China - WE ARE HERE!

We are here!  After 39 hours of travel, we arrived safely in Guangzhou.  We arrived at the airport in Columbia knowing that our plane had a one hour delay.  Then it turned into a two hour delay.  When they announced it would be noon before we could depart, we were scrambling to figure out what our next step would be.  It was like a scene from Amazing Race - Ryan standing at the ticket counter begging and me scanning our computer for a flight, ANY flight, that would get us to China ASAP.  In the end, we flew to Chicago, had a six hour layover, then flew to Newark, NJ, had a four hour layover, then flew to Hong Kong, had a two hour layover, and then, finally, Guangzhou.  

 The girls were troopers through it all.  MK is such a helper, she was pulling and carrying bags left and right while Maddox provided our entertainment with her comments each time we landed.  

"I can't believe we are going to China on an airplane!"

Upon landing in Chicago, a short plane trip, she quickly looked out the window and shouted, "China is so pretty!"  Little did she know what was ahead flight wise:)

And my favorite was when we arrived in Hong Kong, "Why are all of these Spanish people here?"

 Guangzhou proved to be easy to work through and we soon found our driver who took us very safely to our hotel, The Garden.  If you've been to China, you know that the driving here is less than stellar!  

And, finally, the hotel.  The girls were beyond giddy.  They were thrilled to be out of a seat and free to run around.  We all showered and took a tour of the hotel gardens, found a much needed Coke, and ventured out for a walk around the streets of the hotel in search of water.

MK began asking if we could please go back to the hotel.  Maddox fell asleep.  It was 2:00pm and Ryan and I were anxious to keep them awake for fear they would not sleep at night.  We decided to rest for one hour and then wake everyone for dinner.  

Ha!  They were beside themselves.  Maddox cried and cried.  MK fell asleep in the bath.  I pulled out a new Barbie (thank you Gran!) for Maddox and a new book for MK which made them both happy AND they were awake.  

It was at this point that my stomach began to act up.  If you know me well, you know very well that my stomach is a mess and causes me much angst at times.  After waiting for a bit, I thought all was well and we decided to go find something to eat.  Not far from the hotel, I told Ryan I wasn't feeling well and it went downhill from there. I know that God sent an angel to me at that time - out of nowhere this lady knelt down and began massaging my head as I lay on the sidewalk and she spoke English!  Seeing as there were many, many Chinese people walking by and talking about me, to hear English at this point was extremely comforting.  

All is well.  I eventually felt well enough to walk back to our room - of course, the hotel staff insisted I ride in a wheelchair, so embarrassing!  We rested in the room and then just gave up trying to keep the girls awake at 7:00pm when we noted that MK had fallen asleep with her hand in her dinner!  They slept ALL.NIGHT.LONG.  And MK is STILL sleeping as I type this!