  Thankfully we have a day built in for touring and it could be the best option.  Or Mom could buy a ticket on this flight as well....nope, it's overbooked.  There is a flight through Japan that arrives about the same time, at $1700.  None are looking attractive so we go with the first; I would delay a day.  Then at 11:30 we finally get hold of her.  She is so apologetic and started working immediately on the issue.  The time is ticking, it's got to be fixed by 12:10...she got it fixed with about 10 minutes to spare.  What a huge relief....we were going to China, both of us!  The rest of the flights were very nice (love Korean Air!) and 24 hours almost to the minute of taking off in Jacksonville we landed in Beijing.  SO happy to arrive!  So learning lesson....make sure you have a 24/7 phone number for your travel agent!

In Atlanta I was so excited to finally meet an online friend Kim and her family.  Their daughter is in the same orphanage as Mia Jade and our girls are born the same week!  We had conversed a lot up until this point and loved to finally be about to meet her face to face.  They were so kind as we stressed over our ticket situation and in fact Kim was the one who got the travel agent on the phone right as she was walking in at 8:30am in California.  I know we will have a great trip with her family; it will greatly add to the experience.  And as we got off in Korea, transferring to the China flight, we met another family getting off and on the same plane who are also with our agency and will be with us in Beijing and Guangzhou.

Mom and I had had a plan, to grab some breakfast before our Jacksonville flight and then a quick lunch in Atlanta during our layover.  We did neither because we were dealing with the ticket problem.  So when we got on the plane finally at 1:15pm we still had not eaten anything.  They bring our lunch on Korean Air, which is Korean food of course and Mom looks down and says "I'm so hungry I could eat seaweed".... our soup, Seaweed Soup.  I busted out laughing as the stress had finally melted away, so that was our quote of the day.  They thing that made me laugh and begin the enjoyment of this amazing journey!

Welcome to our travels!