Planes, Trains, Automobiles, a Minibus & a Tram

Picture it: Friday 2/26, Trickle House, 6pm. Our flight to Newark: Canceled for the morning due to wind gusts --OK, I could see if the wind was 60 miles per hour, but it was only 58! Our flight to Shanghai: Questionable. Suitcases: Unpacked. Necessary Documents: Unfilled out. Josh & Cara: Disgruntled over the cheese and raisins we've offered them for dinner. It seemed a nervous breakdown was imminent. Then we learned that if we did not make it to Newark for our morning flight, then there was not another available flight to Shanghai until Wednesday, which would not allow us enough time to process paperwork before out 3/8 Consulate appointment, meaning, we could somehow make it to Newark by morning, or wait weeks or months for a new Consolate appointment. The mere thought of waiting even more more day to bring Yaojie home --and to start our life as a family of five...well, that had padded walls written all over it. So, we booked 2 tickets from Amtrak, packed in a fury, loaded the kids into the car, and arranged for Eric's parents to drive us to Union Station. In DC. In the middle of the night. Luckily, they are suckers for adventure. We were at Union Station for 2 hours and then nearly missed our train when we realized that we were not waiting where the trains depart with the other ticketed customers. Instead, we were in a chaired area with, we'll say, the non-ticketed customers. (side note: Eric came out of the men's room shuddering. He still can't talk about what he saw). Thanks to a fellow traveler, we realized our error and were soon on the 3:15am Newark-bound train. Luckily, seated behind us was both a baby and a toddler, so we felt right at home. At Newark, we were told that since we were not on the first plane (yes, the canceled one!) that we lost out reservations to Shanghai... WHAT?! Oh, no, we would be on that plane! After several failed attempts to get assistance, I finally found a kindly security guard and promptly burst into tears while telling him our story..."wind...cancelled...Amtrak...public restroom...Shanghai...Yao..." He took me by the hand, cut me in front of the hundreds who were waiting and allowed me to check in and reclaim my tickets. If you are going to have a breakdown, might as well use it to your favor, right? In the end, we made it to Shanghai on a nonstop --albeit bumpy-- ride, located the luggage that we reported as lost when in fact we just didn't recognize our suitcase, met with our guide, made it to the hotel, and even met another family adopting from the same orphanage.

And now it is 8:15pm Sunday in Shanghai --and we haven't slept since Thursday... on that note, good night! Tomorrow, we meet our new son!