Home!

We made it!

We started the day at 3am, wide awake. Michael made a few last trips to the storage apartment with the last of our things. We were out the door by 4.30. Made it to the airport, through all the hoops, etc., and onto the plane. Then we sat. For THREE hours. There was a storm coming in (come to find out, monsoon rain..good thing our flight was early!) and too much wind. Then the pilots said we sat too long and burned too much fuel, so we had to get more fuel. Wow. The most frustrating part of that was knowing that we could have been 3 hours into our 13 hour flight...instead, we added 3. Bummer.

We had lots of people praying for Josiah, since his first overseas trip was awful. He did great! We gave him a few doses of Benedryl to try to help him sleep. Didn't work that well. It did enough to take the edge off so he could fall asleep, but only slept about 4 hours total. Yikes. He was mostly fidgety and wallered all over the seats and us, not knowing what to do in such a confined space. But he wasn't hyper and didn't cry much. Answered prayers!

Since we sat so long in Beijing, we missed our connecting flight in Chicago. Thankfully, the airline already booked us on the next flight home, and we only had to wait about an hour. While there, Michael used a pay phone to let family know we'd be late. We found out the next day those calls were costly. $30 EACH!! The phone said $1 for 4 mins, but apparently if you use a card, they can charge 30..without telling you...?! He's currently disputing it with our bank. Sure hoping we get our $58 back!

But we made it home in one piece. Were greeted at the airport by my parents, armed with toys with Josiah and Sheridan's for me. So thoughtful. :) We have all pretty much beat jet lag. Since J didn't sleep much on the plane, he was exhausted and crashed and has been on schedule since. Such a blessing!

We've been able to see most of our family, a few friends, and lots of people at fellowship this morning. It's great to see everyone! In some sense, it seems like we weren't even gone that long..