May 30, 2007

Well, it is interesting to think about this day a year ago because with the 13 hour travel time difference, we "lost" it. :)

We were picked up at 4:00 in the morning on the 29th and were in route to China ALL day. We were in our hotel room for the night an ordering room service at 10:05 p.m. China time on the evening of the 30th (9:05 a.m. WI time).

When we checked in for our first flight that morning we were allowed to check our bags all the way through to Beijing. It was nice that we didn't have to hunt for our luggage and re-check it all with each layover. I remember being so concerned about the weight. We had spend the night packing, unpacking, re-packing, removing things, rearranging things, redistributing the weight between the bags and our carry-on backpacks, etc. We had a slightly emotional "good-bye" when we left my parents to go through security. I remember thinking that they seemed to be just as excited as we were to finally have Hope on her way home.

Good-bye Minnesota


We left gate G3 at MSP on time and had "wheels up" at about 7:40 a.m. Our flight was pretty uneventful with the exception of 1/2 a can of pop spilling in my lap. We arrived at LAX and found the international terminal where we had a wonderful man check us in through business class for our flight to Narita on All Nippon. He told us that our flight was over-booked by 40 people and was so gracious to help us out by getting us through the gate. God bless that guy! :) We had a little down time and were able to find some pizza for lunch. Ron and Gary played cards, Lexi and Holly played with dolls, and I had a little time to write. - *SO MANY EMOTIONS!* -

We survived the longest leg of the flight to Narita, Japan. When we landed there we didn't have a lot of time to get to our flight to Beijing, but we made it thanks to another angel, a teacher returning to her Chicago home who lead us through the airport. We were exhausted and slept during this flight. We were awake for the landing though. It is incredible to see the vastness of the Beijing lights when you're flying in over the city. They seem to go on forever. I think we were all in shock that we were actually finally there. It didn't take us long to find our bags and our waiting driver. He took us through the city...our first experience as passengers on the busy (did I mention BUSY!) Beijing roadways. We were so happy to make it to the Jinglun Hotel and see this:

But, we were so excited that we'd made it and wanted to visit with some of the other families and talk about our plans for the next couple of days. In spite of our exhaustion there was so much energy in the air.

Ron - set up and ready to go (this of course was pre-laptop crash)

Funny story...We blew the fuse in our room! :) We plugged in an outlet strip, flipped it on, and promptly lost power. OOPS :)

"I can't believe we're actually here! We are standing on the other side of the world! This is finally happening!"

P.S. "And I'm very happy I don't have to get on a plane for another four days!"