Our journey started Friday morning at about 10 a.m. when we went to "exchange" our children :) Ashleigh, Austin and Amy are staying with our friends Joe and Amy; Joe and Amy's daughter Amber came to China with us (more on that later). Not many tears when it comes to the good-byes with the kids. They have had plenty of time to prepare.
We headed to the airport and were greeted there by Jim and Joe. It was so awesome to have someone there to see us off and pray for us as we started this adventure.
Speaking of adventure - you surely didn't think travel this time with be without some sort of drama - did you???
Apparently our travel agent accidentally booked Chris on one Denver to LA flight and then booked Amber and I on a different one! We were in line to board the plane and she fed my ticket through, the machine made a funny noise and she said that my ticket was for an earlier flight! She sent Amber's through and the same thing happened! Chris's ticket was for the flight. Well, a long story short - thankfully two passengers didn't show up, because we were all able to make that flight to LAX.
We had a LONG 7 hour layover in LA. We enjoyed our last American meal and a few high paced games of Dutch Blitz!
The 16 hour plane ride really wasn't so bad this time. We flew at night, so it made sense to sleep! We all slept between 8 and 9 hours of the ride. I don't know if any of you remember from our Story to Amy, but the kids all had little gifts to open during the flight to break up the time (courtesy our Sr HI YAC sponsors!). I mentioned in my journal that if anyone loved ME, then maybe I should have some gifts to open next time. Gail cam through for me :) and provided some necessities (Cheetos and PB M&MS) along with a very special compilation of notes from some very special friends!
We are all checked into our hotel. Would you believe that we got the EXACT same hotel room as last time!? It's pretty crazy! As I sit here typing this, I remember getting Amy in this room and everything she went through during those two weeks. I am very emotional about it. I can't imagine how Amy would react to being in this room again. I am choosing to see yet another affirmation that she was not supposed to come.
We are really bored right now. Last time, we barely were settled into our room when our guide called and said we could have Amy a day early. That won't be happening today. We do know that we should be getting Anna tomorrow (Monday - July 2) at about 2:30 (China time). That would be 1:30 for our friends back home in the Central time zone.
Enjoy the pics. They aren't too exciting, but it's all I have until we have Anna!
Family pic of Five
Amy, Austin and Ashleigh with their countdown calendars
