China time is 13 hours ahead of back home. Right now it's about 3:00 in the afternoon in Tianjin. We arrived last night and will be here about a week. We feel relieved to finally stay put for a few days.
Our journey has been colorful so far, with unexpected turns that required an open mind, fast thinking, and an attitude of acceptance! It was no different when we travelled to adopt our sweet Annie Rose in 2004. Only this time we are not just two potential parents in our mid 30's with no one else to think of but ourselves and our 2 suitcases! Now we are middle-aged (Shad keeps pointing out how we are not spring chickens this time around. Thanks, Honey...), have our almost 8 year old in tow, as well as Granna (my mom), and a massive following of luggage that is in various states of falling apart already. Ugh. Last time we also travelled in a group with 9 other families, and that support was immeasurable. This time it's just us Griffins.
Our plan was to check as much as we could on the airplane and take as little to carry on as possible. We got in line for Hong Kong at the Chicago airport and were surprised to learn our carry-ons were too heavy. Apparently there is a weight limit, though we were never clear what exactly it was. We only knew we were told our bags were over it. We took out items and stuffed them in our checked bags, and finally were allowed to proceed. The next day before our flight from HK to Tianjin, we discovered their rules are different, and we could only check four suitcases. The rest would require an additional fee. Okay, fine. We'll pay it. How much? It was $1100. YES, it's true. So we checked our four, and carried on five items, 3 of which where huge suitcases. Luggage carts were not allowed in the international terminal, so once again I am grateful for my husband's strong back.
The Hong Kong airport is huge. We arrived early and had 2 hours to kill by the time we were at the gate. My mom and Annie and I went for lunch. We had plenty of time. Only we really didn't because they changed the gate at the last minute! This required a walk of about a mile and a train ride, and by the time we found this out we had minutes to spare before missing the plane! Fun times. But we made it.
We arrived in Tianjin and met our guide, Ivan. He is a very sweet kid of 22, who likes hip hop and basketball. Annie thinks he is OH so cool. The driver took us to our hotel and the traffic was CUHRAYZEE! After our death ride was complete and we lived to tell about it, we found out our room has no a/c. OH MY. Fortunately we are not here in August, but it's still hot in here. Shad swears our room is 85-90 degrees, and you have to leave your room key in spot in the wall, or the power goes off, and you start all over again trying to cool things off. It's kind of funny. Kind of. ;) After trying to communicate with the front desk and not getting too far, they brought us a fan! One thing so interesting is how people here bundle up. It's 75 degrees outside and people are dressed in long sleeves, jackets, hats, and gloves! I am sure they think we are nutty, spoiled Americans, complaining our room is hot in the middle of a "cold front"! It actually gets pretty chilly here in Tianjin in the winter, it's in the northern part of China. Hard to figure out why it seems everyone here thinks it's cold outside now. At any rate, we are surviving somehow. ;)
This morning we heard a huge exploision that lasted for about 2 minutes. Annie was not a fan, poor sweetie. We are on the 20th floor in our hotel and saw a lot of smoke outside. It happened again a couple of hours later, and our guide told us it's probably fireworks, someone may be having a celebration of some kind. We are definitely not in Denton anymore!
All in all, we are doing very well. I have had some sleep and feel almost human today. We are trying to laugh at the unexpected and just roll with things, and we are none the worse for wear. Best of all, we are in the same city as our little boy now. SO CLOSE!!!!!!!!!!!! I am thinking of him every minute today, getting our room ready for his arrival, wondering if he knows and understands that soon he will have a family. Be still my heart. :)
Still having issues loading new pictures. The one I posted is of our son Dan Dan, taken a few weeks ago. By the way, we found out recently Dan Dan is his nick name. It means "cute little round boy". We can't wait to meet his pudgy, precious self in the flesh. Less than 48 hours away!!!
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