In Shanghai!

Thursday morning, August 4th

We made it!  Actually the long (right at 16 hours) flight from Atlanta to Shanghai was the best long flight we've had for all 4 adoption trips.  Hopefully we'll be able to say the same on the way home on the 19th!  The Delta flight seemed to have a little more spacious coach seating, VERY attentive flight attendants that came and got your trash, etc quickly after the meals, and best of all, the in-seat entertainment system that ROCKED!  We had on-demand movie selection (I think I watched 3 or 4 movies that I hadn't seen before) Plus they had a "Skykids" selection where the kids could choose their own movies, tv shows, and even video games.  Wow was that great for the girls.  I would suggest to future Delta fliers that you bring your own headphones though - the little earbuds that they provided were downright painful.  Adam had carried on some awesome headphones and he was kind enough to lend them to us off and on, lol!  (& you didn't need any special adapters for them to work - just a normal little plug)

Our girls are now 6, 7 and 8 and they brought along their DS's, neon fuzzy sticks (i.e. pipecleaners) to make braided bracelets (and animal creations for Allie),  journals, activity books,  and their God's Eyes from Sunday School, which they enjoy wrapping and re-wrapping.  Ashlie says that wrapping her God's Eye makes her relax.  :-)    I also had cut down some standard size pillowcases in half and re-hemmed, so that their pillows would feel more comforting to them.   They loved their little pillows and napped well.

Poor Allie was a little airsick once the flight ended.  I know that more than anything else she was way overtired, but it was a little sad to have her leaving the airplane, the luggage area, and the airport carrying her little walmart bag(s).  So glad I had them handy!

We are staying at The Bund hotel.  I think we were a bit overwhelmed when we first arrived, but it's definitely a comfortable enough room.  We've got two rooms here and at all of our hotels for the trip, but our rooms here are several doors down from each other.  I was pretty restless during the night, and I think that worrying about Ashlie and Annie down in Adam's room was a big reason for that.  Turns out I didn't need to worry; they were soundly sleeping as I tossed and turned for hours.  I had to laugh at myself.  During my restless hours I thought about needing to find a jacket or sweater for Max for the flight home, needing to find the stairwell in the hotel in case of fire, wondering if there are even smoke detectors in the rooms (there are), etc etc etc.   I finally fell asleep again after praying for peace, praying for calmness and open hearts and minds for us as we explore China again.  It's easy to focus on what we miss from home, but then we end up missing a huge part of the experience here.  So please pray for all of us to be able to just "soak up some China" right now as we wait for Max.   We're going out sightseeing today, and we're hoping to go explore around the hotel later this afternoon after we refresh from our sightseeing.   They say that The Bund the Nanjing Road are just a flew blocks away.  Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures to share later tonight!

For now, here are a few pictures from before we left home, from our St Louis hotel room at about 3:00 a.m. Tuesday, from the St Louis airport and the Atlanta airport.