Nearly Missed our Flight!

November 4, 2004

We are in China, but we almost missed our flight. Our car service was supposed to arrive at 11;30 am. Our flight was taking off at 3:30 pm, but I wanted to allow enough time for us to get to the airport. At 11:15 the car service called to say that the driver was in an accident, but not to worry because they were sending another driver and car, but he wouldn't arrive until noon.

Okay, no big deal because that would still give us plenty of time to get to the airport. They called at noon and told us he would be another 20 minutes. At 12:30 they said 5 minutes. At 12:50 they called and said he was in the neighboring town, so 5 more minutes. He did not arrive until 1:30!

The driver was old and doddering. He said he had just come from JFK and it only took him 45 minutes. I said that we were already two hours late, so I was not amused. Then I had to direct him to the interstate! We were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic when we saw a sign that said 15 miles to JFK. It was 2:30. I burst into tears because I knew we were not going to make this flight.

My crying unnerved him. He called the airlines to try to speak to someone at ChinaAir, but the person on the phone only spoke Mandarin, so that was no help. Tears were just streaming down my face. The traffic cleared and the driver sped down the highway like a maniac. I was out of the car before he was even stopped. We did not tip him, AR grabbed out suitcases and I ran into the terminal. There was NO ONE at the ChinaAir desk to check in. It was 2:45 and the flight was boarding.

I spied one ChinaAIr employee and ran over and explained that we were late. I was crying and asking if we could still make the flight because we still had to get through security. We told him that it was so important that we get on the plane because we were adopting a baby. He told us not to worry.

The machine that spits out the bar coding for the luggage was malfunctioning so he had to jump over and try to print it out from another station. More delay. Finally we were on the security line, which was very long. It was 3:05.

I went through the metal detector and it beeped. I walked through again and it beeped. They pulled me out of the line and called for a female security guard to search me. AR was beeping too and was pulled out of line. We both had to remove our shoes. Ar's sunglasses were the cause of his beeping so he cleared security first, put on his shoes and was gathering up our stuff.

I told the security guard that we were going to miss our flight and she said, "Well that is why we tell you to get her three hours before your departure." I started to tell her about the car accident of the driver, but realized that she didn't give a fig about that. She came to my money belt that was bulging with cash and wanted to know what that was for. Since when is carrying cash a crime??? I explained it was for our adoption, but she seemed leary. Turns out that I had a blister pack of over teh counter medicine in mt pants pocket and that was causing the friggin' beeping. I was finally through security. It was 3:25.

I didn't even waste time putting on my shoes and the two of us ran to the gate, me in my stocking feet and crying. We must have been quite a sight. Thankfully, the gate was not far. When we reached teh gate a flight attendeant waved us through. She had been on the lookout for us. They didn't even look at our boarding passes. We couldn't believe that they waited for us. We plopped in our seats and the plane took off immedately.

What we didn't know...Our friends from New Hampshire were waiting for us and worried that we weren't there. When the flight boarded, she kept asking if we were there. At 3:10, she told the flight attendants that they could not take off without us. She explained that we were both going to China to adopt a baby. I'm not sure if that is why they held the plane for us or if the attendant at the check in called and told them we were coming and to wait for us. Who knows, but the fates were with us.

I know that if we had missed the flight, we could have gotten a flight out later that day or the next, so it would not have been the end of the world. However, after all of the waiting and all of the papework and all of the hopes and dreams pinned on this flight, missing the flight represented the loss of our baby. It sounds ridiculous now, but that is what I was feeling. It was almost as if I was thinking that we would never get our precious baby. It was not going to happen for us.