The 5 years it took to adopt a child felt like an eternity.
Our 12 hour flight from Beijing to Vancouver felt infinitely longer.
As excited as I was to get home, I had been dreading this flight for much longer than we had been in China. Before we left Edmonton I had come across a news article that had identified a list of 'Airplane Don'ts For Travelers'. Two and a half hours into our flight we had committed most of them. Tantrums, screaming, kicking the seat in front of us, and during our mid-flight meal: tossing a container of salad -- which opened and dumped its contents -- into the seats ( and onto the occupants) in front of us.
Now I had never been under any illusions that this flight would be easy. Whenever I listened to a child upset on an airplane or heard of a parent's difficult air travel experience I always felt great sympathy for them.
Now I felt empathy.
The biggest challenge for us was the seatbelt. No car seats in China meant that she always traveled on our laps. And to facilitate her eating we also kept her on our laps during mealtimes so her experiences of sitting independently were extremely limited. As we boarded the plane in Beijing and sat in our seats with her between us we tried to lure her into her own chair. I was just anxious to get going and get it over with but we were delayed on the ground for almost an hour so she was already extremely restless when we tried to wrestle her into her seat. It took two of us to pin her down and we held her, screaming until we finally took off. After about 15-20 minutes ( considerably longer for those sitting around us) she wore herself out and, to her credit, resigned herself to her confinement. Boy was she mad.
When the seatbelt light finally switched off she literally leapt onto my lap and stayed there, tossing, turning, twisting, jumping, kicking, straining until mealtime where she actually sat in her seat again for at least a little while. After the food flinging incident I kept her as close to me as possible, trying to avoid eye contact with the family in front of us. Let's just say it would have been a lot easier for us if the little family of three -- cute couple with an even cuter baby -- weren't so darn charming and perfect. That baby hardly peeped the entire flight as if we didn't look bad enough already.
I confess to being secretly relieved when I'd hear another child crying somewhere on the plane.
Deep down I'm a very shallow person.
By 9 we were hoping she'd go to sleep and it took a few more tears, a lot of tossing, twisting and turning before she finally settled down. Mercifully she slept for about 5 hours -- fitfully -- but slept nonetheless. She awoke in good spirits for breakfast and I've never been so grateful for airplane food in my life -- they served congee.
Nearly 12 hours later we were back to where we started, wrestling her into her seat and belt.
Tantrum, tears, then finally, touch down.
No comments:
Post a Comment