We left Louisville at abut 10:40 am Thursday 3/20. We got up and took the kids to school and then my parents took us to the airport. It worked out well to have that routine for the kids stay normal and they were super excited because it was Grandparents day at their school and they were having a special program and all their local grandparents were coming to school to see their program, visit their classroom and see their school. We took them to the school parking lot and got out and gave them our last goodbye loves instead of dropping them in the car line as usual. I really tried to hold it together but the kids could tell I was getting teary. Thankfully, instead of getting sad, they just made fun of me for being a cry baby. Good thing they didn't see me after we pulled away!!
We had a short flight to Chicago on a TINY airplane. I was so claustrophobic. It was terrible. We couldn't even stand up straight in the aisle. Thankfully it was only 50 minutes or so before we landed and got off that plane. I do not look forward to doing that again with a 20 month old after our loooong flight to get home! We grabbed some lunch at the airport in Chicago and ate quickly, went through our passport and visa check and then boarded the flight to Beijing. Thankfully, this plane was much better. It felt like it was a hundred times bigger than that dinky thing that took us to Chicago!We originally had another person in our row of three seats, but the flight was not full and the flight attendant was very helpful in re-arranging people to maximize comfort. She saw our long legs and let the other lady in our row move to another row where there was only one other person. I don't think we would have made it if she hadn't done that. Airplanes are NOT made for tall people. It was so uncomfortable. We were in economy plus which we upgraded to for extra legroom. We kept joking about taking out an extra mortgage or something so we could upgrade to first class on the way home. I'm also not looking forward to that never ending flight with a 20 month old, but am SO glad we bought him a ticket so we know we'll have the whole row for the three of us!!
We had a window seat which I was really looking forward to, but we were right on the wing! The wings of a 777 are MASSIVE. We basically could hardly see anything but the wing, but it didn't matter anyway because they darkened the plane and asked us to close our windows for most of the flight so people could sleep. We tried to sleep but couldn't get comfortable enough. We watched some movies and some TV, read our books and worked crossword puzzles on Steve's phone. They have a decent selection of TV and movies on demand, but the touch screens were not very good. I watched "The Book Thief" and Steve watched the recent Nelson Mandela movie. I had thought I'd watch more movies but ended up feeling restless and needing to stick with lighthearted stuff. They had some episodes of Friends that were in English with Chinese subtitles so that was fun.
The flight pattern from Chicago to Beijing takes you way up north over Canada and Alaska and then west to Beijing. The screens had an option that showed you the flight pattern and where you were, altitude, time remaining, km travelled, etc. It was very cold in the air. It read an external air temperature of -80 for most of the flight the windows got a bit icy! It was also weird that it was light outside for the entire trip. Because of the areas we were traveling it was daytime everywhere we flew while we were flying over!
We landed at about 3:40 pm local time (3:40 am home time!). We went through customs which was super easy. It was basically just a couple guys watching us walk by and randomly selecting bags to be scanned. They didn't open a single bag that we saw! Definitely not like the TSA at home!! I know going through customs in Chicago on the way home will be a way different story!! Our guide met us as we came through customs. She had a sign with our names on it. She had a van and a driver and they brought us to our hotel.
Beijing is beyond huge. Over 20 million people. Huge buildings packed in everywhere! It is significantly larger than NYC. Hard to conceptualize and we've only seen a fraction of it!! They drive like MANIACS here and traffic is insane. We had heard about the crazy driving and it definitely lived up to its reputation!
We got checked into our room and I took a quick shower and then we met our guide in the lobby along with another adopting family she is currently serving and we all went to dinner. I had heard that Chinese food is WAY better in China and boy is that true! I always thought I didn't really like Chinese food, but the authentic Beijing dinner we had was amazing!! Our guide ordered for us and everything was family style, meaning we rotated the turntable and served ourselves out of the large portions they brought for us all to share. It was super yummy.
After dinner, we hit the sack. We'd been up over 26 hours at that point and basically fell into bed. As I'm writing this, it is Saturday night in China and today we visited the New Hope Foster Home and the Great Wall of China. I can't wait to blog about that, but I'm so tired...the jet lag is still killing me! Pictures are taking forever to load...tomorrow morning we fly to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia where we will meet Caleb on Monday. Hopefully we won't have internet issues there like we've had here. We moved rooms in the hotel tonight because we had problems with our internet in the other room. It works now, but is slow and the pictures take forever to load. I have lots of pictures I want to share, so hopefully I can do that tomorrow! It was an awesome day and I can't wait to tell you all about it!
So very excited for you all! Prayers for jet lag adjustment to occur quickly and for you to have a wonderful day with Caleb tomorrow.
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