Our China travel adventures begin!

These kids are ready to fly

Hello from China! We made it here and everyone is doing well, but the trip was not without a few hiccups. We knew when we booked our flights that our layovers were a bit short for international travel, but never in our history of travel (and there has been a lot!) have we ever missed a connection. So we opted for the cheapest most direct option. Unfortunately our run has ended and our flight out of Detroit to Seoul was delayed 3 1/2 hours. This put our flight to China leaving at 8:45 and us not arriving at the airport until 9:15. Yes, we missed our connection. Luckily the airline put us up in a nice little hotel inside the airport so we didn't have to get our bags, go through customs, and find a hotel. A Delta rep had our tickets and the hotel reservations ready for us as soon as we got off of the plane. We enjoyed having a bed to rest in and a hot shower in the morning and were able to head to China first thing in the morning.


Funny story- While we were checking in at the Seoul airport hotel a Chinese woman on her way to the US for a wedding was checking in. She didn't speak English and the hotel concierge didn't speak Chinese. You should have seen her face light up when I told her in Chinese that my husband could help her. The concierge was more than a little surprised that we spoke Chinese and we were happy to be able to help the woman out.

In the morning we all woke refreshed and headed to Starbucks for some breakfast and then to our flight. Unfortunately we realized right before we boarded that we were holding tickets and not boarding passes! We went to the check in desk and found out that we were supposed to have checked in at the transfer desk, a LONG way from where we were! Apparently the Delta rep had forgotten to put this vital info on our instructions and we weren't the only passengers in the same situation. A very frantic and upset Korean Air employee got us and our fellow rerouted passenger our boarding passes and notified them to get our luggage on the plane. They actually held the plane for us AND our luggage. Kudos to Korean Air! They definitely lived up to their stellar reputation.

Ready for our final flight. Zhengzhou here we come!

So, in addition to never missing a connecting flight we also have NEVER lost a bag. Well, that has ended as well. At some point one of our bags decided to take a trip to the Philippines. We have been told that it should be delivered at our hotel by tomorrow morning. So K.C. is currently missing his wardrobe and I am makeup free.

All in all it really hasn't been bad and our kids have been amazing travelers. I only heard a couple of complaints when we were waiting the extra 3 1/2 hours in Detroit for our plane to leave. I think the kids were actually glad for the break from flying last night and a bed to sleep in instead.

We have lovely, newly remodeled hotel rooms and even got a free upgrade in one of our rooms to a suite. It is quite the "open" floor plan with glass doors to the toilet and shower and a bathtub front and center. Thankfully our older kids are in a separate room! Not a lot of privacy in this one.

We are so excited to be here and had a wonderful lunch catching up with dear friend that we actually adopted with last time! We received our daughters on the same day in 2012 and this time we will celebrate adopting our sons together as well. What an amazing gift from God!