Day 15: The epic Faile edition of "The Out of Towners"

Growing up, my parents always looked forward to the old version of "The Out of Towners" movie with Jack Lemmon. Since it would not come on that often, we would always watch it and laugh so so hard at all the mishaps this couple experienced. Well, let me just tell ya about my day...and I'm not making this up! Here is the Faile's version of the Out of Towners!! So today on January 28 (China time) we woke up at 4:30 am because our driver wanted to leave at 6 am to get us to the airport in Hong Kong. We were going to take the train and then find a way to the airport  (Taxi) but decided that we needed to do a more convenient route because of our two little ones plus 6 bags, 5 carry on and a double stroller. We paid the whopping $400 to take this" safe route" into Hong Kong. We were packed in a little van with all of our stuff hoping no one would get carsick. I had a bag by Talia just in case. The driver was going extremely fast and it was raining like it was a monsoon.  It was dark, crowded, Tali was in my lap and David was in the back filling our the little departure/arrival cards since we had to enter into a new country. Pretty nauseating! !!It was about a 3 hour excursion.  Well, the driver kept falling asleep!!!! He would doze and swerve barely missing another car. We talked to him (He had some broken English, but wasn't talking to us. ) We made Toby yell to keep him awake.  Didn't work either. We were scared and praying the whole way.  Plus David and I couldn't offer to drive..They drove on the other side of the road and have you ever seen the driving in China?  Well, by God's hand and protection from our guardian angels, we arrived. He quickly got our stuff out and drove away. . (Remember what I said earlier about all of our stuff? ) I was pushing the stroller with the kids and holding all the carry on bags and David had the 6 bags on a cart. Well we thought we had 6 bags until we realized there were only 5 and no driver. One of the bags were still in his front seat.  We tried to call our guide to call him, but because we were in another country we could not get through. We tried for 30 minutes.  Finally, Lifeline called me and said the guy is coming back and will meet you out front. We got the bag back after that scare. Phew!!
So we had plenty of time to get through all the hoops and finally sat down at the gate. Time  slipped by as we waited to board. Toby and Tali were not wanting to patiently wait either. They were fidgety, loud, had to go to the bathroom, fussy, but ever so cute.
After waiting for 2 hours, they told us to go to a restaurant in the airport that would serve us lunch. So all 200 some people walked to a very crowded food court area. We ordered rice and chicken for us. It was not good at all!  Cold chicken and blood coming out of the bones. We didn't eat it.  We left but the head server said, "You owe us $250 Yen.. "We said"oh no..the airline said to eat there and they were going to pay for it. " They then said" the airline gave everyone a $100 Yen stipend".  We spent $650 so we need to pay $250. We didn't have Hong Kong currency and the waiter took our boarding passes.   We paid it so we could just take it up with the airline instead.  Ugh!!! $50 US money on pretty yucky food.  Now we come back to the gate and the Captain announces that one of the engine lights is on and they can't figure out why it's on. He even said." Oh its not a big deal. We only use one engine."They kept saying 30 or 40 minutes until we have answers. Finally after hours of wait time, they cancelled the flight and said hopefully tomorrow. They said they would put us up in a hotel and give us dinner. There were over 200 people on this flight! They took us out , after the Priority people went.  We had to follow everyone, but since we had a stroller, we took the elevator and almost lost the group several times.  What a scramble!! They led us out to fill out the departure/arrival cards again, pick up our bags again and go wait for a shuttle to the hotel. David was pushing the cart on a declining slope and all the bags went flying .They ordered one bus for all these people so we were stuck in the last group with another adoptive family. We waited about 1 hr for another shuttle.  We got in it and it was leaking water. It leaked all over two suitcases (me and Toby) getting our clothes wet. We drove 45 minutes to the hotel which is right on the water, but has NO heat. The whole country is experiencing record low,temperatures so I'm sitting in the hotel with no pajamas  (they are wet) wet socks and no heat. It's probably 50 degrees in the room. There are no carpets so these tile floors are extremely cold. When we got to the hotel at 815, we found out that we had a buffet to eat for dinner, but we would have to take a shuttle or walk in the rain. We took the shuttle with kids and our valuables. It was about 5 min, but very tight inside. We walked into this mall to look for the buffet and could not find it. It was closing at 9 and now it was 840. We stumbled across a wedding and thought about crashing it to be able to eat. We finally found it and the food was high end . Nothing really for the kids, so it was scarce.  The good thing is we have met some really neat people. A few offered to carry our  things, etc.. We were all laughing and exchanged names and ate dinner together. Kind of crazy that you know a bunch a names of people on your flight. They all know us too. There are only 4 kids on all of the flight and we have two and the other adoptive family has the other two.
Talia seems nervous and confused. Toby has shown his true colors too. He was so anxious at times.
Please pray that we can get out on time, of course that we get a different plane, and that we can make our other 2 flights out of Seattle. I really just want to get home!
So picture me sitting here in Hong Kong in our hotel room,  wearing my winter coat shivering, listening to pounding rain and people goofing around down the hall. They are laughing and yelling. It's midnight ish here and we are to get up at 530, but I'm afraid to sleep so we don't miss our flight. We are the epic faile out of towners...and I'm not joking.  To be continued!