Saturday, December 4, 2010

We Made It!

It's Sunday morning here in Nanjng, and we just finished breakfast and cleaned up/organized our room. There's SO many things I want to share already, but I will admit, I am feeling the jetlag this morning. So bear with me if this post isn't as clear as it could be! ;)

We got up at 3:15 am on Friday, left our house at 4:30 am, and flew out of Richmond, VA, at 7 am.


Landed in Newark around 8:30, with some time to kill before our LONG flight to Beijing. It was fun exploring the airport a bit, especially since we still had some energy at this point. Ate lunch at a little diner (thank you, David and Teresa for the money for lunch!)....It seemed odd eating lunch at 10:30, but we were hungry. We called the boys and told them goodbye :(...


 Proving that my husband is a technology geek.....talking on my phone while using the internet on HIS!



We boarded the flight for Beijing nd so began one of the longest 13 hours of my life! Okay, well, it wasn't toooo bad. In some ways, it was worse than I expected, and in some ways better. We flew Continental, and they had TV's at every seat, complete with movies and games. I can't say that I got to use it much...maybe one hour?.....but Ellie loved the kids games, and that helped pass the time for her.  Traveling with an active toddler is just hard. Ethan was SO very tired, and wanted a bed to sleep in. I would rock him, he would scream for a few minutes, then fall asleep, only to wake up 20 minutes later, still tired, and now mad :) We finally figured out that he would stay asleep longer if we laid him down....but with only 3 seats and four people, that meant somebody had to stand. So Brent and I took turns standing in the back of the plane and letting Ethan sleep. Once he slept for 2 hours or so, he was more pleasant.

We got 2 meals AND a snack on the flight. Weird eating breakfast in the middle of the night to us, though. VERY happy when we finally touched down in Beijing! At this point, we'd been up for almost 24 hours. We had to claim our bags and go through security again in Bejing, then we very slowly and groggily found our gate for our next flight. Brent found these reclining seats and I made the mistake of laying down. BIG MISTAKE as I was almost asleep when they made the boarding call, and I admit, I felt HORRIBLE. Praise the Lord, Ethan fell asleep as soon as we got on our plane and slept the entire 2 hour flight....and Mommy slept with him! That little bit of sleep helped tremendously! We met our guide at the airport, and headed to the hotel.


Sleepy Eliana.....



Exhausted baby boy!


The oh-so-comfy-but-don't-lay-down-on-me-when-you're-sleep-deprived-seats!


Our only picture of the Beijing smog.




Exhausted beyond words, but Welcome to Nanjing, the birthplace and home of our daughter!

3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad to see that you all made it to China. Can't wait to hear more about Nanjing!! Vicki

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  2. Great pics & description. Sleep well!

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  3. Glad you made it, despite the trials of the long flight and airport changes.

    Ruby

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