We are HERE!!

Hey everybody!!!!

Well, after over 37 hours of traveling.... we are FINALLY HERE!!! We are staying in the beautiful city of Shenyang in Northern China. (On your map, find Beijing and look northeast and you will find Shenyang)

Our travels started EARLY on Sunday morning as we had a 7:10 am flight to Chicago.(And I had just gotten home from Haiti at 9 pm the day before) Michael Roebke was at our house early at 4:30 am and took us to the airport.. thank you again Michael! =) Our flight to Chicago went smoothly and just a few hours later we boarded our next one to Beijing. Unfortunately for us, we were not lucky enough to have the personal video screens on each seat, so it was a very long and boring trip. My laptop's battery was dying so it didn't work for much longer than 1 1/2 hours. Luckily, my iPod worked for about 8 of the 13 1/2 hour trip and I also brought a book along and read the whole thing to keep me occupied. Frequent visits to the bathroom also helped me keep my sanity since I didn't sleep at all! At one point in our flight I looked over and Dad, Mom and Ian were all sleeping. I wished I could have been doing that since I've only had four hours of sleep since Saturday, but I just couldn't get comfortable. So, to say the flight was long and boring would be an understatement. I was just glad to get off! We landed in Beijing around 2 pm, China time.

As we were getting off the plane I happened to run into a familiar face.. Shaquille O'Neill believe it or not! I asked the flight attendant to make sure, but obviously he is very recognizable being 7 feet tall! It's funny that we ran into him on our flight to Beijing since we pass his house every day! (He lives right down the road from our neighborhood)
Our final flight would take us to Shenyang, just about an hour north of Beijing. We grabbed our luggage and met our guide, Chelsea who is very sweet.

A little about Shenyang-we couldn't see much from the sky since it was very smoggy, but it's a beautiful city. Chelsea told us that it is the 4th largest city in China and has a population of over 7 million people. We have a great view of the city from our room on the 18th floor. We're staying at the Shenyang New World Hotel and it is BEAUTIFUL!! The beds are about as soft as concrete.. I'm not kidding! I think I might make my bed on the floor tonight. =)

It's awesome to be back in China. It's 10:00 pm and the city is still very much alive as if it was the middle of the afternoon.

Now, onto the news you all want to hear! We will be meeting Asher tomorrow morning around 10 am. So, that would be Monday night for you all since China is 12 hours ahead. I can't believe we are finally going to meet him! It hasn't sunk in yet and I'm sure it won't until I finally see him. =)
By the way, we got new pictures of Asher last week! I didn't know this until I got home, but you can see that he's grown a bit since May.


12 hours from now we'll have him in our arms!!!!!

P.S. I am not able to view the blog because of the internet restrictions.. so hopefully it's turning out okay!

In Chicago waiting for our flight to Beijing

Ian and his gameboy.. which kept him occupied for most of the flight.

5 hours into the flight..

Somewhere over Siberia?

Shenyang Bound

Waiting for our flight to Shenyang!

View of Shenyang from our hotel room

Good morning everybody!

Our hotel room

Family picture in the elevator

Ian with Andy and Steven
(Steven is our guide Chelsea's son, and Andy is our other guide Hannah's nephew. They are both 11 years old and are staying on the same floor as us.)