Reinforcements Arrive/Minor Glitches

My friend Jen and her son, Tim, arrived on Wednesday afternoon. April and Tracy had watched Hannah and Micah on Tuesday so I could get us all packed. That freed me to just enjoy the day with Hannah, Micah, Tim, and Jen. We had a great time going out for ice cream to celebrate Tim's 9th birthday and playing at Wald Park. Hannah and Micah quickly became Tim's number one fans, so I knew they were going to have a great time while we were away. We are so thankful for their willingness to hold down the fort during the first leg of our trip.

Scott and I both pulled an all-nighter Wednesday night so needless to say, neither of us were thinking very clearly at 4:00 am when Tracy arrived to take us to the airport. Plus, Micah had just woken up, and I was worried about whether he was going to go back to sleep or start crying and wake up the whole house, and I was also feeling sad about leaving them for 2 weeks. Scott loaded up our bags and we climbed in Tracy's SUV. "Before we go," Tracy asked, "do you have everything?" "Yes," I replied, I've got our tickets and our passports." We headed to the airport in disbelief that this morning had finally come.

When we got to the airport, Scott and I had a conversation that went something like this: "Do you have the cash?" "No, I thought you had the cash." "Well I thought YOU had the cash.". We quickly realized we had to go back to our house and get the cash. It wasn't a situation that the airport ATM machine could solve.

It was 4:30. Our flight left at 6:04. Tracy drove Scott back to our house, and I stayed with the bags. About 10 minutes later, an airline employee opened the check-in station. I decided to go plead our case with him and see if he'd let me check our bags. I told him we were on our way to China to adopt, but that we had forgotten the stack of crisp cash. This man was very kind, and not only helped me lug the bags over to the counter, but checked them in and just held Scott's boarding pass for Scott to pick up when he got back. While he was checking our bags in, he said, "You must be very excited." "I am," I said, and then I just burst into tears.

Meanwhile, back at our house, Scott was trying to gain creative access into our house (we had both purposefully left our house keys at home for this trip). Jen was awake because Micah had not gone back to sleep earlier, and she was startled by what seemed to be someone trying to break into the house. Thankfully she realized it was Scott and let him in to get the money.

Tracy and Scott made great time back to the airport, Scott picked up his boarding pass, and we both slept the entire way to Chicago. Our flight to Shanghai was great, and the time passed quickly.

Right now we are stuck in the Shanghai Airport because our in-country flight is delayed (hence the very long blog update to help pass the time).