Well, we got to Beijing about 24 hours ago (after about 30 hrs of traveling), and believe it or not our bags were lost before we even left the U.S.A. That’s right, our luggage didn’t even make it to LAX before being lost! That’s after meticulously splitting everything between both bags just in case one of them got lost. So, we have a laptop, three cameras, two cell phones that don’t work here, a bunch of medicine, AND some dried apples, pretzels and Wonder Bars. I also had a pair of shorts and an extra pair of socks in my carry-on…so my feet feel fine, but the rest of us isn’t doing so well. I’m hoping those Wonder Bars have a name that isn’t exaggerated.
Louanne had some difficulties…feeling a bit afraid and having a rough time, with lots of crying and all. It seems the 51 months of waiting for the baby finally caught up to her. But, we got a cell phone (Panda Phone) in China that we can use while we are here so that we can call the States for WAY cheaper than the $2.29/minute that AT&T Wireless wants to charge us, and I used it to call Kaye Jordan so that Louanne could talk to her. She is a wonderful woman from our church…who also happens to be in charge of the Childrens’ programs and is the pastor’s wife. That conversation helped Louanne quite a bit.
Shortly after that we went back to the airport here in Beijing with our guide Michael, who talked to the people there for us. I had already spent who knows how many dollars calling two airlines in the U.S., trying to locate our bags and get them here…getting conflicting statements every time and solving nothing. After talking to them for us today, Michael told us that they have located our bags in Guangzhou and that they should be in Beijing this evening. Michael has to go back to the airport tonight to pick up another family, so he said he will get them for us then. After he told us that, Louanne grabbed his face and kissed him on the cheek. From the resulting smiles and blushes I’m guessing that moment might be one of his more memorable from this group’s trip. The talk with Kaye and the good news about our luggage bolstered Louanne’s spirits quite a lot. Chatting with the two other adopting couples that we picked up from the airport seemed to help her a lot as well.
Finally, because of all that has happened thus far, we missed the tour we were supposed to take today, but we are also scheduled to see the Chinese Acrobats in a few hours, so we just might be able to go to that…in our stylish and yet unkempt hobo clothes. I’ve heard that three-day, unwashed clothes are the New Black, so maybe we’ll actually enjoy wearing them there. Or, we may just skip that, too. The Tiananmen Square and Great Wall tour is planned for tomorrow, so we might just be satisfied with that. After all, we aren’t in China for sightseeing, but to get Nadia. Nothing else really matters much to us right now.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts, and more importantly for your prayers. We know that God is with us and everything will work out for the best. These are just some silly stories that we’ll be able to tell Nadia about later.
Mike
P.S. We’d have posted sooner, but the Internet in our room wasn’t working until now. I used to complain about having no Internet access, but then I met a man with no computer. O the trials that we have to bear! 😉
