We had a very early start on a very chilly morning (17 degrees)! BRRRR! We were up at 3:30 a.m. and got the girls ready to go by 4:00 a.m. They were very sleepy . Hannah and Holly both had been very excited about our trip to China and about getting their new sister but were not quite so excited at 3:30 in the morning! Hannah told us that she had changed her mind and didn’t want to go to China! She wanted us to let her stay home with her big brother Ben. She tried to convince us that he would be very lonely without her! We managed to convince her that Ben would be fine without her. We arrived at the Springfield airport at 4:30 a.m. The girls didn’t like going through the airport security at all!! Hannah couldn’t understand why she had to take her coat off because she was still really cold and Holly absolutely didn’t want to take her shoes off (she is a shoe fanatic and nobody messes with her shoes)! However if that wasn’t bad enough then they had to give up Rosie the poodle and Pink Dog long enough for them to pass though the security scanner!! All was fine after they got all of their personal possessions back! We left Springfield at 5:50 a.m. and arrived in Chicago at 7:30 a.m. where it was lightly snowing. The girls really enjoyed the flight to Chicago. We left Chicago at 10:00 a.m. headed for Shanghai. The flight was 14 ½ looooong hours!! We had not been able to book seats with us all sitting together on this flight but we are so thankful for a couple of very nice gentleman who were willing to change seats with us (one of them gave up his aisle seat for a seat in the in the middle of the row). The girls did amazingly well!! They stayed occupied most of the time with their magna doodles, play dough, coloring books and lots of snacks!! We also took along a portable DVD player and new movies. Since the DVD player only had a 5 hour battery we saved that activity for the last part of our trip. The girls napped off and on as well! Holly only had to go potty 10-15 times :o)
All smiles now!
I'm ready to go to China now!
Saturday, December 5 --
We arrived in Shanghai on Saturday, December 5th at 2:30 p.m. China time (12:30 a.m. Saturday, December 5th back home). We were so tired but glad to be safely on the ground and able to stretch our legs!! Our luggage and the stroller made it! We were able to retrieve everything and make it through customs without a hitch!! Praise the Lord!!! We were scheduled to have a 6 hour layover in Shanghai before boarding our plane for Guangzhou. The airport in Shanghai was very nice and easy to navigate. We did get lots of stares from the locals (not sure if it was from us pushing a double stroller or because of the Guatemalan princess and Chinese princess who were riding in it). Several people did smile and spoke to the girls. Most of the restaurants we found in the airport were Chinese but we managed to find a Burger King and they accepted American cash (we hadn‘t exchanged our money yet)!! Praise the Lord!!! After we had eaten we found a nice place to set and rest. Both girls went to sleep and slept pretty much right up until we boarded the plane for Guangzhou which was of course delayed. Instead of leaving at 8:30 p.m. we left at 10:45 p.m. (what’s a couple more hours right…..). We arrived in Guangzhou at 2:30 a.m. China time Sunday December 6th (Saturday at noon back home). The trip took 30 hours!!! We were very thankful to see our guide Cordelia waving at us as we collected our luggage!! She gave us each a big hug and then took us out to the van that was waiting for us. John our driver loaded all of our luggage and then we took the 45 minute drive to the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Cordelia went over our itinerary with us during the drive. We will get Hope around 2:30 p.m. on Monday at the Civil Affairs Bureau (which will be 12:30 a.m. Monday morning back home). Hope’s Forever Family Day is also her third birthday! Praise the Lord!!! It has been our prayer that we would be united with her by her third birthday!! Cordelia also told us that there will be around 40 families scheduled to receive their children at the CAB office on that day and that the building is very small. They have asked that upon receiving our daughter that we ask only a few questions at that time and then leave the building shortly thereafter. Cordelia told us that if we have a lot of questions that she will try to get the answers to them from the orphanage staff before we leave China. We told her we had sent a care package to Hope and a letter filled with questions to the orphanage back in July. We received answers at that time to all of the questions we had asked along with some updated pictures. We arrived at the familiar surroundings of the White Swan Hotel at 3:30 a.m. (we had stayed here during the last part of our trip to China in 2006). Cordelia got us checked in and to our room very quickly. It was so good to stretch out on a bed even if it does feel like you are sleeping on a pile of bricks (the beds in China are known for being very very hard). We had been up for 36 hours now and time to go to sleep!!! Shown below are a few pictures taken while we were traveling and some updated pictures of Hope (Two days before we left for China we were very surprised to receive an email from a family who had visited Fushan SWI (Hope’s orphanage). They sent us several recent pictures of Hope that they had taken sometime in November around Thanksgiving. What a special blessing!!!).
Good night!!!!
