One Year Ago Today...

Debbi, Olivia and I were on a plane bound for Beijing... and Brooke! We were nervous and excited. We were tired and strung-out, too, since we had to be at the airport around 4am. Sheez!! We were all smiles on the parking deck. Then we got inside and found out Continental wasn't even "open" yet. So, we waited.

First, we flew to Newark and met some of the other families traveling in our adoption group. Then we boarded the non-stop flight for Beijing - 14 1/2 hours long. You can watch Gone with the Wind twice, back-to-back, and still not be there!! The neat thing is that you don't fly east or west across the oceans, you fly right over the North Pole and back south again. Olivia thought it was very cool to fly "over Santa". There was a screen you could watch that monitered how many miles you'd flown, how many were left to go, and approximately where you were on the map. It was nice to be able to see progress, since you are stuck in your seat with VERY little wiggle room, the lights are low and the window shades are all drawn. Also, we were in the height of the Swine Flu scare. Many of the Chinese on the plane (and in the airport) were wearing masks, so that they would not be infected by us dangerous Westerners. It was hard to believe that there were 500 passengers on that plane!!!! 500!! And not a single seat was vacant. You get a little crazy after being cooped up like that, with that many people, for that long!

Our travel agent wisely advised us to travel Continental because... they had TV's. What a Life Saver!!!!!!!!!! Olivia quickly figured out how to run the program (touch screen), so between the TV and her coloring books, she was perfectly content. What luck!! It took a little while to get used to the screen only being a few inches from your eyes (especially if the guy in front of you reclined), but it was totally worth it. They even had Scooby Doo!

Olivia got some sleep, but neither Debbi nor I did. It's just hard to sleep in that situation and the hours start to drag by. Debbi's stoic expression says it all. She was chilly, so she had her jacket on. That was pretty funny, since usually she's having heat stroke.

We made it off the plane after having our temperatures checked by white coated officials. We couldn't even stand up until this process was complete. They were very serious and harsh. Then we made it through the airport after being scanned again as we walked down the hallways. We saw some people get "taken away" after failing the temp scans. We were loaded onto a bus and taken to our hotel in downtown Beijing. There is quite a mix of old and new culture you can see from the roads. We couldn't believe we were on the other side of the world!!!!