18 August 2007

Travel Day 17 — Landing in LA and our new US Citizen

Posted by BaBa under: Travel .

We have landed in LA. We spent what seemed like hours on the Tarmac waiting before proceeding to the gate. We had planned to make a couple of calls, but by the time we were able to get to the phone, it would have been after 10pm. We walked forever to the immigration check-in because the stroller was taken at the gate in Guangzhou and was then to be picked up with the luggage. This would not have happened with a US airline, but it is what is.

We finally arrived at the immigration station and went through the new resident’s line. We gave our passports and consulate brown envelope to the officer. We were told to wait for processing and in the mean time I was sent to get our luggage. All of the luggage arrived safely and then finally the stroller arrived. Back to wait a little longer at the immigration station. There were several families with new adoptions waiting there to get the paperwork processed. We all were called and sent to the customs line. We had no problems with clearing customs and we were through. Sheridan is now a US citizen. The Certificate of Citizenship (COC) will arrive in a few weeks that makes it official.

Our next stop was to find the LaQuinta Shuttle to the hotel. We just missed one and the next was much longer than the 15 minutes scheduled. We did finally get on the shuttle and off to the hotel. On the shuttle, Sheridan charmed two flight attendants. He just turned on the big smile and the rest is history. We checked in and the LaQuinta which seemed like the Taj Mahal. It has soft beds, water you can drink from the tap and Ice that is safe to use. It is clean and convenient, what else could you ask for.

I went to the McDonald’s next door for a gourmet meal, well it seemed gourmet to us. MaMa and Sheridan took a shower and waited for the meal. I checked my voice messages and there were multiple messages from Delta telling us that a direct flight from LA for Cao You Bai had cleared leaving LA at 12:30 and to call within 24 hours to make the change. Who knows how old these messages were? We are keeping the flights we have as the direct flight leaves only 1 hour later than our New Orleans connection and arrives 15 minutes later in Atlanta.

So I am signing off from LA. Our next entry will be after we have rested and are home back in Atlanta.

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