Journey to China

This blog documents the Spitlers' progress towards the adoption of Xia Ping He (Noah Spitler) from the PR China. It also documents Noah's medical process in pursuit of a total repair to his CHD (congenital heart defect).

Friday, July 30, 2010

Headed Home!

Good evening / Good morning!

It's 8:45am for us here - and pm for most of y'all. We're in Hong Kong (Marriott SkyCity near the airport), and we're finishing up our last packing. Our United 747-400 will depart at 12:25pm (midnight for you) and fly 14 hours and 39 minutes to Chicago. That will be one of the longest flights I've ever been on, and I must admit I'm not really looking forward to it. Some good news - although the flight is reportedly overbooked, we checked in and got better seats (all 4 in a row) than we'd originally been planned into. Noah is presently sitting all alone (yeah, right), since his supplemental oxygen was set up separately. He is also traveling on his Chinese passport and name (Xia Pinghe), so we'll have to straighten all of that out at the check-in counter.

We will arrive around 2:45pm into Chicago and have a few hours there to clear customs and connect to our Atlanta flight. As Robin mentioned previously, Noah will become a US citizen once we arrive in Chicago and go through customs. My backpack is full of his medical records, immigration records, birth certificates, etc... no doubt we keep an eye on that backpack!

To backtrack some; yesterday's train ride to Hong Kong was good. The kids really enjoyed it. We were in the "premium class" and rode on the upper deck of a double-decker passenger car. The seats were similar to a business class airliner section, and the train went about 70mph. The only hitch we had was when we arrived into Hong Kong, the tickets said "Kowloon"; and we'd expected that to be "Kowloon Station" (which would connect to the airport train and our hotel). Instead, we were in the "Kowloon District", but at another station. After a little fretting and map-reading, I did the unexpected...I went to an information desk and a kind lady pointed out how to get on a transfer bus to the correct station. (For all you ladies who think men never ask for directions - this should count for at least a decade's waiver, right?) We made it to the airport express train and had a nice ride out to the Marriott. After a quick swim in the pool (Noah is back to sitting on the edge), we rode over to the terminal and got some Popeye's Chicken.

Noah is doing well - giving lots of kisses to his "jie jie" (big sisters). I've had him on the pulse oximeter and his average O2 sat level is 66% - probably about what we expected. We'll put the oximeter on him during the flight today and try to regulate his oxygen (by putting his annulus on/off) to keep him at 66%. We are very grateful that United still serves supplemental oxygen on their flights...they are one of the few remaining airlines doing so.

Gotta run and get on a long plane. We'll arrive into Atlanta around 10pm tonight - 25 hours from now. Unsure if we'll drive home or grab a hotel. It'll feel like 10am for us at that point - I guess we'll see.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. God is certainly the Maker of this whole world (which seems much bigger after this trip). He also knows where we all are and what's going on. The Bible says He never sleeps, nor slumbers; and that is refreshing to know when one is on "the other side of the world" from everybody they know.

Looking forward to rejoining you in the Western Hemisphere soon - God Bless you.

Adam (for Robin, Madison, Olivia, and Noah Pinghe) Spitler

1 Comments:

Anonymous Kim said...

Yay!! We're waiting for you!!! Be safe!

July 31, 2010 at 12:11 AM  

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