Sorry folks it has taken so long for me to finish our page, however one morning I did get up at 3:15 a.m. and wrote until 6:30a.m. had about 3 words left to put in and lost everything. I am sure I must have hit something by mistake but don't know what. Ok here we go, we are back in China getting ready to head home.
It is Thursday morning and the day has finally arrived. I don't think any of us are looking forward to the long flight back. Yulin has told us that we must have our bags packed and out by the door at 1:30p.m. in order for the Bell Boy to pick them up and send them to the airport. Catherine and I looked at the little extra room we had in our suitcase and decided we needed one more quick trip to the market. Off we went, grabbing some last few specials we now new we had room to put in our suitcase.
Today we be a day filled with mixed emotions, there was a certain sadness we were all experiencing as we were leaving the Country that gave us such a perfect gift. Friends that we made on the trip would be also hard to leave. With bags packed and out in the hall we just continued to look at Roshandra thanking God for such a special gift. Soon the time came for us to catch the bus and off to the airport, all I could think off was the 12 hr flight would we sleep anymore than the way down or would we sleep less. I am sure when people saw all these babies coming to the same gate they were at they might have possibly wished there was another flight. There it was the boarding call "all passengers flying with small children please go to the gate" that was us. My body felt like it wanted to reject going knowing what the next 12 hrs would bring. The plane filled up rather quickly, all were seated now. The Pilot comes over the intercom to inform us the plane was having problems with the washrooms and it would be another few minutes while they were fixing them. 2hrs LATER WE WERE STILL THERE which means now are flight would have us on the plane for 14 hrs. Already I felt I couldn't feel my legs and we hadn't left yet. Finally we are taxiing out to the runway and off we go. What can I say about the next 12 hrs other than my headset didn't work, it was the same movie as on the way down, Catherine and I didn't sleep a wink all the way however more important our little precious slept almost all the way. It is more important for her to get the rest then us as I know I could hook a rope around my foot and let them pull me off with a forklift if I couldn't walk. Now panic hit would we make our connecting flight to Calgary as we were 2 hrs later arriving than what we expected, immigration customs all these things that would slow us down. Sure enough we did miss our flight as the biggest hold up was waiting for our luggage. Air Canada were good though as they had us on another flight that left 1 hr later. The sad part to all this meant that I would miss my niece Michelle's soccer game. This lag of the trip would take us to Calgary for 3 days to spend time with Catherine's brother Blake and his daughter Michelle. The short flight from Vancouver to Calgary gave us time to reflect back on all our experiences we just went through. I think the biggest thing that affected me most was the poverty and the poverty was not from the lack of working these people worked harder than anyone back home ever does. I now understand when they immigrate to Canada why they work so hard and are so successful.
Roshandra is sleeping again which is good and my headset for the TV is not which is normal. Before we knew it we were on decent and then on the runway. All flights from here on would seem short to what we just came through.
Blake was there to meet us at the airport wow it was good to see a familiar face and finally able to share our little China Doll with a family member. Michelle was still at soccer so we headed over and picked her up. Wow it was good to see her and Roshandra was glad to see her also. There would be lots of stories tonight and I don't know about the sleeping as there is a 12 hr difference from what we are used to in China. It feels so good to be almost home.
