Into Each Life...

A little RAIN must fall.

And on Saturday January 26, 2008 a tsunami FELL on us. To say that yesterday sucked would be a colossal understatement. Now like most disasters we did not see this one coming. I mean the morning started off fine. Kids were relatively happy. The breakfast was descent. The sky was clear blue with no clouds in sight. FIGURATIVELY speaking!

Let me give you the basic time line of our day as you continue your journey with us. Hey are we having fun yet?

8:15 am – we arrived in hotel lobby in anticipation of leaving for our 11 am flight to Guangzhou. Found out it had been snowing.
8:15-10:30 am – trying to figure out what we should do. The airport in Nanjing was closed. The weather was expected only to get worse. Should we sit in an ‘unheated’ airport for hours with 2 small kids and hope for a flight? Should we take a train to Shanghai and hope to get a flight from there? (Note: if we did not get to Guangzhou by Sunday we would miss our Consulate physical, and our appointment. It would take 2 weeks to get a new one. Apparently the word ‘grace’ is not in the American Consulate dictionary). We decide to go to Shanghai.
10:45 – we begin our bus ride to the airport. The snow is heavy, it is freezing and the traffic is bumper to bumper.
11:30 – arrive at train station. It is COLD. It is snowing. Our kids are outside freezing. We are trying to keep them warm. Jin Tao has been sick and is getting sicker. And the rest of us are sick as well.
12:10 – I take Mei-Leigh and Jin Tao to the most disgusting potty I have ever been in. And I’ve been in some bad ones. We are STILL outside and we are STILL wet and freezing. (There is definitely a pattern developing here).
12:20 – we get our tickets and go inside. STILL no heat.
12:45 – we board our train and leave the train station, headed to Shanghai. It was a good ride. We had heat. Nice seats.
3:15 – we arrived in Shanghai. It is cold and wet. Snow is coming down. We are waiting on the train platform for a porter to help with our bags. Kids are FREEZING and WET. We try to keep them covered with blankets.
3:45 – we leave the platform to try to get tickets to Shanghai. STILL outside. STILL wet and cold. (Seen this before).
5:00 – Finally LEAVE the cold and snow with tickets in hand to Guangzhou (an unexpected $ 700 cost. Thank God for American Express!) in a taxi.
5:45 – we arrived at the airport in Shanghai. We check our bags and then grab a little food for the first time since breakfast. And then wait for our 7:15 flight to Guangzhou.
7:00 – we board the bus to get on our plane to Shanghai. The plane boarding takes place outside. We have our LAST prolonged experience of cold and wet for the day.
7:15 – we have LIFTOFF!
7:15 – 9:30 – plane ride to Guangzhou. Mei-Leigh sleeps. Jin Tao stays up. (I luck out and had the seat next to Mei-Leigh).
9:30 – we ARRIVE in Guangzhou!
9:45 – we pick up ALL of our baggage!
10:00 – we meet our driver and guide, ‘Bobby,’ he is AWESOME!
11:00 – we arrive at our hotel (The White Swan) in Guangzhou.
11:15 – we make it to our room 1205! We are dry and warm. We are all TOGETHER!

YEAH – it was a pretty lousy day - but it was worth it.

• Mei-Leigh got to play in snow for the first time. During the great ‘Shanghai debate’ I took her outside of the hotel in Nanjing. We threw snowballs, made a very little snow man and Mei-Leigh did 2 snow angels on the ground. The first thing she said when got on our plane at 7:15 after 11 hours of ‘wet insanity’ (with a HUGE smile on her face) was “baba, I’m really glad I got to see snow today!”
• Mei-Leigh and Jin-Tao showed what awesome kids they are! They handled all of this BETTER than most adults would.
• Seeing Me-Leigh and Jin Tao pull one of our small carry-ons TOGETHER to our gate.
• Laurie and I once again showed that TOGETHER we can get through anything. I REALLY love that lady! (Almost as much as she loves me, lol). God has really blessed me with the perfect lady for me. (Man, I sure hope she reads this…)
• And we are one step closer to bringing our son home!
  

I kept telling Laurie in the midst of the cold and wet, “someday this will make a story, but right now it just sucks!” I’m glad we have moved on to the GREAT story phase.

Thanks for your ‘continued’ prayers. Thanks for journeying with us. Thanks for your comments. Though we can’t read them we have a friend who forwards all comments to us (Thanks Lisa!).

We’ll check in later (it’s 6 am China time 1/27)

Hey pray for Jin Tao severe cold and Monday US physical.

And always when reading a post from me -Sorry for the lenght and hey you should expect tyops