We made it!

The title of the post says it all!  We finally made it....a day and a half later.

We started it all off at 4:00am EST packing a few last minute items and heading out the door by 4:45am.

 We left out of our local airport for a change, instead of Orlando.  And thankfully we were able to check our bags all the way through to Beijing, though having all of them arrive is another story.

 I let Caleb bring his camera, my first ever DLSR...a Nikon D40X.  I love having my little sidekick.

We laid over in Atlanta for almost 6 hours.  We got some breakfast, and surprisingly the time passed quickly.  We also bought Madeline her first point and shoot camera. She had fun taking photos of her unicorn and anything else.

Both kids were fascinated with the planes.

Thankfully, there were charging stations everywhere.  So our electronics (and sanity) were in good shape.

Our 14 hour flight to Seoul felt every bit like 14 hours.  Between the in-flight entertainment and all our iPads, DVDs, and iPhones, we kept occupied.  But this was the first time we've made this trip during the day.  So very little sleep was had.  Korean Air did a great job of keeping us fed and hydrated, and they were really great with the kids.  It really was a great flight despite being so long.

Since our flight leaving Atlanta was a bit delayed, we barely had enough time to make our transfer and get to the gate.  I had seen there was this cute little Hello Kitty cafe at the airport and wanted to snap a photo of Madeline with the famous kitty.  Fortunately, it was on our way to the gate.

We finally arrived to the hotel....minus one bag because of the flight delay.  Nice.  And as I suspected, as least one of our non-smoking rooms smelled of smoke.  Patrick and Caleb slept in that one because Patrick is just so gracious like that.  While everyone else was up at 4am, I however, had an awful headache and barely made it to breakfast after spending some time with my head over the toilet bowl.

I'm happy to say, though that with motrin and little more sleep, I'm feeling much better, and we are on our way to see the Summer Palace. Thanks so much for following our travels.  To say we're excited to be here would be a serious understatement!

Madeline's dance recital and we're on our way!

Well, I was really hoping to get this post up before we left, but seeing that I am typing this from my iPad and the Atlanta airport, that apparently didn't happen. We are passing the time here during our almost 6 hour layover. Just 2 hours left to go. Lol.  We will board our plane bound for Seoul, South Korea at 1:15pm and arrive on Tuesday at 4:30pm (that would be Tuesday morning back in the States.)   We are surviving thanks to charging stations and electronic devices. I don't know how folks traveled transcontinental back in the day...I guess with lots of books. 

Anyway, I wanted to share a few photos from Madeline's dance recital. I took a few photos of some of the girls before the rehearsal on Thursday. Tropical Storm Andrea kept us right at the performing arts center instead of venturing around downtown. My sister Deb brought her camera along too and took some closer shots of Madeline and the girls. So I'm including her photos from the actual recital.  The theme for this year's children's program was Colors. Madeline's class was purple. Their ballet number was to the Barney song Perfectly Purple Day, and their tap number was to the One Eyed One Horn Flying Purple People Eater. All the classes were so cute.  It was such a joy to watch. 

Well next time you hear from us, we will be half way around the globe.  Continued prayers for safe travels would be appreciated. 

 

Coming down to the wire

I apologize for sharing the big news of our TA and then disappearing.  I have good reason though.  We have nailed down our travel plans and will be leaving this Monday!  We have been busy making lists, crossing things off them, add new ones, etc...shopping, packing, making decisions.  Now that we have finally nailed down the details, like flights and hotels, we can breathe a little bit better.  So that's some good news.   (And for those of you who were also losing sleep like me over the camera backpack, have no fear; I found one! lol.  You can sleep well at night now.)  Anyway, here is the quick rundown on our itinerary:

June 10: Fly to Beijing (arrive June 11)
June 11-16: Sightseeing (Summer Palace, Great Wall, Forbidden City/Tian'an men Square, and maybe Bei Hai Park), train to Taiyuan, Shanxi
June 17: Forever Family Day- receive Havi
June 18-21: Process adoption paperwork, visit Jinci Temple and Pingyao ancient city
June 22: Fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong
June 23-25: Medical exam for Havi and process her immigration visa, visit the Zoo, train to Hong Kong
June 26-29: Sightseeing...TBD
June 30: Fly home

That's it in a nutshell.  We are actually preparing for Madeline's dance recital, and today is the big rehearsal.  I had planned on snapping a few photos of the girls in her class before the rehearsal gets started.  However, today is going to be a soaker, thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea.  So dancing around the streets of downtown won't be happening.  Bummer.  Maybe I can still pull something else off.  The actual recital is Saturday afternoon.  I hope to share photos before we leave for China, even if it's just a few.

Now to completely change subjects with no segue at all... we took the dumplings down to the river to go fishing a few weeks ago.  They just casted from the pier. Although they didn't catch anything, they had a blast.

Two big letters.........TA!

Can you believe it?  God has done it again!  

Our agency said to expect TA in 2-3 weeks.  That was almost 2 weeks ago.  Yep.  He's in the details.

Well, I was sitting in the kitchen munching on an apple and texting my sister and hubby when I noticed I had some new emails.  I could see that one of them was from our China coordinator, and when I saw the words "Congratulations.  BAAS received your TA this afternoon," I almost choked on said apple.  For real!

So now the planning is kicking into high gear and the packing must commence.  Unfortunately the new camera/laptop backpack I purchased last week was waaaay too big on my petite frame.  So I need to ship it back and try again.  Ugh.  I really want to wear a backpack to tote around all my gear so that I can wear Havi in the carrier without having to keep a bag from falling off my shoulder.  So I really need to pick something quick.  We are hoping to leave mid June after Madeline's dance recital.

Anyway, enough rambling.  Now for some photos.  Shame on me; I didn't get either hubby to snap a photo of me with my sister the weekend of our birthday/Mother's Day.  Pathetic, I know.  I did, however, follow all the littles around as they walked over to the playground and played wildly one night after dinner.

I love watching Caleb take Josh by the hand.  It's a foreshadowing of the weeks to come.

These last two photos crack me up.  I wanted a shot of all the kids together. So Caleb corralled Josh.  Madeline and Leah jumped into the shot.  But I couldn't convince Madeline to put her knees down so she didn't flash the world.

She couldn't take it and up and left.  And the other three came crashing down.  Not quite the end result I had in mind! lol

Anyway, I'll be sure to keep you all posted on our travel plans when we nail them down.  I plan on blogging when we travel. So be sure to check in on us and leave some comment love.  It'll mean a lot to us while we're half way around the globe.