The Long Journey Home

(Originally posted 1-16-2004)

Our long journey home is about to begin! We are packed and had our last meal in Guangzhou, and we will be checking out of the White Swan Hotel in about an hour.

Echo is at the Consulate getting the girls' visas, and we will leave the hotel about 3:45 pm, take a bus to the train station, and then take the 5:20 pm train to Hong Kong. It arrives in Hong Kong about 7:20 pm and then we have about an hour bus ride to the hotel at the airport.

Our flight leaves Hong Kong at 8:40 am on Sat Jan 17. Our group is splitting up at this point, some of us flying on Northwest and others on United. We all miss our families and want to be home very badly ... but the thought of the long plane ride is not very exciting! We fly from Hong Kong to Tokyo (4 hr flight) with the Overbey's and Kinnamon's, then in Tokyo we split up. We go from Tokyo to Minneapolis (12 hr flight) and then to Peoria (1.5 hr flight). We have about a 5 hr layover in Minneapolis, leaving there around 3:30 pm Central Time and arriving in Peoria at 5pm.

This has been an incredible trip. We have learned so much about China and the beautiful, kind people who live here. How can we ever show them our gratitude for allowing this wonderful child to join our family ... I think it is impossible. We have had a good reaction from the local population, one man in particular talked with Mitch after we deplaned here in Guangzhou and told him how much he appreciated our humanity in adopting Abby. Others have pointed at her and said "lucky baby", but honestly we are the lucky ones. Yes, her life is changing, but so is ours ... she is a gift from above. Lots of paperwork and red tape, but all the time and all the delays over the past 16 mos lined up the timing perfectly for her file to be matched with ours. She is truly heaven sent.

We cannot wait to see the boys ... and for the boys to see Abby and for Abby to meet her brothers! Our return to Peoria will be joyous and emotional, and again, anyone close who would like to be there is more than welcome.

Signing off from Guangzhou ... and probably until we arrive home! Thanks for all of your support during our journey. Your messages kept us connected to home while we took the trip of a lifetime.