Bockba Nina is in Vietnam!!

My mom (Kevin has always called her "Bockba Nina") had quite the adventure getting here, and she also gave me quite the scare this morning! She was to meet up with us in LA and fly with us to Hanoi, but she missed the connection due to multiple flight delays. So when we got here, we found out she was going to be arriving 24 hours later than us. I asked our agency staff about getting her a shuttle, and they said that someone would pick her up.

So... we woke up Kevin with just enough time for him to have a bath before heading down to greet Bockba Nina! But while he was in the tub, we got a call from our agency staff to say that the driver was unable to find her (he had been holding a sign) and had already left the airport with another family!!! GASP! We knew that she had made it to Hong Kong, because my dad had talked to her. But where was she?? I wanted to see if she had talked to my dad, so I called him from our hotel (wonder how much that will cost!). He had not, and then I had entered my dad into my panic mode. sigh.

This was never supposed to be an issue, because we were supposed to arrive together. I hadn't had the opportunity to tell her that someone would be holding a sign with her name, so she might have been just looking for a hotel shuttle instead... So I went to the front desk to see if someone had called for a shuttle. I did get the answer that no one had, but apparently my tale really confused them and we were not quite communicating. ;) Then I headed to find the Cathay Pacific airline office, which is connected to our building. It was actually the first time that we had ventured out of our hotel (although not quite outdoors) -- and I was rushing off alone to find the airline office, while Steve and Kevin stayed in our room, in case someone called. So.... I managed to find it, and I had to take a number and wait. There were 5 numbers ahead of me, and this took about 45 minutes!!! I was pacing the floor, watching out the window to see if they would come to find me with the good news that my mom had been found! But that didn't happen. Finally, I was up...and the woman called the airport and found out that my mom HAD arrived 1.5 hours earlier. So where was she???? I rushed back and when I got to the lobby, Steve and Kevin exited the elevator. She had been found!!! :)

It turns out that she had to wait 1 1/4 hours for all the luggage to come off their plane.... and then hers did not appear!! Yup, her luggage is lost. So she had to go talk to them about it... then went out to find a shuttle for the hotel, didn't find one, came back to talk to the same people again for help, someone brought her back outside...and there was a person holding a sign with her name on it!!!! :) Apparently the driver went back to the airport again to locate my mom!!! YAY!!! And he happened to find her in a different area than where he had expected to find her. So our agency had called our room with this news, which is why Steve and Kevin headed downstairs to find me. :) We waited at the front door for her arrival -- and she came!!! Kevin was thrilled!!!! :)