We left home this morning at 4 am headed for the Atlanta Airport. I had packed earlier in the week and weighed our luggage to try and stay within the 44 lb limit our in country flights require, otherwise we are charged $1 for each pound we are over. We were right on target a couple of days ago, but obviously the little things we added last minute added up because one was almost 80 lbs and the other two were about 55lbs. ☺ It was time to go & the car was waiting on us, so there was no time to reorganize. The man at the airport who helped us with our luggage was able to avoid fees on this leg of the trip for being over the weight limit (which up until Sept. 7 was 70 lb but has now been changed to 50 lbs). We are now sitting, drinking coffee and waiting for our flight (we still have 2 hours) and discussing name options. Cole suggested I give you our options and see what comes out on top, so here they are:
1.“CJ” Cheng Jiang Portis
2.Solomon Wilder Portis (Cole’s great grandfather-he thinks)
3.Samuel Hunter Portis (Samuel-gift from God; Hunter-Cole’s grandfather & uncle)
4.Samuel Christopher Portis (Cole just likes this because it has Christ in it)
5.Samuel Cox Portis(After our special friends, Billy, Brucie, Emily & Tanner)
6.Samuel Xin Portis(His given middle name)
7.Samuel ChengXin Portis (His current first & middle name)
8.Other suggestions???
Let us know soon, because we really need to have our minds made up by Monday morning, since that is when we will get to finally put our arms around him, and it would be nice to call him something other than china boy ☺!!!
I thought I would be able to post this as soon as we got to the hotel, but boy was I wrong. All the previous travelers said wireless internet was in the lobby, but either our hotel does not offer this, or we are having major failure to communicate. So here is the rest of our day:
Our plane was an hour late leaving Atlanta which put us arriving in Chicago 5 min after we were supposed to take off for Beijing. We sprinted and were happy to find them holding the plane for us. It was a very pleasant 13 ½ hr plane ride thanks to the business class seating, movies & sleeping pills. When we arrived at the Beijing airport we went thru customs with no trouble and headed to baggage claim. We were very pleased to see our luggage. I left Cole to watch for our bags while I went to get a cart. When I returned I saw him getting one of our bags and I chased down one that was right behind the one he had gotten since they were beside each other and he was unable to get both. We did a count and had the correct # of bags. We met our guide who took us to the bus where several other families were waiting. We loaded up and headed for the hotel. We got of and got out bags ready to go crash in our room, BUT the black bag left sitting on the curb was not ours and we were missing OUR black suitcase. Cole tried to claim he had not gotten that bag (indirectly blaming me) but fortunately I had left SK to guard our carry-ons while I went for the cart & she had witnessed him getting it. Our guide had to go back to the airport to pick up one more family of 4 arriving later & luckily found our suitcase waiting on us there at the airport. I feel bad for the family missing the bag we brought with us to the hotel. Hopefully the airport will get it to them.
While Cole was gone SK watched TV in the room and slept. I tried to exchange our money and find internet service & our Panda Phone which was not at our hotel like it was supposed to be. I can’t figure out how to use the phone in the room, I cannot communicate well with the receptionists, I don’t know how to reach our guides & we were not given the names or room numbers of the other adoptive families in our group. AHHHHHHHHH! I decided to go across the street and buy us some bottles water and almost passed out from the smell. It made me wish I was in Wal-Mart (never thought I would say that). This could be a long 17 days!!!! We leave in the morning at 8:30 for a full day of touring Beijing.