While I am typing the first part of this post –we are in the AIR!! We are currently 2 hours into a 16 hour flight – that’s right folks, 16 hours. We thought originally it was going to be 14.5 hours tops, but we got on the plane and were told 16 hours!! And the labor pains begin :) Actually, this has been a coveted time for me – knowing our kids are well cared for (all 3!) and being able to digress and take some deep breaths. There has not been much time for me to really reflect on my mom’s recent death and grieving has been hard – in preparing for such a joyous moment we are only days away from now. I have thought about mom so much in the past few days as I have been running around and finishing last minute details of our trip. I shopped for hairbows for Norah and realized that I had never done that for Naomi, as mom has made every single one. I thought of mom as I would have called her to say goodbye and tell her I love her. And I know she would have had a special handmade gift for sweet Norah when we got home. Thankfully, she had started a little pillowcase dress for her and my aunt was able to finish it (thank you Aunt Cindi!)

So, while we have 14 hours to go and only so many movies, magazines, meals and sleep time, I thought I’d spend time on here – sharing our journey. Thank you for reading, praying and supporting us. Norah is so blessed to have so many who love her already!
The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind of emotions – from happy to sad to exhausted to anxious. Between packing, spending time with our kids, cleaning the house, and making sure all is in place to leave – it was crazy times!!! We dropped the kids off last night at our dear friend, Greg and Becca’s house. They were so excited and, after spending some time with them and having a time of prayer, the kids were ready for us to go! I shed some ugly tears on the way home – I think in part due to grieving, anxiety, lack of sleep and of course missing the kids. There are hard parts to international adoption and I would say leaving our kids for 2 weeks is high on that list. We got home and STARTED packing….yep, we waited until the last minute. And, honestly, that worked well. We were able to finish in record time and got a good night’s rest. This morning we realized that we had forgotten a few tings so I had time to run out and get those items and we were on our way to the airport. We met up with our dear dear friends Brian and Heather – who are also adopting a little girl from China. We spent the first leg of our trip together and enjoyed lunch in Detroit before parting ways. They are touring Beijing and then heading to their province. We will meet again on the 13th and be together for the rest of the trip.
UPDATE – August 6. Well, we have arrived!!! The flight was grueling (keeping it real here). It lasted 16 full hours…..we both agreed that we could not get off the plane fast enough. On the same note, we are grateful it was a smooth ride and there were lots of great movies and yummy meals to keep us occupied :)

I have been up since 3:30am this morning. I waited til 6:30 then got up and scrounged for a snack – I am starving :) I remember very similar sleep patterns when we were here in 2008 for Naomi. Today we are going to explore Hong Kong and enjoy time together. It’s like a 2nd honeymoon right now – perfect timing for all we have been through.

posted by Joel and Lee-Anne at 6:40 PM