Monday-Tuesday,
June 11-12, 2007

“He who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one.” ~ Japanese Proverb

Here we go…
3 adults,
2 active kids,
20 pieces of luggage,
8 suitcases of orphanage donations,
2 imaginary friends,
1 very carefully-packed tooth*,
a 24 hour plane ride,
a 12 hour time change…
Exhausting.
Flying to the other side of the world to pick up our new daughter….PRICELESS!

*Yes, I really did say a tooth. In the midst of making sure we packed everything we needed for our 16 day trip to China--including all of the necessary adoption paperwork and supplies for a new baby--we couldn't forget Kaylee's baby tooth. It was all part of her big experiment. Earlier this week, Kaylee lost a tooth and decided that instead of putting it under her pillow, she wanted to save it for China. She wants to see if the Tooth Fairy will fly all the way to China, and if she does, if she leaves you Chinese money instead of dollars.

I have to say, other than airport security hassles, our 24 hour plane ride with Kaylee and Madison, went far better than I expected--and really far better than I ever could have hoped for. It was so much fun to experience this through the eyes of a six and four-year-old. Madison made me smile from the first moment of our trip. She thought we were going to climb up on the conveyor belt with the luggage to be taken out to the plane. :)

When we got on the plane, Kaylee immediately discovered the headphones. She put them on and said, “Hey! Listen to this! There's some cool music from China on channel 13!”

And she loved ordering a drink--even though she only chose water. The flight attendant filled a cup with ice, water, and 2 straws, then put down her tray table for her and set down her drink. She leaned back, as if she were at a resort, and said, “Ahhhh…this is SO relaxing!” After he left, she said, “I should have asked him to bring us some food. I'm starving!”

Madison loved staring out the window, and kept lifting the shade up after the flight attendants lowered it on our flight to China. They kept them closed for the majority of the flight, so people would sleep and start adjusting to the 12 hour time-change. That didn't fool Madison, though. She kept lifting the shade up just a crack. Sunlight would come pouring in the dark plane, and she would say, “See! It's morning. It's bright outside.”

Luckily, the girls did sleep some of the time, and enjoyed the adventure most of the time (except for those few minutes, with four hours left on the flight, when Madison went through a bout of yelling, “Want to get out of here! Me want to get out of here RIGHT NOW!!!” Thankfully, she was easily distracted, and that didn't last very long.) We watched movies, colored in coloring books, and started new journals about our trip to China. Kaylee read me the first few chapters of Day of the Dragon King (a Magic Tree House book about ancient China), and Madison ate snacks, snacks, and more snacks--in addition to telling me over and over again that it wasn't night time….see? Probably my favorite memory (second to Madison and the conveyor belt) was playing Junior Monopoly in the dark with Kaylee, as everyone else was sleeping.

Poor Christin (our 18 year old niece) was exhausted--physically and emotionally. After carrying way too much luggage across the Orlando and Los Angeles airports, and entertaining Kaylee and Madison during our layovers, she finally crashed on her tray table for some well-deserved sleep. Christin is absolutely INCREDIBLE-- always positive, always helping, always grabbing the heaviest carry-ons and “personal items” (which were stuffed to the gills), and always sacrificing what she wants to do for what the girls want her to do. We are SO blessed to have her on this trip with us. She is already a tremendous help.

With just a couple hours remaining in the flight, they opened the shades to serve breakfast. Kaylee yelled, “Look! We're higher than the clouds! I think we're in outer space!” And before we knew it, we were 30 minutes away from landing. As the flight attendant made her announcement in Chinese, Kaylee said, “I think I know what that means. She's saying, 'Hold on tight. It's going to be bumpy. Buckle your seatbelts and stay still. We're flying over Asia right now and we'll be landing in China in just a minute.” And as we started to land, Madison started yelling, “I see China! I see China!” They were both so excited.

We landed in Beijing at 5:45 am, gathered our ton of luggage, went through Immigration and Customs, and by 7 am we were on our on our way to Shepherd's Field…