continuation of our beginning

Well, I wasn't able to continue posting because everyone came in. After the good night sleep, we headed to the front desk to catch the shuttle. Everyone was suppose to be there at 9:00am. We then discovered that the 2:30 flight was also cancelled. The next time was 10:30, which I was excited about. Yes, I did say excited. I thought it would be perfect for Elizabeth. I figured she would sleep most of the flight.

Have you ever heard the saying.... "the best laid plans..."? I'll tell you more later. Since the flight was not scheduled to leave until 10:30 and we were not scheduled to leave the hotel until 6:00, we decided to be a little adventurous. Mind you, Mark and I have never been to New York City, we have never tried to manage our ways around any place like it before. So we were somewhat clueless and a little nervous (ok.. a LOT nervous). Our plan was to figure out the best way to get to Ground Zero. It was between Ground Zero and the Statute of Liberty. Ground Zero won out simply because of the history it has made on our nation. Not that the Statute of Liberty isn't history, but this was something our kids had lived through. So, we caught the shuttle for the airport, then caught the Air Train from the airport and traveled to the subway. From there, we figured out how to take the subway to Ground Zero. What an experience. All the time, I couldn't help but remember we had a plane to catch and here we were walking the streets of New York City, not having a clue what we were doing! I have to laugh. We are nuts. Elizabeth loved the travel part of it. She LOVES the Air Train! She enjoyed the subway, for the most part. She fell asleep on my back and then woke up in the subway and screamed for a few minutes. Enough for Mark to suggest us getting off for a little while. But we stuck it out and she calmed down.
Ground Zero was not at all what I expected. I am not sure what I expected, but that was not it. Emily is very upset that it has become a tourist trap. We were in awe of what must have happened that day. But, we had a plane to catch and so we didn't stick around New York City long. We kind of felt like National Lapoons' Vacation. We caught everything correctly and made it back to the hotel in time to have dinner. Then we rushed to get our things and then caught the shuttle back to the airport to stand in line to get seat assignments. We managed to get 3 in a row and 4 in a row, so we were thrilled.

We then hung out at the airport for another 4 1/2 hours until we loaded. Then we waited 1 1/2 hours on the plane until it actually took off. Elizabeth was awesome and loved it. She was patient and when other babies were screaming, she would point to herself and say "happy". But. ... that quickly changed. Within an hour of the flight (maybe less), she began a scream like no other baby can manage. It was high, piecing and very bothersome to those around who were trying to sleep. We went to the back of the plane to try to excape the stares and give others as much peace and quiet as we could. She kept this scream up for a good hour straight. If we tried to talk to her or me try to let her down, she just got louder and threw her whole body as hard as she could. She kicked and struggled until sweat poured off her head. I looked at Mark and said that I wasn't going to make the next 12 hours! And at the same time realized I had 6 more flights to go after this one. Then I jsut sighed and said I was going to stay in China for good if I lived through this flight. She carried on off and on for at least 3 hours. She would crash because of exhaustion, only to wake up 20 minutes later and start it all over.
But, by the time we were hours into the flight, she seemed to have recovered a little. She didn't sleep much and by 6:00 was completely awake. She didn't start the screaming again until we started the decent. It lasted for about 20 minutes,but she did calm down some.
The other kids had a tough flight too. Jacob was in tears within the first 2 hours because he was so exhausted and couldn't sleep. A sweet gentelman gave up his seat for the kids to lay down some. That was a gift from God. Jacob was able to fall asleep and get some decent shuteye. Sam dozed off and on for several hours, but was quite uncomfortable. All and all, the other 4 were incredible travelers after all we had already been through.
Then we got to China and boarded a bus to get to the airport. We then stood inline for a very long time to get our passports checked. Then we stood in the baggage claim for 1/2 hour waiting on our luggage. We found the one, but no others. Then it took another 45 minutes to get the claim forms completed. All this by our selves. We are becoming quite the experienced travelers! So, by 2:30 am, we were finally in our hotel room.