We made it to China!

We’ve finally made it to China! Our journey to Olivia Mei Grace started early Friday morning, 3:00am, to be exact. We got up and finished loading our luggage in the car in preparation to go to the airport. Once we finally got there and got checked in, we found out that we were about 9 pounds over on our luggage. We thought we could have 70 pounds each for our checked bags, but it turns out that it’s now 50 pounds each. So we had the option of either rearranging our stuff, or paying an overweight fee. Next time, we’ll know, and use more of the checked baggage available to us.

Our flights from Mobile to Memphis and Memphis to Detroit were uneventful, but we are so very glad that we opted to get a seat for Olivia on the way home. The long flight from Detroit to Tokyo was awkward at first, but we got used to sleeping for an hour or so at a time. Christine said that they sure won’t let you go hungry on that long flight, which is absolutely true. It seems like every few hours they were rolling another meal or snack tray around.

We finally made it from Tokyo to Guangzhou, China at about 10:20pm or so. Apparently, there was some sort of a Chinese pop star on the plane with us, because there were hundreds of teenage Chinese girls who were waiting on this guy, and they all screamed in unison as he went down the escalator. Our translator, a wonderful lady named Doris, found out that he was some sort of a pop star, but that’s about it.

We went through the process of health inspections, baggage declaration, and entry into China, which was actually quite pleasant.

One thing that Christine and I both remarked on was the similarities of the cities we saw. From your descent into the Tokyo and Guangzhou airport, they could be Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Kansas City, Missouri, or just about any other industrialized town you come to by airplane. The surrounding countryside is so similar, and the city of Guangzhou, as we rode through it in our bus, was an eye opener.

Finally, after about 30 straight hours of travel, we checked into our beautiful hotel room and settled down for a well deserved rest in a bed with sheets and pillows.

This morning, we leave for Nanning, which is the capital city of the province where Olivia’s orphanage is! We’ll get there tonight, which is Sunday night in China, and we’ll be even one step closer to our daughter!

Hopefully, we’ll update with some more news and pictures soon.

Michael and Christine