Friday, May 10, 2013

Journey: to Bejing (days 1 & 2)

Wednesday, April 17th:  Getting to Beijing was not as easy as planned. I have found that for some reason flying through O'Hare always has issues for us!! Our flight from DFW to O'Hare was no exception. There were thunderstorms in the Chicago area so our almost 2 hour flight ended up being 3+ hours and leaving DFW was 3 hours late (with 2 trips back to the gate to refuel, grrrrrrr!). When we got off the plane in Chicago we asked about our Beijing flight and they said "RUN" so that's what we did... we ran past the many people sleeping on cots in the open areas of the airport. Lucky for us American Airlines held the flight for us!! Thank goodness!! So with tired legs we made it onto the plane. One good thing was that because of weather and many delays there were not many people on the plane and we were able to stretch out which for a 13 hour flight is a good thing.
Friday, April 18th:  We landed in Beijing past 1am on Friday thanks to the 13 hour time difference. Thanks to our almost missed flight our luggage did not make the quick turn around in Chicago so we got to fill out some lovely paperwork in Chinese at 1am which was not easy. There was a driver waiting to take us to the hotel and our agency guide met us at the hotel. She got us checked in and we crashed for a few hours. Friday was a "free day" for us and we had made plans with our good friends from Tsingua University to go out to New Day and then visit the campus of Tsingua. I had donations for New Day but they were in my luggage which was still on it's way from Chicago, grrr! Bruce was so nice to take us out to visit New Day where David lived with his foster family. David's foster family actually lives about a mile from the main foster home so we didn't see him or they family (we were not allowed to meet his foster family per CCCWA rules). We did get a quick tour of New Day and met several staff members. It was AWESOME to talk to people who knew David and could tell us so much more about him. We also got to meet some of the kids which was very cool since I feel like I know then already thanks to their blog and facebook page. I especially wanted to meet Tally and Henry and I was able to. We also got to meet with the medical doctor on staff who gave us a LOT of information about David's growth and wellness. It was such a gift to get since most families who adopt don't get the specialized reports nor do their children get the very special care that David has had~ we are so BLESSED!!!
We left New Day and went to lunch at the university. We were so happy to see some of my parents past international students at lunch. They treated us to a very nice lunch and we had a lot of fun catching up with them. After lunch we visit Michael's school. Michael is in 6th grade and we got to know him well when his mom was a visiting professor at Baylor a couple of years ago. We walked into his classroom and found out that we were "show and tell", the students asked us questions and it was very neat!! They were taking pictures of us too- kinda weird! After sharing we were off to dinner with the family. They took us to a special restaurant that featured dumplings- we had many different varieties and it was very good. We were so very happy to see and spend time with Huang Lee, Bruce and Michael!! We were tired as we made it back to the hotel and anxious to find out about our luggage. It hadn't been delivered yet but when we awoke at 3am and called down to check, it was in the lobby. Missing luggage may seem like a small thing but when you're 6000+ miles away from home it becomes a BIG deal :)
Up next: Beijing day 2
In Waco, ready to fly to China!!

At New Day foster home!

With Hannah and Grace from New Day

lunch at Tsingua University with many students and a LOT of food!!

6th grade classroom, we were "show and tell" for the day :)

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