We, on the other hand, decided we had waited so long and had more time to save money up - and with having a 4-year-old and almost 19-month-old would want China Southern's Premium Economy Service out of Los Angeles. We were at Milwaukee's airport two hours early and just anxious to begin on the 29th. We flew first to Minneapolis and hit the first snag. Our plane had not arrived yet. We weren't too worried initially in that we had allowed almost three hours. Two more delays later and Marty was on the phone to our travel agent as the Northwest people were less than nonchalant. We were flying out of Los Angeles at 11:50 p.m., on the 29th and we were being allowed less than an hour layover.

Long story short, we jumped flights and landed at 11:10, didn't have anyone helpful and found the China Southern booth at 11:30. He said "too bad" and that since they did not fly out on Thursdays, we would be stuck in Los Angeles for two more days, which would negate our Beijing leg of the journey, meeting all of the other adoptive families that I feel like I know so well. What was even worse was that when we went back to the Northwest agent to complain since we missed our flight because of them, he told us that our travel agent had booked our journey as two separate round trips (Milwaukee to Los Angeles, then Los Angeles to Beijing) and since this was our final destination, in their eyes they didn't owe us a travel voucher, a flight to China, a hotel, etc.

It's 87 degrees, we are exhausted, I'm crying, and we've been trudging outside around this airport and I'm quite overwhelmed. Mary is in her pajamas and we have no idea where our luggage is (since we checked it to Beijing and didn't know if it was on the original or the secondary flight - yet knew it wasn't in Beijing).

Marty is my hero. He was upset but determined that we were not camping at the airport, renting a room, OR missing out on getting Julia. Our cell phone was at two cells, of course the travel agent was not there and China Southern had left. Marty scanned the boards and saw that there was another flight out to Beijing at 1:40 a.m. The ticket counter was not too far down from the Northwest counter.

He said that we had come too far to be deterred and he began talking to the very nicest, lovely young woman named Jody. She tried contacting China Southern to see if between the two we could get some sort of deal but they were gone. She was on the phone and conversing with all her coworkers and calling them over. She called an army of people, trying to locate our bags. She was miraculous in her persuasion, and while Marty headed back to Northwest to lean on them for luggage, she coordinated with someone else about our rate. It was mind-boggling but we felt there was no alternative - and Marty was not wavering in that we simply needed to do what was necessary to get Julia home. Not a mention made of expense - that will be ironed out later.

Soooo, in the midst of issuing tickets and trying to locate our luggage, Mary leans her sweaty head on my shoulder and says she is thirsty. Jody looks up and shouts to someone... "Go downstairs to the lounge and get a bottle of water." I was astounded.

We find the baggage and take off to the gate to be stopped by security - apparently buying a one-way ticket to Beijing last minute raises some flags. The ladies were friendly and enamoured with Mary. After I was patted down they laughed at Mary spreading her legs on the footprints on the floor like I had to and holding out her arms. My mood swung back up as I heard our boarding call. I frantically called to Marty it was our flight and the TSA ladies laughed and said they'd hold for us. And lo and behold just beyond was our gate, we got directly on the plane.

Now I don't know what premium economy is, but the seats were wide and comfortable and instead of individual screens we had one large movie screen with two smaller flanking. Jody had booked us in the middle row of four seats and held the fourth so that Marty could take one end, I could the other, and Mary had two seats to stretch out on.

For those that don't know me I do not like flying. But I've never flown in such a large plane and it was just lovely. I was surprised at how attentive the service was. It was probably 2:30 and they were serving full meals (chicken/rice or pork/noodles) and then again.

The funniest part of it all was we got on this flight and had no idea of how long it was or when we would arrive. I had two other friends that were on our China Southern flight and I knew they were worried about us not being there. Lo and behold we were a direct flight to Beijing and they had a layover in Guangzhou. We beat them by 7 1/2 hours! But then again, that is another day.