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It's 12:48pm (Lunch-ish). We leave in an hour to convert the orphanage donation and in-country fees to Yuan. We will be with Hayden around 3:30pm. The contractions are hard, but we're using our "breathing exercises".... hee hee hoooo, hee hee hoooo....
As Darrell said earlier, we didn't find any clothes we wanted to buy in the mall, but we had fun trying to communicate with the people there. And remember, Chinese people are small. It's crazy when McKenna is a size large! I'm glad my suitcase made it!
Our hotel is beautiful and the beds are comfortable. I had heard that beds in China are very hard and I wondered if we would find them comfortable. At least at the Grand Hotel, they are!
WARNING: VERY LONG POST WITH PICTURES. WE ARE HAVING TO SUBMIT BLOG ENTRIES THROUGH EMAIL, SO WE CAN'T MAKE THEM LOOK AS NICE AS WE'D LIKE, BUT YOU'LL GET THE IDEA. WE'LL POLISH THE BLOG WHEN WE GET BACK HOME.
We have not had much opportunity to update the blog because sometimes there was not internet access and when we finally had internet, the computer battery ran low because our power converters were (are) in our luggage--one in mine and one in Darrell's. Speaking of luggage, six of our seven checked bags arrived at our hotel in Beijing late Saturday night, so everyone now has clothes except for Darrell. Today we learned that his bag will hopefully make it to Beijing on July 8th. Unfortunately, we left Beijing about 2 hours ago (Sunday, July 4th at 2:05 pm local time). So, they will fly it to Nanning on the 9th. Unfortunately, we leave Nanning on the 9th and fly to Guangzhou. Darrell is being such a good sport about the whole thing. We are mostly thankful that McKenna's bag made it with the gifts we brought for Hayden.
We had hoped to get to see London while we were there, but because of flight delays, we missed it. I'm not sure how much of it we would've remembered anyway, because that was our hardest jetlag day. We all ended up sleeping in the airport while waiting for our next flight. McKenna even laid down on a bench and fit her body around the armrests and slept HARD! We did have a good lunch there, though. And it's really a good thing that we liked it because it cost $113!!! All three kids had a sandwich and fries. Darrell and I each had 1 piece of fish with fries (fish and chips, of course) and we had smoothies to drink. $113!!! Good thing food in China is cheap!
The trip from London to Beijing was supposed to be just under 10 hours long. Unfortunately, we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours while they tried to sort out the luggage issue. Thankfully, there are lots of movies to choose from, and each person gets to choose their own. And before I forget, I want to add that the food on British Airways was amazing for airplane food. Speaking Darrell's love language! For dinner we had a choice of braised beef with onions or curried chicken with rice. Each was served with salad, a roll, and raspberry white chocolate mousse. After dinner, hot tea with cream and sugar was served. SERIOUSLY! Then, for breakfast we had quiche with roasted tomato and (okay, this was a little weird, but it tasted good) beans--pork and beans style, served with a muffin and yogurt, juice, and again, hot tea afterwards. It's a good thing we ate it, too, because when we finally landed and then waited in line for 2 hours to register our lost luggage, we had no time to eat lunch before joining our group for sightseeing.
From: Tracy Adcock <tracyadcock@gmail.com>Date: July 3, 2010 8:03:06 AM GMT+08:00Subject: Across the PondI'm not sure I can write anything coherent right now, but we made it to London! Well, the Heathrow Airport, anyway. And, once again, we are thankful for unexpected blessings.
When we were booking our airline tickets we learned that we could save about $150 per ticket by driving to Dallas instead of flying from Little Rock, so we decided to figure out how to make that happen. It didn't take long, because our good friends Dave and Michelle Younkman agreed to drive to Dallas together on July 20 to pick us up and drive us and our car home. We were even MORE thankful for that arrangement when we checked in at the DFW airport. The flights from Little Rock to Dallas were cancelled! If we had planned to fly, we would have had to make a plan IN THE MOMENT with only minutes to spare. Needless to say, we were very thankful to avoid that stress!
Leaving home yesterday was a strange emotional experience. Knowing that we were leaving and when we returned, life would not be at all like the life we left. Adding Hayden to our family will be fun and rewarding, I'm sure. But for a while, it will starkly contrast how "easy" our life is now with our kids all being teenagers (almost). Trying to imagine what life will be like when we get home is fun, an scary from a selfish prospective.
Our flight from Dallas to London was fairly uneventful. It is fun to tell people in conversation why we are traveling and show them Hayden's picture. Everyone is excited with us and comments on how beautiful Hayden is.
We had a couple of moments worthy of remembering. Darrell and I got up to go to the bathroom (at the same time so we didn't have to disturb the man sitting in the aisle seat any more than necessary). I came out and waited while Darrell went in. Not long after he got in there we hit some pretty intense turbulence and he accidentally hit the "call attendant" button. So, I'm standing outside the restroom holding on for dear life, after telling a couple of attendants why I was not returning to my seat right away, when one of them starts banging on the bathroom door. While Darrell was in there. He told me that whoever was in there had called for an attendant and wondered if I knew if the man was ok. So, he's BEATING on the door YELLING, "Are you okay, Sir? Are you okay?" And I was thinking (knowing) that if he was okay before, he wasn't now, thinking this guy was going to barge right in on him! Darrell said if the attendant came in he was going to calmly ask for a gin and tonic! HA! HA! As if that was the reason he hit the call button in the first place! HA! HA! We laughed until we cried!
The other moment wasn't as funny, maybe, but had the potential to be! I have known that I tend to panic when in confined spaces for too long, and had even mentioned numerous times that I was not looking forward to this part of the trip. With all the craziness getting ready to go and then the aforementioned emotional introspection, I had honestly forgotten to be worried about the long flights. Well, I remembered about 6 1/2 hours into the 9 hour flight to London. I had fallen asleep, quite comfortably I should add, with my inflatable neck pillow around my neck, the little headrest "wings" pulled out, my headphones in to block out crying baby noise, Parker's chair in front of me reclined, and Darrell on one side asleep and a nice stranger on the other side asleep. I woke up feeling pretty rested and seeing daylight, assumed we were near landing. When I checked and found that we still have 2 1/2 hours left, this involuntary feeling of panic started to rise in me. I got up and walked around, which helped for a little bit, but when I sat down the feeling of panic came on even stronger. There was a couple of minutes when I was thinking, "I cannot do this! This is the SHORTEST flight of our entire trip and I am freaking out! I don't know how I'm going to get home, but I must get there right away because there is NO WAY I can complete this trip." The only thing scarier than those feelings is the realization that there is no way out. Of the plane or the trip. Thankfully, Darrell woke up and took turns fanning ourselves. Then I started watching a movie, fell sound asleep again and woke up just in time to get my stuff together. God is so gracious! I plan to take some Benedryl (sleep aid) to make sure I sleep through a sufficient part of the next flight. If that doesn't work, Darrell and the kids will likely their own funny stories to tell.
We didn't get to to into London because our plane was delayed leaving Dallas, leaving us just short of enough time to get to Windsor Palace, get lunch, and get back here. So, right now McKenna is sound asleep with her feet up in her seat, Parker is asleep bent over in half, Logan is walking around doing fine, and I've fallen asleep at the keyboard a couple of times. So, this must be the jetlag I've heard so much about.
Most of all, we are having fun together and anticipating that one moment when we meet Hayden face-to-face.
