It has been an extremely busy few days.  We had so much to do to get ourselves out the door to go to China: Settling certain kids with grandparents, making sure everything was set for the kids who would be staying home and the people helping them, gathering the correct documents, etc.  To complicate matters, I had to fly to Florida to attend to a legal matter regarding my father.  I arrived in Florida on Tuesday evening, the court hearing was Wednesday afternoon, and I was scheduled to fly out to Dallas Wednesday evening so we could get to the airport early Thursday morning.  I was settling in at the gate for my flight Wednesday evening, when all of a sudden the sign that had just said “on time” changed to say “cancelled.”  I thought it must be a mistake, because there were no announcements made over the loudspeaker or anything, but I did notice that there were no airline staff at the gate working to get the plane loaded and ready to go.  I made my way to the airline counter, and was told that there was nothing they could do since the entire regional airport network shut down after 8pm.  We checked every nearby airport with no luck.  Finally, we decided I would need to drive in order for me to make the flight to Detroit which would take us to Beijing. After a miserable, somewhat scary overnight (11-hour) drive, I made it safely to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, where Todd, Simeon, and Lillah were waiting for me in the security line.  Todd’s Dad and my sister-in-law were amazing, meeting me outside, returning the rental car for me, and helping me find Todd and the kids.  We are very thankful for everyone’s prayers!

No one really slept much on the plane rides, so we were pretty exhausted upon arriving in Beijing yesterday.  We walked around a little bit to stay awake, got some yuen out of the bank, and bought some dinner at a local restaurant.  The food was amazing, and the kids loved it!  They enjoyed trying to eat with chopsticks.  We all crashed around 7pm local time, which isn’t too bad, but Todd had a hard time sleeping past about 11pm.  I was sound asleep for almost 9 hours!  The kids were so excited, they could hardly contain themselves, but they slept for a bit before finally waking up at around 3am.  Yay for jet lag.

This morning, we enjoyed an amazing breakfast at our hotel.  There were tons of selections, including western choices as well as traditional  Chinese foods.  Then we met our guide along with the other families with whom we are traveling, and we toured Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.  It was an incredible day.  The Great Wall was the most amazing thing to see in person.  Pictures cannot do it justice.  We climbed hundreds of very steep steps to make it to the top of the section we went to.  The kids were so over-the-top excited.  I was amazed at their energy level.  This was not an easy climb, but they got to the top and down while keeping the spring in their steps!

Tomorrow we will fly out of Beijing and into the city where our “gotcha day” will be on Monday, and we will finalize our adoptions and meet our children!  We are so excited!