"Yesterday" According to MaMa

Hello All,
I know that Steve has already posted about our adventure's traveling to GZ yesterday with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, CRAZY people everywhere and more snow that I ever needed to see again on such an important day, but I thought I would add some pics and some more details from MY PERSPECTIVE, which is a little less of a time line and more of a "OH MY LARRY!!! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

It all started like normal day (or shall I say Friday night packing, baths and playing) As you can see, Jin Tao and Mei Leigh were all clean and playing on the beds together having a blast. Little did we know...that the next morning our entire world would come to a crashing halt and everything as we know it was INSANE!! (lol, see the difference already in mine and Steve's post:)))

Then, on Saturday, we got up, got dressed looked out the window and thought "AHHHH how nice, Snow for Mei-Mei before we leave Nanjing....but OH MY LARRY...I have never seen so much snow come down in such a short time, nor have I see an entire city go into complete and utter mayhem. The Hotel lobby was filled with people trying to get SOMEONE to drive them to the airport (which was estimated to take over 3 hours) to try and at least get there in case their flight was going to leave, and there we were in the middle of this insanity with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere!!!

Finally after a 2 hour wait, our guide decided that we could to the TRAIN STATION (not the airport) take a train to Shanghi which is no where near GZ but suppose to be a better place to try and get a flight to GZ due to the fact that is was not snowing in Shanghi and they have flight running all day long at that airport...so off we went in a VAN in the SNOW with the most insane drivers in the world with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere

After arriving at the Train Station along with everyone else in this CITY trying to get home, we waited and got tickets to travel to Shanghi. Below is one of the MANY people we had to PAY to take our luggage off a van, off a train, to a taxi, and to the airport...EVERYTHING COSTS SOMETHING!!!

And here we go, into the Train station with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere!!! (I swear to you, that China has about 6 more billion people in this Country than 2 years ago)

I thought now was the time to inform everyone that in China...if it's cold outside, it's cold inside. And I'm not talking "Oh, I'm a little cold" I'm talking you keep every piece of clothing that you have on...on. No heat at the Train Station, Airports, Hotels (well, the hotel does have heat, but the doors are opening all the time and so it's about 60 degrees all the time)

1:00 p.m. and finally we are on the train ready to leave for Shanghi (a two hour trip). Jin Tao is just plain "wiped out". He has been drugged around all day long! (Little did I know that up till now, we've actually had a good day, and that just around the corner...more COLD is coming

After arriving at the Train Station, standing outside in the snow getting tickets, Paying more people to move our luggage around (to the wrong place by the way) finally packing into a Taxi (paying for that too) we arrive at the Rainbow Airport, which thank Goodness was heated. We stayed there and waited for our flight to leave...and by the way...Flights is China are a little different then what I'm used to. I'm used to going into the Airport, walking down a tunnel and getting on the plane...but NO NOT IN CHINA..No matter if you are in 32 degrees below zero, to get on your flight, you load onto a bus (cold), get driven to the outside of the plane (cold), stand out side waiting in line to walk up the steepest stairs (with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere!!! ) in the cold!

So, here we are finally on the plane heading to GZ. By the way, we did not get seated together on this flight, which meant Me and Jin Tao were together and behind us was Steve and Mei-Leigh. So as you can see from my face and Jin Tao's...it was not going to be a "fun" flight. Keep in mind, this is Jin Tao's first plane ride, which means his first time in a "confided area", first time being restrained in a seat belt, first time not being able to sit with everyone, and to say the least, if was very hard on him. He did not want to sit still or in his belt, his ears hurt on take off and landing and Mama and Jin Tao had a battle of the wills during this whole flight over kicking the seat in front of him and putting the try up and down...so...after about 1 1/2 hours and a lot of craziness, Jin Tao decided he had to go to the bathroom, so...I got up, looked behind me and there was my lovely husband and beautiful daughter, laying together, head to head, sleeping like angels. At this point, I reached down, punched by lovely husband in the arm to "encourage him to wake up" so that he could watch our things while I took OUR wonderful new son to the potty. Needless to say, he awoke and agreed to my request.

Finally, our plan lands in GZ and the 6 billion people on our flight rush to get up to leave.

So, All in All, everything was fine, just a couple of bumps in the road. Jin Tao has a very bad cold and could not sleep very well last night, so please keep praying for him. Mei-Leigh is doing amazing and playing behind me now, Jin Tao taking a nap and finally, we are one step closer to bring him home!