We're Here

Our travel party at "o'dark-thirty" getting ready to leave our local airport.

So today.  Or yesterday and today.  Or whatever period of time it was...  It was long.  Sure, there was lots of complaining about having to sit on a plane all day, but most of it came from me.  :)

Ky learning a little about the homeland of her cousins (Taiwan) on UNC TV as we waited for our first flight.

Caleb, he was hungry and devoured some "grah-netta bars," watching planes go by.

DQ spent time carefully coloring fairies in her Color Wonder book.

Two parents, three kids, FOUR kid suitcases!

A few things I want to remember:

As we touched down in Chicago, Darcy turned to look at me and asked, "Mommy, are we in China?"  

When our second meal came out on the long flight, Caleb was sleeping.  But I knew that he'd be hungry, so I woke him up to eat.  He said that he wanted to sleep but that he also wanted to eat and the kid ate almost every single one of his noodles with his eyes closed.  

Kylie, being her typical outgoing self, made friends with the college student (Simon) that was seated beside her.  Before I knew it, he pulled out his ipad and she became the first one in our family to play Angry Birds.  (I probably would have asked for a turn, but Ian and the girls were in the row in front of Mom, Caleb and I).

When we finally, FINALLY arrived at the airport it was...um...well, we'll call it hazy.  Hazy like I've never experienced.  Hazy like visibility was probably less than 1/2 mile.  We're hoping for nicer weather on Saturday when we go to the Great Wall.  

Despite the haze, when we stepped off the plane, I caught the "smell" of China.  You know, you almost forget how this place smells like nowhere else on the planet.  It's a blend of so many smells, some good, some not so good.  If you've been here before, you know what smell I'm talking about.  Some folks can't stand it.  I however LOVE it and just one "whiff" while hearing the different sounds and being pushed through the crowd by the moving sea of humanity felt like home.  We're so glad to be here!

It didn't take long for us to find Ruth, the ND staff member who was picking us up at the airport.  In just a matter of minutes we were in the van and on our way out of the city, headed to this place that I've dreamed about for so long.  Ruth works in the preschool and is quite familiar with our little guy, so she was telling us some about his personality and said several times that she thinks he is a perfect fit for our family (she's been stalking our blog for months now).  Then we chatted about some of the other kiddos here and before long, we turned off the major highway and onto the smaller roads that would bring us into the village.  And then we pulled up to the gate.  When I read the words, "New Day Creations," I nearly teared up.  So surreal to finally be here!

We were shown our rooms ~ simple but nice ~ (I'll try to take pictures tomorrow ~ not gonna lie, just too tired to mess with the camera anymore tonight) and then went to the cafeteria for dinner.  We had noodles with eggplant and diced pork, 12 jiao zi dumplings, a pot of hot and sour soup, a plate of deep fred chicken and stir fried broccoli. It was MORE than enough to feed all of us and cost us just over $8.  I'm looking forward to more meals here!  We got to peek across to the playroom and through two sets of windows I saw Jace and Vincent.  Oh so precious!

And tomorrow?  Tomorrow we meet our precious Daniel.  I'm thankful for the opportunity for him to get a chance to be around us BEFORE we take custody of him on Sunday.  It's gonna be hard to sleep tonight, but luckily I've got sheer exhaustion on my side...

One of the last photos of the M5 ~ looking a little worse for the wear after 24+ hours of travel time.

(FYI ~ my sweet friend Glenda is posting for me.  Access is somewhat spotty...) 

(No, problem, Kristi! It is my pleasure!)