Headed Home

Today we start our journey home. We had a quiet last morning. Those that know me well, know that any quiet/leisurely activity is out of the norm. After the usual breakfast buffet, we stopped a Starbucks and headed over to the playground. The school kids were out for PE as we were walking by so we stopped to watch them exercise in unison to music. It was very interesting to watch. Our girls met up with J & K and played a bit.

I had to make one last minute stop at a shop to get one (well, 4) last minutes items for the kids. They sell really cute mei mei (little sister) and di di (little brother) and jie jie (big sister) t-shirts. They were only $3 US so I had to get them. And of course, we saw what I thought was the CUTEST little Chinese style skirt/shirt outfits. Pete was off looking for sunglasses so I got each o the girls one for their birthdays. At $8 US, how can you pass that up!? Shopping is so VERY inexpensive!

Then back to the hotel to shower the girls and pack up all last minute items before the bellman came. We have out appointment at the US Consulate at 3 pm. Our flight for Beijing leaves at 6:45 pm so we have to go directly to the airport from the US Consulate. I'm told this appointment goes very quickly.

Our flight from Guangzhou leaves at around 6:45 pm. We arrive in Beijing around 9:45 pm. We hope to get to the hotel by 11 pm but it'll probably be closer to midnight. Then we get to sleep for a few hours and back up to head back to the airport. Our flight leaves Beijing at 9 am. We land in Narita, Japan at 1:40 pm, and then leave for Detroit at 3:05 pm. We learned on the way here, that that 1.5 hours goes very quickly between flights. Lastly we settle in for the long flight home. We land in Detroit at 1:50 pm on 4/2/09. We'll get our day back that we lost on the way here then.

I'm sure it's going to take us a few days to get over the jet lag and get back on the US time schedule. I'm told it's harder going back East than it is coming West.

Pete returns to work on Monday so we'll be enjoying our last few days all together before we start to settle into our new life as a family of SIX in the US!

We still have quite aways to go in the bonding process. It'll take a few months for Kaiden to really connect with each of us and learn to trust us. We appreciate everyone's love and prayers that they have given our family through this time. As cute and adorable as Kaiden is and as inviting as his smile is, please be understanding when we don't give him to you to hold. As part of the bonding process, he should only be held by us so that we can form that bond with him quicker. We're anxious for everyone to love on him, but not until he is ready : ) We are looking forward to visiting with all of friends and family when we return!