Just before we left DFW.
Our flight out of DFW was at 10:30 am on Feb 27th. We got to the airport early to see about getting our seats together, and the staff at Korean Air said they had already noticed that we were a family and had blocked out seats for us. We ended up getting 2 rows of 3 seats for our group. It.was.AWESOME!!!! Mike and Amelie sat in one row while Nadia and I were in the other. Flying for 14.5 hours sucks, but having all that space so the girls could actually curl up and go to sleep was fantastic. The four of us watched a lot of movies because we each had in seat entertainment. Both girls were so happy that it had “The Little Mermaid” but they also watched Despicable Me 2, UP and Planes. Mike and I both watched a bunch of movies we had never seen.
So much space. Praise the Lord!
Nadia kicked back in flight.
Korean Air gave them gifts again, which was really sweet. This time they didn’t serve different food for the kids like on our past flights, but the girls still tasted everything and were able to eat enough. They both did really well, but at 14 hours Amelie was done! She just started crying and Mike held her until they had to buckle up to land. Once in Korea we made it through security one more time so we could move to the terminal with our flight to China. There was a Quiznos near the gate and I got the girls a turkey and bacon sub to split and they were so happy. They kept telling me it was delicious. Once we got on the flight to Beijing Mike noticed that they had Frozen on the in flight entertainment and the girls were so excited. Mike and the girls watched movies while I tried to sleep because I was becoming exhausted.
This is Amelie while we waited in the line for immigration in Beijing. We had left home 23 hours earlier and she was totally and completely done! After getting through immigration we went right out and found the shuttle to our hotel, The Langham. It was so close to the airport and swank!!! We were just happy to find a Chinese hotel that would take us with both kids and not make us get a second room. We got to the room and immediately put on jammies, brushed teeth and went to sleep.
This super cool sculpture was in the lobby of the hotel. The girls woke up at about 5:15 am, which was as good as we could have hoped for because of the jet lag. So, after eating some breakfast bars in the room I took them down to get the wiggles out and check out the hotel. It has a lot of neat art work and ultra modern furniture that the girls wanted to try out.
The girls thought these were their favorite thing and called them the “Z” couches and promptly wanted me to take a photo of them pretending to be asleep.
There was a glass wall with mini blinds between the bathroom and bedroom and the girls thought it was hilarious in this tub. After we all got cleaned up we headed over to the Beijing airport to wait on our flight to Nanchang. We met up with Jamie and Chris at our gate and it was nice to meet them in person after all the communication via Facebook leading up to the trip. We are with the same agency and will be together the entire time. They are getting their first child and I am really excited for them because I remember our first time in Nanchang when we met Nadia. So sweet.
Nadia wanted one last shot in the stroller before it became Dani’s. This cracked us up because her legs are so long. The flight to Nanchang was quick and easy and our guide picked up the six of us and we headed for the hotel. The guide saw Nadia and said, “Is she from our orphanage?” We said no, but she was from Jiangxi and we told her which one. She acted like she could tell right away that Nadia was a Jiangxi girl. She immediately grabbed on to Nadia and started talking to her on the way to the van. On the drive the girls snuggled up to me and went right to sleep, and I looked out the windows and was happy that we finally made it.
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We got the the Galactic Peace International Hotel and our guide was able to negotiate a better rate than I had found online for a suite – The Galactic Suite! So it was nice of her to do that and save us some money. We have learned that it’s best to get the bigger room for the girls to spread out, and having a separate sleeping area helps them actually sleep rather than try to chat with us. We headed out to try and find a store to get some extra bottled water, cokes and snacks. It was pretty cold and rainy, but we just borrowed umbrellas from the hotel and headed out. Our family is always up for adventure and as we walked I took in the sights and smells that I associate with China. Things like roasted sweet potatoes and tofu for sale from street vendors, smoke, pollution, horns honking, neon lights and people everywhere! We ended up at Walmart and learned that they don’t do price checks at that store if your item won’t scan correctly. They just tell you that you can’t have it and scan the rest of your stuff. HA! We took a cab back to the hotel, had dinner in the room and got ready for bed. We found that the crib had been delivered while we were gone. It has Winnie the Pooh on it and Hello Kitty sheets.
Here are a few photos of our room. We also have one extra bathroom with just a toilet and sink in the living area. It’s exciting to think that we are finally here and that Dani won’t be spending any more time in an orphanage, but instead have a family that loves her.
Dani will be here in about six hours! We will probably do some quick updates to Facebook when she comes, but for all the lurkers out there, don’t expect another blog post for about a day.