The first leg of our trip

I was too focused on bonding with Khloe (and also too busy and too tired!) to blog while we were in China, so I'm going to go back and tell the story of our trip in sections.

Part One: Getting There!

We left our house at 5:30am on Thursday, March 21. We stopped to pick up our dear friends Scott and Rachel on the way. Yes, we all got to travel together!!! Isn't God just SO good?!?! This was a miracle and an answer to prayer.
We had barely slept a wink the night before and I was worried that we were starting off the trip already so tired, but we were just so excited!

All of these pics were taken with my phone. There will be better quality pics on future posts :)

Getting ready to check in at the counter!!


We flew from home to Detroit. When we got to Detroit, we had a few hour layover, so we had a nice meal at the airport Chili's before shopping for drinks and snacks for the long plane ride, then we waited to board our plane.

Here we are-- waiting to board in Detroit! Looking tired but happy :)



Excited Mammas ready to hold their babies!!


I have never flown further than Mexico, so I was thrilled to see such a large, roomy plane :) And we each had tv screens in the seats in front of us! Let me tell you, these saved the LONG day :)


We all tried to make ourselves stay awake for the most part because we would be landing in Beijing at 3pm on Friday afternoon and we wanted to acclimate ourselves to
china time ASAP. When I started to get sleepy, I played a little Mahjong to keep myself awake.


Took this photo from the area behind our section during the flight. It was neat to see everyone's tv screens going at the same time.


We loved checking our progress on the flight tracker! Almost there!


Time to Destination: 1:10!!!!!!


Trying to take a picture of the mountains as we were approaching to land. There was too much smog... It was majestic! Beautiful!


Scott and Jason waiting on our luggage at the airport in Beijing. Rachel and I in the background fervently praying that all of our luggage showed up :)
And Praise God, every bag was there!!!


Just as we stepped outside the Beijing airport.


It was an overwhelming feeling that I can't really describe. Finally being there- in China. The country of my daughter's birth. The place I longed to be, but in my weakness feared I would never get the opportunity to experience. I feared that I was too
unworthy to be able to experience the blessing of finalizing the adoption of our daughter. You know, I am. But God, in His goodness and mercy blessed us anyway! I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am.
We were finally in China! Tired doesn't even begin to describe it, but my body just went into survival mode and I was fine! Ready to see the sights and counting down the hours till I would be holding my daughter!!!