Sutton Christian Eledge

We are finally home!  We actually got home on September 4th, but I've been busy.  Bobby wants me to write down every horrible detail of our trip home.  He's afraid I'll forget and want to do it again soon.

On Thursday, we checked out of the White Swan in the afternoon and headed downtown to the U.S. Consulate to get our children's visas and brown envelopes.  We went straight from the consulate to the train station.  It was literally down the street.  It was also literally under construction.  We had driven by it the day before, but it isn't even recognizeable as a train station.  I think you just have to know it's there.

About half of our group had decided to take a train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong,  spend the night in Hong Kong and fly back to the U.S.  It sounds much simpler than it really was.  We boarded our train on time, but then our train didn't move for over two hours.  And if the train isn't moving, then the bathrooms aren't open.  Also, once the train is moving, the bathrooms open directly onto the tracks.

By the time we made it to our hotel in Hong Kong, we had about six hours before we had to be at the airport.  We were exhausted and hungry.  Luckily, our hotel was connected to the airport.  The next morning we just grabbed a cart from the hotel lobby, loaded our luggage, and headed to the airport.

We checked our bags and grabbed a quick breakfast at Burger King.  (I promise we don't eat this much fast food when we're home.)  We barely had enough time to change Sutton's diaper and get hot water for a bottle before it was time to board the plane for Detroit.

The flight to Detroit was 14 hours.  We were so exhausted that you would think we would have slept most of the flight.  Unfortunately, Layne and Sutton wouldn't cooperate.  Neither of them slept till the very end of the flight, so Bobby and I didn't get to sleep either.  Layne actually was easy to entertain, but Sutton wasn't happy unless he was being fed or one of us stood up with him.  By the time we made it to Detroit, I was ready to cry.

In Detroit we had two hours to get through customs, immigrate Sutton, pick up our bags, re-check our bags, go through security, and get on our connecting flight to Atlanta.  When we got through security, we had less than twenty minutes till our flight departed.  We had to get to concourse A, gate 68.  We of course started at gate 1.  We have never moved so fast through an airport.  When we got to the gate, we had 10 minutes till take off.  But all that matters is that we made it.

Layne and Sutton both slept from Detroit to Atlanta.  Once again Bobby and I did not.  Once we got to Atlanta, we got our bags, went through a McDonald's drive thru, and went to our hotel.  Everybody ate, showered, and was asleep by 7p.m.  Sutton and I were up at 9:45 for a bottle, and everybody was up at 12:45 for good.  We checked out of the hotel at 5:45, ate at Cracker Barrel and headed home.

Layne watched Lion King in Mandarin on the way home and Sutton slept on and off.  When we were a couple blocks from home, Sutton started crying.  Layne looked over at him and said, "Sutton, you better not ruin my grandma's birthday!"  Mom's birthday had been the day before, and that was all that Layne was concerned about.

My mom was waiting for us at our house, and we were all  happy to see her.  My mom and some of our wonderful friends had decorated our house to welcome Sutton home.  Our friend Glenda came by shortly after we got home to add some more decorations.

Layne was too tired to sleep, so mom took her for the afternoon.  Bobby, Sutton, and I all fell asleep.  I don't think I have ever been so tired.  Out of the three trips I've made to China, this trip home was definitely the most exhausting.  Bobby doesn't have to worry, I'm in no hurry to do it again.