We arrived at the airport at 5 AM on June 3. We walked up to the counter to check in and the lady looking at our visas made the comment that David's was expired. Then she said that David's visa was only a 30 day visa and these were issued in April. I took a deep breath and asked to see them. Clearly these two ladies had not checked in many international flights. I showed her the correct dates to look at and all was well. Alana and I received a 10 year visa, but David was only issued a 90 day visa because he is a pastor.
Next they started entering our information in the computer and said the passport numbers in the system were not matching our passport numbers. This is when the fun started. They said they needed to call their supervisor, had us take our bags back, and go sit and wait for more information.
We waited about 10 more minutes while I enviously watched many others check in with no problems until we were called back up. David and Alana's birthdays are 01/07 and 07/01 and had been switched when being entered. Since we were so last minute securing our flight (one week ago), I'm sure things were done in such a hurry that caused this little oversight to happen.
Thankfully we were on our way.
My favorite part of the day was seeing the excitement Alana had about traveling. It has been a while since she has flown, so it was like we all got to experience it with her for the first time. Our flight to Dallas was about an hour and a half and was very smooth for such a small plane. When we got to Dallas, Alana was talking non-stop and very hungry. This is what my girl does when nerves set in, she talks and eats=) It was 7:30 AM central time and all she wanted was a steak, potatoes and salad.
I just wanted breakfast but I lost that battle. We ended up at TGIFridays in the Dallas airport. Alana and I shared the Jack Daniels chicken, mashed potatoes and salad...at 7:30 in the morning! Oh well...it was delicious. By the time we had boarded the plane, she had also had ice cream and soft pretzels. She gets her sweet tooth from me.
We spent the next two hours walking around the airport. Alana wasn't a fan of this and just wanted to sit, but we just kept telling her she wasn't comprehending how long a 13 hour flight was and we needed to get our exercise while we could. Well now I know that I didn't truly comprehend how long a 13 hour flight is!
We were able to secure three seats together, praise the Lord! Before boarding, someone mentioned this is a new aircraft and still had the new car smell. As we boarded the plane, we were like kids in a candy store. We drooled over the first class seats (beds) as we walked by them and quickly saw that every seat in the main cabin had individual touch screen monitors. We sat down and I caught up on some messages while the other two started playing. I was sitting in the middle of them and they figured out they could message each other from their screens and began doing so, because talking to each other would have been too easy I guess=)
David and I had been awake for 24 hours now but our adrenaline was rushing so we were still going strong. We all put our headphones on and began watching movies. I started with Big Hero 6. It took me about 3 hours to watch this movie because I would doze off, wake up, rewind. My naps on the plane would last 20-30 minutes. Oh how I wanted to just go beg someone in first class to switch with me to just lie down for an hour! In college, David mastered the art of sleeping while sitting. It looks like his neck is going to break but it works. He got the most sleep out of all of us on the plane.
We could view our flight map from the monitor and see where we were flying, what states we were over, the temperature and how long we had been in the air. Alana and I woke up from one of our naps and saw we had only been flying for 3 1/2 hours and just wanted to cry!
We were fed 3 different meals on the plane. Sweet and sour meatballs, turkey sub/granola bar/ice cream, and an omelet or noodles (the noodles were gross). For the most part, I thought the meals were fine but Alana has other thoughts on that. Thankfully I had packed her some Milky Ways for when she got feisty=)
Turns out that even with the fancy toys on this plane, 13 hours of being confined really messes with you. By the time we landed in Beijing, my feet were reminding me of when I was 9 months pregnant!
We arrived in Beijing at 2:00 PM, June 4. I made a beeline for the toilets (they are toilets here, not restrooms) just to see if they had squatty potties. I assumed that the airport would be westernized but just wanted to check it out. No squatty potties there=) I'm hoping we won't have to experience that, but I would like a picture of one.
After we went through customs and received our bags, our tour guide had us wait at a Starbucks while the rest of our group arrived. We waited about an hour and met two other families arriving to adopt. One family was adopting their 3rd child from China and the other family, who is also in our travel group, is adopting their 2nd child from China. I am thankful we have already connected with families who seem to know what is going on. This family in our group is from Arkansas and the dad, Brandon, is a pastor. David and Brandon began talking about our different churches as Alana and I attempted to purchase something at Starbucks.
Starbucks was interesting. It took us 3 tries to succeed and get Alana her chocolate muffin and myself a bottled water. I tried to pay with my Starbucks app, but they do not accept gift cards. We had not exchanged our money to yuan yet, so I went to pay with my debit card. I forgot that I had left my card at home. We got out of line, found David, got his card, and returned to the line to wait. When we got back up to the counter, we ordered again and I swiped David's card but entered my code. I did this 3 times before realizing it was David's card and I needed his code. I was not getting out of line again so I sent Alana running to ask him his code as everyone in line stared at me. She returned and we paid and got out of there!
When the rest of our group arrived, we introduced ourselves and found our bus. I tried so hard to take in the sights on our hour ride to the hotel but I just couldn't stay awake any longer. All three of us slept on the bus.
We unloaded, checked in, and exchanged some currency before heading to our room. It is a nice room with really small beds. I had forgotten that someone told me their full size is a little larger than our twin size. We unpacked, tried to get connected to Wifi, and then forced Alana off her bed and out the door. She just wanted to sleep but we knew we needed to stay up a little longer to help us get on China time.
The pollution here is overwhelming. I felt like I was breathing in dirt as we walked around the city. We found a market with a few small restaurants and decided on a pizza place. It was pretty easy to order our food and the pizza was delicious. Our meal cost around $30 USD. We took a scenic route back and found ourselves in a sketchy alley. We wanted to find bottled water to keep in our hotel and saw a literal hole in the wall store. It took several people to be able to tell us how much the water was, 3 yuan ($.50). We were so proud of ourselves and our great deal. While in the store, we saw a small boy run in and Alana immediately snapped a picture. We keep seeing these little Asian boys and vision how Aiden will look in the years to come! They are some of the most beautiful people! We snapped a picture of one boy in the airport. Stalkers??
We went to sleep last night around 9:00 PM, but I was wide awake at 4 AM. I'm going to try to get a little more sleep now before we have to meet our group this morning at 8 AM. I'm not proofreading this so I hope it's not too cringe worthy to read. I'm tired=)
Love you all and thank you for your prayers!
Next they started entering our information in the computer and said the passport numbers in the system were not matching our passport numbers. This is when the fun started. They said they needed to call their supervisor, had us take our bags back, and go sit and wait for more information.
We waited about 10 more minutes while I enviously watched many others check in with no problems until we were called back up. David and Alana's birthdays are 01/07 and 07/01 and had been switched when being entered. Since we were so last minute securing our flight (one week ago), I'm sure things were done in such a hurry that caused this little oversight to happen.
Thankfully we were on our way.
My favorite part of the day was seeing the excitement Alana had about traveling. It has been a while since she has flown, so it was like we all got to experience it with her for the first time. Our flight to Dallas was about an hour and a half and was very smooth for such a small plane. When we got to Dallas, Alana was talking non-stop and very hungry. This is what my girl does when nerves set in, she talks and eats=) It was 7:30 AM central time and all she wanted was a steak, potatoes and salad.
I just wanted breakfast but I lost that battle. We ended up at TGIFridays in the Dallas airport. Alana and I shared the Jack Daniels chicken, mashed potatoes and salad...at 7:30 in the morning! Oh well...it was delicious. By the time we had boarded the plane, she had also had ice cream and soft pretzels. She gets her sweet tooth from me.
We spent the next two hours walking around the airport. Alana wasn't a fan of this and just wanted to sit, but we just kept telling her she wasn't comprehending how long a 13 hour flight was and we needed to get our exercise while we could. Well now I know that I didn't truly comprehend how long a 13 hour flight is!
We were able to secure three seats together, praise the Lord! Before boarding, someone mentioned this is a new aircraft and still had the new car smell. As we boarded the plane, we were like kids in a candy store. We drooled over the first class seats (beds) as we walked by them and quickly saw that every seat in the main cabin had individual touch screen monitors. We sat down and I caught up on some messages while the other two started playing. I was sitting in the middle of them and they figured out they could message each other from their screens and began doing so, because talking to each other would have been too easy I guess=)
David and I had been awake for 24 hours now but our adrenaline was rushing so we were still going strong. We all put our headphones on and began watching movies. I started with Big Hero 6. It took me about 3 hours to watch this movie because I would doze off, wake up, rewind. My naps on the plane would last 20-30 minutes. Oh how I wanted to just go beg someone in first class to switch with me to just lie down for an hour! In college, David mastered the art of sleeping while sitting. It looks like his neck is going to break but it works. He got the most sleep out of all of us on the plane.
We could view our flight map from the monitor and see where we were flying, what states we were over, the temperature and how long we had been in the air. Alana and I woke up from one of our naps and saw we had only been flying for 3 1/2 hours and just wanted to cry!
We were fed 3 different meals on the plane. Sweet and sour meatballs, turkey sub/granola bar/ice cream, and an omelet or noodles (the noodles were gross). For the most part, I thought the meals were fine but Alana has other thoughts on that. Thankfully I had packed her some Milky Ways for when she got feisty=)
Turns out that even with the fancy toys on this plane, 13 hours of being confined really messes with you. By the time we landed in Beijing, my feet were reminding me of when I was 9 months pregnant!
We arrived in Beijing at 2:00 PM, June 4. I made a beeline for the toilets (they are toilets here, not restrooms) just to see if they had squatty potties. I assumed that the airport would be westernized but just wanted to check it out. No squatty potties there=) I'm hoping we won't have to experience that, but I would like a picture of one.
After we went through customs and received our bags, our tour guide had us wait at a Starbucks while the rest of our group arrived. We waited about an hour and met two other families arriving to adopt. One family was adopting their 3rd child from China and the other family, who is also in our travel group, is adopting their 2nd child from China. I am thankful we have already connected with families who seem to know what is going on. This family in our group is from Arkansas and the dad, Brandon, is a pastor. David and Brandon began talking about our different churches as Alana and I attempted to purchase something at Starbucks.
Starbucks was interesting. It took us 3 tries to succeed and get Alana her chocolate muffin and myself a bottled water. I tried to pay with my Starbucks app, but they do not accept gift cards. We had not exchanged our money to yuan yet, so I went to pay with my debit card. I forgot that I had left my card at home. We got out of line, found David, got his card, and returned to the line to wait. When we got back up to the counter, we ordered again and I swiped David's card but entered my code. I did this 3 times before realizing it was David's card and I needed his code. I was not getting out of line again so I sent Alana running to ask him his code as everyone in line stared at me. She returned and we paid and got out of there!
When the rest of our group arrived, we introduced ourselves and found our bus. I tried so hard to take in the sights on our hour ride to the hotel but I just couldn't stay awake any longer. All three of us slept on the bus.
We unloaded, checked in, and exchanged some currency before heading to our room. It is a nice room with really small beds. I had forgotten that someone told me their full size is a little larger than our twin size. We unpacked, tried to get connected to Wifi, and then forced Alana off her bed and out the door. She just wanted to sleep but we knew we needed to stay up a little longer to help us get on China time.
The pollution here is overwhelming. I felt like I was breathing in dirt as we walked around the city. We found a market with a few small restaurants and decided on a pizza place. It was pretty easy to order our food and the pizza was delicious. Our meal cost around $30 USD. We took a scenic route back and found ourselves in a sketchy alley. We wanted to find bottled water to keep in our hotel and saw a literal hole in the wall store. It took several people to be able to tell us how much the water was, 3 yuan ($.50). We were so proud of ourselves and our great deal. While in the store, we saw a small boy run in and Alana immediately snapped a picture. We keep seeing these little Asian boys and vision how Aiden will look in the years to come! They are some of the most beautiful people! We snapped a picture of one boy in the airport. Stalkers??
We went to sleep last night around 9:00 PM, but I was wide awake at 4 AM. I'm going to try to get a little more sleep now before we have to meet our group this morning at 8 AM. I'm not proofreading this so I hope it's not too cringe worthy to read. I'm tired=)
Love you all and thank you for your prayers!