I guess it's worth mentioning...the first China adoption trip

Our first adoption trip was a disaster. A real disaster. With the exception, of course, of the addition of our adorable child to our family.

So, we leave our hometown, cheerful and with all of our luggage for our first stop on the way to LAX via Denver. We have six or seven hours of lag time between our arrival in LAX and our departure flight on China Southern to Beijing via Guangzhou. No problem, right?

Well, we get weather-delayed for a few minutes in St. Louis on United Airlines. Then, when the weather clears we get mechanically delayed and sit in the plane for over an hour. No problem, because there is another flight from Denver to LAX about an hour and a half later. We're good to go, right? Just get to the desk in Denver, transfer the tickets, and off we go, right? Well, once in Denver we wait on the tarmac for TWO HOURS to get to a gate. Yes, two hours. We look outside, there are tons of open gates, but no. We wait.

Finally we de-plane, with just enough time to rebook another connection to LAX. We go to the customer service counter.

At the customer service counter we get stuck in line behind EVERY passenger on the Denver flight waiting to reschedule. Turns out, of course, that when we get to the counter, they tell us to go to a different counter.

So we do. We get in line. We've now missed our LAX connection and, in fact, any flight out of Denver for the night. We've had nothing to eat but a bag of pretzels on the plane and all the concessions in Denver airport are closed for the night.

As we are waiting in line at the second customer service counter, we realize two things: 1) the shift of customer service personnel were scheduled to be off at eight o'clock p.m. and it is now 11 p.m.; 2) they are being laid off THAT NIGHT and are, as customers are speaking with them, being pulled away from the desk for their exit interviews.

So... none of them are in terrifically helpful moods.

We explain that we have to get to LAX for a connection to Beijing for our adoption. So...perhaps, if we could get China Southern to transfer their ticket to United (who also flies to Beijing), we could still make it to Beijing on time to adopt our daughter.

With GREAT reluctance and after a huge delay while UA managers are consulted, UA calls China Southern, which does not have a desk in Denver. China Southern refuses categorically without seeing our paper ticket. It is faxed to China Southern. They decline to do anything without the paper ticket in their hands.

We explain to UA that, consequent to the mechanical delay it is UA's fault that we are missing our flight and that they ought to help. They begin to shout at us. First I shout back. I'm a lawyer, after all. That's what I do for a living, right? Then, as a soon-to-be adoptive mother, I break down and cry. They continue to shout at us.

Finally, after something like 2 hours, they grudgingly book us on the first flight to LAX at 6 a.m., provide us with a hotel voucher and the absolute minimum in food allowance, approximately $12. They tell us to take the shuttle to the hotel and get our butts back to the airport by 5 a.m. It is 1 a.m.

The shuttle doesn't come. We are waiting outside at the shuttle stop. It is January. It is FREEZING. The tears are practically freezing on my face. Most of our warm clothes are in our luggage except for the sweaters and parkas on our back. I'm wearing a cotton sweater because I wanted to be comfortable on the plane. This proves to be entirely insufficient for the Denver cold.

We call the shuttle several times. We begin to lose feeling in our extremities and start thinking about frostbite.

Something like 45 minutes later the shuttle arrives to take us to the hotel. We are pathetically grateful for the warmth.

We arrive at the hotel to find it completely booked. It is around 2 a.m. We need to be up in two hours.

Finally, the kindly desk clerk, seeing my tear-stained face and having heard that we are on an adoption trip, offers us a room which has not been cleaned. We take it.

However, while we've been waiting for the desk clerk to consider our options, we've met our fellow travelers-- a Chinese woman who speaks no English with her adolescent daughter and a young lady going on her first trip as a Peace Corps volunteer. They are not offered a room. We offer to share ours. (Well? What would YOU have done?)

The desk clerk hands us some clean linens and toothbrushes and the five of us are off to our dirty room. We don't care. We're bushed.

A few minutes of embarrassment as each of us tries to brush and wash at the tiny sink without the slightest bit of privacy, we go to sleep-- my husband and I on the bed, the other three on the fold-out couch.

We set the alarm for four a.m. and sleep. Two hours later, we're up again-- no shower, there's no time.

We get to Denver looking like bums, hop the delayed flight to LAX and, after a few strange looks from our fellow passengers, deplane as fast as we can and make a MAD DASH for the China Southern counter-- we have 45 minutes to get to the counter, convince them to transfer the paper tickets to UA , then get UA to book us to Beijing.

Turns out China Southern's desk is not open until 7 pm.

So. We call our agency, our travel agency and my husband's parents. PLEASE do something to help. Our adoption agency phone is answered by the OWNER of the agency which is nice since this is one of the GIANTS of the adoption world. He says not to worry, just call when we have our flight information and they'll coordinate with our guides in Beijing. No problem. Everything will be fine.

Great. We're a bit happier.

We get someone on the phone at our travel agency. Turns out they're a wholesaler with ABSOLUTELY NO customer service. They will not lift a finger to help. Despite the fact that they do a GARGANTUAN volume of business with China Southern they categorically refuse to so much as call on our behalf. Nope. We're on our own.

We find a UA customer service desk. We look even more like street people and probably smell worse. The UA lady takes pity on us, finds us a nice hotel room, gives us TONS of generous meal vouchers and sends us on our merry way.

It turns out that China Southern, whom I call while my husband talks to the UA lady, only flies on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's Wednesday at the crack of dawn. We're stuck in LA until Thursday at 11 p.m. Oy.

Exhausted beyond reason, we find a cab, go to the hotel, email our status to all the people we called, including our recalcitrant travel agency, and fall into a deep, dark sleep.