Looks Like We Made It!!

We are alive and well in China! We landed in China at 9:30pm Saturday night. ( Your 9:30 am) The flights were long but uneventful. We left Columbus at 11:53 am on Friday so we have had a full 24 hours of traveling. We should be exhausted but we seem to have some energy stores that we didn't know about.

We flew from Columbus to Detroit where we met up with the other three families from our adoption agency that we will be traveling with. We have been blessed with another great group of travel mates. Our group is small so it didn't take long for us to get to know one another. I think we should have a lot of fun with this group and come home with new friends!

We flew from Detroit to Tokyo, which was the long leg of the trip. The flight went pretty well. (With the addition of some medication to help us sleep) It is never easy getting comfortable in such a small seat that hardly reclines. I sat between Shelby and Kurt and felt pretty much squashed the whole time. At one point I woke up with Shelby's legs propped up in mine. She was happily sleeping with her head resting against the side of the window and her legs on me. Obviously, Shelby is a born traveler as she was able to make it work for her.

Kurt was much better on this trip then when we adopted Sydney. He seemed much more calm and relaxed. We even saw several smiles out of him during the last 24 hours. He was a good boy and got up and moved around, something he didn't do at all on his last trip to China. He tried to claim that he didn't sleep on the plane but we took pictures of him sawing logs so he can't deny it.

We did have one scare tonight when we got to our hotel finally. They said to come to our rooms and they would bring our luggage to us. We had our money stash in Kurt's carry on so nit wouldn't get all wrinkled on the long flight over.(Those of you who haven't adopted before would not know that to exchange money they need to be crisp, unmarked, like new bills.) The knock on our door came and all of our bags were delivered but the one with all of the money. We knew it had to be somewhere because we put it on our bus with us. Kurt checked with the others to see if perhaps it was taken to their room instead, but no luck. He was trying to call our guide and he couldn't get the phone to work right. He was becoming increasingly alarmed so I told him I would go to the front desk and take care of it. (It sounded good at the time anyway!) When I get off the elevator in he lobby here came the Bell Hop and what did he have but our very precious suitcase. Whew! I was even starting to get a little concerned.

I know what most of you are waiting for is to read Kurt's posts. He has promised that tomorrow he will post. For now I think we need to get some sleep.

Julie