Longest Day Ever

Jasper suggests I stay up as long as possible now, but I just want to sleep. We left our home at 6am Aug 8th and made great time going to Dulles until we hit serious backups around DC.  We had to veer into the city--and we were getting nail-bitingly close to eating up all our buffer time sitting in traffic.  We finally found some clear roads south of Silver Springs, and then we were fine.

The flight was long, but I really appreciated the new style of movie watching. I had bout 40 movies to choose from. We watched Hunger Games and the newer Sherlock Holmes movies, which were entertaining. I got a little teary at 6pm PA time when I knew VBS was starting without me. I listened to my mp3 player with the VBS songs and imagined the kids waving their arms gleefully to the music.  I'm glad I got to be there two nights.

Fourteen hours is a long time to be in a plane!! And I couldn't help but think about what the return flight is going to be like with a 23 month old on our laps.  We had just about no leg room as it was, so I think it could go very badly. The last long flight will take off at 8 in the evening, so let's all pray she sleeps! I also plan to scout out an empty seat and stake it out, if possible.

David, our facilitator, was at the airport to greet us, which really made me feel secure. We are not his usual clients. He said we're much younger than most adopting couples, and we carry less baggage.  He took us to "refresh" at our hotel in Beijing. Here's the room.  

 Then we went to a Wigar (not sure of the spelling--they were in the news last year) restaurant that serves an oil company near our hotel. The head chef makes dishes from the company's native Xinjiang Province where the Muslim Wigar's live.

 This is a lamb dish over what David called a "pizza."  It was round bread, but otherwise not pizza like at all to me. I really liked the mutton. Then there were green beans like you see at buffets at home, but these had about 20 times the flavor of those green beans.



The dish below is Kung Pow Chicken, sort of spicy.

 Then we said goodbye to David and began a little stroll to stay awake. Our hotel is alongside the moat that used to surround old Beijing. Our hotel is in the oldest part, the center of the city. 

 And we came upon a fragrant market selling tofu, lots of peaches, veggies, fish, meats, and all sorts of things. 

 Tomorrow is a big day. We'll go to the Badaling part of the Great Wall, and we'll see the Summer Palace (a palace girls!) and an acrobat show in the evening.  So we're doing just fine, and I can't wait to fall asleep!

Airline Tickets

We got our first choice consulate appointment on Aug. 20th, so we could go ahead and buy the plan tickets. Sadly, in the time the confirmation for the consulate appointment to arrive, tickets to Beijing went up $1000.  We were a little flabbergasted about this.  The agency had suggested one price in their general paperwork, but the only direct tickets are double that.  The flights with layovers are not all that much better.

The today we tried to improve on what the travel agent found, and we unearthed tickets for $300 less each, so we are saving $600 from just waiting one day, and we still get a direct flight.  So, we're spending $1,900 more than expected, but we saved what we thought we'd be spending yesterday.  Phew. It almost sounds like a deal.

Our agency said there is a chance that not only will we get to visit Ruby's foster home (which we will certainly do), but we might also get to go directly from that visit to the airport with her and the nanny and fly with them to Hohhot.  Then we wouldn't have to say good bye to her, which might be confusing for her.

I realized we have something planned for nearly every day until we leave, and that does not include the packing and finalizing, but we don't want to miss any of it.  Pearl finished up her swim lessons today. She made so much progress, and I'm really proud of her! We also get to celebrate my dad's birthday with the family.

Thanks for all the prayers for patience and peace that you've made on my behalf.  They have been much needed and appreciated.