We are in China!!!

We made if safely, but it was quite an adventure!!! The first excitement for the day was in Chicago. For some reason both Jeff and I thought we had to go to the international terminal to get on our flight to Beijing. Well that was wrong!!! We went to check in about 50 minutes before are flight was scheduled to leave and they told us we had to go back to the United Airlines terminal. That would have been fine if the train that was going to take us back to terminal had been working. We waited for ever while we were looking at our watches getting more and more nervous. We tried to get a taxi, without any luck. Finally the train started working and we were on our way. Our nervousness got even more intense when we got to the security check point and saw how long the line was. We seriously were not sure we were going to make it. We scrambled to get all put back together after we were checked out. Jeff was still putting his shoes back on when he told Kai and I to just start running. We took off running through the airport. I was so glad when I saw our gate. There was a guy standing their looking for us and he waived us in when he saw us come running. They were just about to pull our suitcases out of the airplane and take off without us when we got there. We were so relived that we made it!!!

The flight went well. It is a looong flight, and we were glad when we landed. Kai took a little nap at the end which was great. I started feeling really sick right before we landed and I had a paper bag ready. Jeff told me I had to hold it in because he saw on the tv screen that you would be put in quarantine if you were sick at arrival. So I held it in!

Customs went smooth. We met another family that was also adopting, with a different agency. It was nice talking to them.

We got our luggage and headed out looking for our guide that was supposed to meet us at the airport. We waited for well over an hour, but no Joy. I finally exchanged some money, bought a calling card and figured out how to use the payphone here. Luckily I got a hold of her, she had thought we were coming tomorrow. She was willing to come and get us but it would take her a while to get her. I didn't want to interrupt whatever plans she had so I told her we could get to our hotel by ourselves. I got a lady that was standing next to me on the phone and Joy told her the name of our hotel and she wrote it down for us in Chinese so we could show it to our taxi driver. That was smart thinking on her part, because our taxi driver did not speak any English. He obviously could read Chinese because he took us to the right hotel. Yeah!

The hotel lobby is gorgeous and the hotel room is nice. The bed is hard as a rock but I think we are so tired that we should be able to get some sleep.

I went down to the lobby to get us set up for internet when Joy came. I had asked her to call us at the hotel, but she felt bad about not meeting us at the airport so she came down to see us. We walked with her to the grocery store to buy some snacks and water. She is very nice and helpful.

We are now in our hotel room getting ready for bed. It is 6am US time and 7pm China time. The time difference is 13 hours I think. We are glad to finally be here and are looking forward to some sleep.

Thank you Aunt Debby and grandma for making sure Karsten and Sofia had a fun day at home. We saw the pictures that you guys visited great grandma and great grandpa. Right now we are really happy that they are safe at home with you. Give them lots of kisses from us when they wake up.