Lots On My Mind

Shannon & Kristen on tram in Tokyo - so happy to have the long flight over

Happy in Tokyo - if I only knew what was fixing to happen on the flight to Beijing

The cool & calm world traveler

I wish I had taken pics of the Beijing Airport - oh what memories
But I can NOT express how excited I was to see Joy waiting for us!!!!!!!

Our castle - home away from home

Six months ago we were flying into Beijing, VERY LATE due to the figure eights we did to bypass a storm (just the beginnings of our flight sagas.) I remember thinking how big the airport was. It's funny the things we remember. I was telling Andy I remember us all stopping by the restrooms. Of course that made us the last people off the plane to come down the hall towards the checkpoints. Some of the areas in the airport were practically deserted - no one to be found literally. Once we got near the "temperature" station, there was this guy trying to hurry us through, like they were all ready to go home or something. He kept saying we were the last ones, "hurry up, hurry up." So we did. Once we went through all the checks of customs & such we found Joy. I was SO PUMPED to see her. I grabbed my camera out of my bag - yes she thought I was crazy but I didn't care. I had to capture that moment. She put us into our van & stayed there to wait for another family that was going to be even later than us. (so what was up with the hurry up guy? some things still make we wonder.)
We drove to our hotel - excited & falling asleep at the same time. We got settled, tried to unpack & prepare for the big day because we now just had a few hours before we were going to be meeting our daughter. So then we tried to get some rest.
I can still remember how things looked, smelled, & even how weird I felt due to jet lag. Oh the memories. I can't believe it's been half a year.
Tomorrow - the rest of the story......