We are here!

We arrived, we are alive and in one piece!
We started out the first leg of our journey with mechanical problems, fuel leak to be exact. They put us on another plane about an hours delay, not bad. We wondered if we would make our connection in Tokyo... we made up time in the sky and got there just in time to make it to the departure gate of our connecting flight... alas, mechanical problems with plane number two. An announcement was made that the flight was cancelled and we would be put up in a hotel in Tokyo. Several hours later we layed our heads down at 10:00 pm Tokyo time for six hours of rest. The 4:00 am wake up call came mighty quick! We were shuttled back to the airport and we literally opened the airport, no one else was there, just those from NWA Flight 11. At 6:30 we took off for Beijing. We arrived this morning in Beijing and hooked up with our transport from the foster home we are staying at.
We got here rather early in the day which allowed us lots of time to play with the babies after unloading all the supplies we brought. By the way, for those of you who were praying, Security at the airport and Customs in Beijing was nothing, literally nothing. We breezed through without any problems whatsoever and everything arrived in great condition. I was so pleased. It was a great sense of accomplishment to finally turn over all those supplies after months of planning, gathering and packing. It was strange to load them in the van and not be "responsible" for them anymore, I felt rather "naked" without them. So instead of counting bags and children at every station along the way we were down to just counting children. (For those keeping score it was BAGS-15 CHILDREN-5) It still is children-5, thank goodness. But soon it will be CHILDREN-7!!!!!!!!!!! ADULTS-4 :)
We had lunch in the cafeteria where the children and staff eat. We toured the foster facility and saw the new wing which was under construction last year when we were here. Then we held babies and played with toddlers for a couple hours. We tried to take a rest in our Yurts but it was too warm. Then we went for a swim which was very refreshing. The director took us out to dinner at one of their favorite local restaurants. It was great!!!!! I will have to post a photo of the meal we had later. It was served traditional Chinese fashion on a huge lazy Susan of course. But my o my... he ordered item after item in Chinese... item after item came out. There were 11 of us we ate all we could, tried everything and there was still easily enough left to feed us another meal. It came to about about $15.00, amazing. I wish I could describe the restaurant's appearance, you really can't explain it... those of you who have been to China will know what I'm talking about. I would guess that most of us would have driven right by this place and NEVER even guessed it was a restaurant. Once we were taken inside we were led upstairs to a hall way of what looked like a very old apartment building. It was not very well lit. As we were led down the hall some of the doors were open and some were closed. The ones that had open doors we could see they were private dining rooms set for patrons. But no one was in the restaurant. We went into one of the rooms and sat at a large round table. I'm not sure why the empty downstairs was not chosen for us to have our meal we just went where we were led. It was such a wonderful experience. I love stuff like this!
Half-way through the meal our little one decided she needed to use the restroom, our host said it was down the hall and to the left. She went and returned within minutes, "Mommy, it's a squatty potty and I forgot how to use them", she said. So I went with her and gave instructions and attempted to help her "assume the position"... she changed her mind and decided she didn't have to go that badly afterall. Our first encounter. I imagine I may have a similar experience with Esther in a matter of days only with just the opposite plumbing fixture :)
We had a wonderful meal but the jet-lag took it's toll with the children one by one during our feast and the ride home they fell asleep. I think I am the last one up at this point, I am determined to post to the blog everyday I possibly can. Good Night from CHINA!!!