BEIJING

4-30-14  We were up at 4:45 to get ready and had a little  time with the kids before we left, not gunna lie, we had a few tears.... but overall it went more smoothly than I expected.  We picked Laura up at 6:30 and she took us to the airport while Kirt continued on with morning routine with the kids.  Laura prayed with us before we left and then we were off to book our flights.  It took about 10 minutes and we were all set, checked in and luggage headed to the plane. 

 So then we waited for our flight on a small plane for Chicago.  There were only 3 seats across.  The flight was on time and uneventful. 

 We arrived in Chicago around 9:15 and spend our time like this: walking around, charging phones, lunch, resting, walking around some more.  We met up with another family traveling, Kerry and her mom Connie.  They are from Lexington, KY.  I have been in contact with Kerry for months but had never met, so this was a neat opportunity to have time to get to know them.  We got on our HUGE plan for Beijing, leaving about 30 minutes late, but apparently they made up time because we arrived in Beijing 10 minute ahead of schedule.  We flew over the North Pole and Russia... they said even though it's longer over land, it's faster because the headwinds are worse over the ocean.

 Inside Beijing airport.

We had to ride a shuttle to pick up baggage and then through customs without a problem.  They had us take one bag off each cart and put it through the scanner and we were off.

As we exited, the Staff from New Hope Foundation (Show Hope) were there waiting for us.  We were able to deliver three large bags of things for their foster care .  They were so grateful.

We then met our guides and they took us by Hotel shuttle back to our hotel, about 30 minute drive into Beijing.  We got checked in and went right to bed.  We slept about 5 hours and are up getting ready for the day. Here are a few pics of our hotel and out our hotel window:

We are safe and continuing this journey trying to soak up each moment.