Safe & Sound in Hong Kong

We made it! It is now 11:45pm on Sunday China time...8:45am on Sunday back in Washington. We gained 15 hours on a flight into the sunshine. It never got dark. Doing the math, we left our hotel in Seattle "this morning" at 11am, and have been traveling for the past 22 hours. I'm sure we'll be out like a light when we turn off the lights here in a few minutes...but the kids are still pretty wired and excited to be here. But I'll get to that in a minute.

We started the day with bagels at one of our favorite breakfast spots...Panera Bread.


It was great to have Brent and Sandi Bailey & girls meet us at the hotel and accompany us to the airport so that they could take our car back to their new home on the "West Side", saving us all of that money in parking. We then stood in line for over 2 hours...it seemed everyone in the airport was flying Northwest. But we gave ourselves 3 hours, and weren't at all stressed. By the time we made it to our gate, we had just a few minutes to buy some Burger King for lunch, and walk it onto the plane.

These next two pictures tell the story of the past 15 hours...



I'm so pleased to report that the trip here was completely uneventful. We watched several movies, and everyone did just fine. Jamae was a peach, no fussing or tears whatsoever. All of our kids are great travelers. We had just over an hour in Tokyo, which would have been a challenge if we had to change terminals like we did when adopting Jamae. But we were so pleased to find that the gate was right in the same terminal, and made the connection no problem. The flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong was another four hours, during which it finally got dark. Jay slept much of the first flight from Seattle, and was awake the last leg. The rest of us slept most of the last four hour leg, as it was between 2am and 6am our "body time".

There were just a few more hurdles to clear. All of our luggage came through no problem. We sailed through immigration and customs. And flowed right out into the main concourse. We had the option of trying to track down the hotel shuttle, but I (Jody) made the decision to book a taxi (a minivan), and get us going right away. It was a great move, as we walked right into the vehicle, right to the hotel, and right up into our two rooms at the Novotel Citigate Hotel. It's a brand new hotel, and the accommodations are great.

The kids are showering up and settling down as I sit here get the blog updated.

We are back down to the lobby in just under 6 hours to catch the shuttle back to the airport. We fly out at 8:50am for our flight up to Fuzhou (which I'm guessing will be around a 2 hour flight). When we arrive in Fuzhou (pronounced "Foo-chow"), we will likely go first to the hotel...but that will depend on our guide. It's possible we'll go directly to the orphanage. Either way, we'll have Ming with us in 12-15 hours. The long journey to "get" Ming is winding down. And now begins the journey of the rest of our lives with him. The weight of the situation is enormous. And yet it's wonderfully light. We're ready. Now is the time. He's our boy...and it's time to get on with life together. God is so very good.