First Post from China!

Hello from Changsha, Hunan, China. It's great to be back on this side of the world!! After 20 hours in the air, 10 hours of layovers, and a short ride to the hotel, we are now in our room preparing for a good night's sleep. (It's 8:45pm on Sunday evening - that makes us 13 hours ahead of you guys at home, for those of you trying to do the math). The plane rides were very smooth, uneventful, and dark. We flew through darkness for over 15 straight hours, except for about 10 minutes when we saw a quick sunset and went back to sleep.

Gongy's suitcase is still in Guangzhou. After long periods of trying to communicate with airport personnel, Michael finally got everything squared away and the bag should catch up with us tomorrow. Gongy's such a trooper - it didn't even phase her!

After arriving at our hotel, we escaped the 97-degree heat by entering the 78-degree hotel, but since the sun has set now, it's much cooler inside. We made a hilarious and very conspicuous attempt at eating at the hotel restaurant, but couldn't identify anything on the menu. We were directed to a beautiful "Western" buffet on the first floor that the servers thought might suit us better. I believe it must have been a western CHINA buffet, for in addition to delicious seared salmon, fried potato cakes, fried rice and fried noodles, the fare was complete with delicacies such as duck's tongue, braised snake and dog, and pig knuckles (Emily's personal favorite). The meal was topped off with ice cream and sprinkles. Ben and Emily had green tea ice cream and were shocked that it actually tasted like cold green tea.

We are now back in our room on the 30th floor and can hear "Happy Birthday" being played over and over in the street. No idea why. Clearly it's SOMEONE'S birthday! Everyone is sacked, except for Michael who is in the bathroom feeling queezy. Hopefully we can wake rested, since tomorrow is a HUGE day. It's hard to believe that in only 14 hours, we will be meeting our daughter face to face for the first time. Poor sweet Caroline has no idea that Kelleys await! And worse than that, she's going to BE one! I hear some of you screaming now! LOL WE CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HER at the Civil Affairs office tomorrow at 10:30am. In the meantime, we appreciate your prayers for Caroline, for our health to remain good, and that things will go smoothly tomorrow at the CA office. Also, please pray for our food situation...it appears to be a challenge to find food that is familiar and economical. I lugged all my msg-free food in the suitcase, so thankfully that's not an issue. We'll try to find a grocery store tomorrow for some peanut butter and bread. :) Goodnight!