Oh, What an Adventure...

We arrived in Nanjing yesterday. VERY LATE. I'm having a bit of trouble with blogger so can't post pictures right now. But, I'll try later. Yesterday, we arrived at the Beijing airport about 2:00 p.m. for our 5:00 flight. At first, there seemed to be a problem wtih our tickets...we waitied forever in two different lines and had about five people check our passports before finally being cleared and getting boarding passes. Turns out they could only find one of us in the computer, and after literally close to an hour, they found the other two. So, with boarding passes in hand, we head through security. Ah..security. Beth goes through first - no problem. Then Hannah - no problem. Then me..I set the detectors off because I forgot to take off my watch. So, after the wands and all..they become convinced I am not carrying anything illegal on my person. No metal other than the watch. (Total inside joke - but it's a good thing I was not carrying any nails too!) Then, my bags go through. Oops - flagged again. The security person opens my bag, digs around, and finally finds what must be the problem - my deoderant. After she opens it, smells it (powder fresh, by the way), she hands it to me and then sends my bag through again. But, there's another problem...more digging and she takes out the saline nasal spray I had in there. It was sealed and she called three different people to look at it. I told her the nasal spray didn't matter - I'd leave it. But, no - that wasn't good enough. She politely orders me to open it. So, I break the seal and open it. She smells it..she sends me to another counter. The lady had two other people look at it. Finally, she says - "show me". What? I didn't understand. Then, I got it - she was asking me to demonstrate using the nasal spray. I did. She nodded and pointed to the other side of my nose. Yes - she wanted me to use it again. It was so absurd it was comical. Finally, she hands it back, smiles, and says "it's okay". We still have a little time to kill, so we stop for frozen yogurt. Finally, we head our gate and wait to board. Oh, but no - that would be too easy. Our plane is delayed. How long? we all wonder. The attendant I guess gets tired of people asking so she finally hangs a sing up listing our flight number that says "NO TIME". In other words - there is no estimated time. Great. Our gate was downstairs in the basemement area of the airport where there was nothing - no shops, no restaurant, no bathrooms. Finally, I brave the mob by the gate to approach and ask "What does 'no time' mean". I'm wondering if we have time to go upstairs and eat supper, or use the bathroom, or what. She tells me our plane is still in Japan so it will be at least three hours. Yep, there was time to use the bathroom and eat. :-) All in all, our flight was delayed four hours. Hannah was AMAZING! She hung in there so well. We finally arrived in Nanjing about midnight. And we had a wonderful sight - our guide was waiting for us with a sign with my name on it! We all hugged her! Somehow she had found out we were delayed and waited on us!

Anyway, we are now in Nanjing and have had a good day. We visited a museum today and checked out the surrounding shops. Hannah has been tired and moody today - but who wouldn't after yesterday. We're hoping for a really good night's sleep tonight for everyone. And tomorrow, we meet Sadie!! We will meet her at 10:30 a.m. which for those of you at home is 9:30 p.m. Sunday night. Please continue to keep us in your prayers over the next few days. It is becoming so real right now. I can't wait to hold her for the first time tomorrow. Please pray for Hannah too. She has been so wonderful and a much better traveller than I imagined. But, as our days here continue, I think she is acting a little more "needy" which is completely understandable. Please pray that I can be sensitive to meet her needs while at the same time meeting Sadie's needs which I know will be very intense at first. It'll be the first lessons in the balancing act of raising sisters I'm sure. Having Beth here helps tremendously with this, but sometimes Hannah still needs my attention. Somehow, I will get you pictures of Sadie tomorrow evening or the next day. Either blogger will let me post, or I'll e-mail them to someone to post for me. Our guide has visited her orphanage several times and knows her. She says they are all so happy she is getting adopted and they all seem to love her.

Well, I'm off to put Hannah to bed now and put myself there soon. Tomorrow is a BIG DAY!! As Hannah has been saying "I CAN'T WAIT ANYMORE!". :-)
love, DeEtte