This travel day/days has been almost surreal. It is hard for us to comprehend that the
wait has finally ended and that we are on our way to bring Naomi home. All the questions,
dreams and wishes will soon be an answered reality.
As I write this first entry we are in the air over China on our way to Beijing via
Guangzhou. We departed Los Angeles at midnight and have been in the air for over 10
hours already with about 5 left to go. We were able to fly business class on China
Southern Airlines and it has made all the difference. The service and space are wonderful.
Christe has slept quite a bit, although not comfortably. Davis has only slept about 5 hours
total. We will have to see how that plays out.
We met our friends Chris and Tami Kosman for the first time at the gate at LAX. Christe
and Tami have been building a relationship via email for about nine months. Their daughter
Audrey is from the Jiangxi province where Naomi is. We will be together for the entire
trip. It was fun to finally meet them.
We will land in Guangzhou at about 6:30am and catch
another plane at 9:30am to Beijing. We will arrive in
Beijing at noon and be met by our guides at the airport.
I continue to have an awareness of God's hand in this.
What a joy it will be to hold her on Monday. Please pray for us and the rest of our travel
group of 33 families. Pray for our protection as we travel, for our new daughters' health
as they wait for us and for all of us to make the most of this once in a life time adventure!
2:17pm China time
How wonderful a shower feels after so many hours of travel! We have arrived and
getting clean was our first priority. We are settled into our hotel and all is good. We will
head out to the local Carrefour (similar to WalMart) to get some bottled water and snacks
for our two day stay in Beijing. We are having dinner with Pastor Qi tonight. He and I met
when he was in Dallas visiting DTS and have kept in touch since. I look forward to the
fellowship, although my inability to speak any Mandarin and his little English will be fun.
Davis has all the energy in the world right now and is having a blast. Christe is very
weary and hungry. I am happy to be clean. Maybe I said that already.
8:30 pm
Well, I'm sure we won't have posts this long
once we get Naomi. We just returned from
dinner with Pastor Qi and the Maggie an English teacher
from the seminary here. It was such a great time. Davis even enjoyed himself - especially
the hour he spent sleeping in the chair! The food was wonderful; it erased my concerns
about what I'd be eating while we're here. (Let's just say the airplane food wasn't my
favorite. Even Brian couldn't choke down the moon cakes.) And, the conversation with
those sweet believers was special. And, it will be a very different experience from
the rest of our group-oriented trip.
Davis is having a ball - attracting tons of attention. Everyone we pass takes a
second look at him. I think he loves stardom!
I'm hoping we all sleep well tonight. It would be a blessing to adjust to the time change
quickly. We've got a busy day tomorrow!
Guangzhou airport
sleeping masks!
we're not nearly as fresh as
we were when we started!
