Catch up

Things are going well here. Well most of the time. We are all still waking up at weird times, and feeling the urge to close our eyes when we normally would be wide awake, but overall we are making some strides in the sleep area.

Hayden has for the most part made friends with all of her puppies, it was a little touch and go there the first 48, but she doesn't even seemed bothered by Finely's barking anymore. The dogs love that she sits in the highchair with food, and they fight over who gets first dibs when we get her out to look for the lost nibblets.

She nows loves her baths in the duck, she will sit in her carseat without crying, she has had her first lunch out, she is obsessed with her brother and sister and not to mention her Ya-Ya(David's mom) who has been a giagantic help. She is still working on Daddy leaving in the morning, but is overjoyed when he walks back in at the end of the day.

I am still working on figuring out how to get everything done....either one handed, or when she is asleep. Since I have been trying to sleep when she does, the one handed thing has been the most used method, but not the most efficient. This morning I have gotten a ton done, as this has been the very first morning we have sort of had a bit of a schedule. I really look forward to getting into a routine, and I think we all will feel better....especially Hayden.

We have gotten so many beautiful gifts. David's sister-in-law in Seattle made Hayden a beautiful afgan, and the cutest knitted bibs(we need a million of these, as she is a drooling fool)

Beautiful flowers arrived from the Douglass family yesterday, a box just arrived from Aunt Louise. Monogrammed diapers, the cutest pinkest Giggle moon outfit, an awesome signing book. The list goes on and on. We appreciate everyone's generousity and kindness more than we will ever be able to tell you.

Here are a few pictures from the trip home and after getting settled a bit. Enjoy, and again thanks for everything!!!

Home Sweet Home

Quickly just wanted to let you know we did make it home in one piece. It took about 28 hours of travel, and Hayden did really well considering. Every flight we walked on you could tell the people on our flight thought.....great, a baby that is going to scream the whole way. She didn't, but I almost did:)

It feels awesome to be home, and Hayden is adjusting. She is sleeping quite a bit, and we are hoping for some sunshine today so we can get her out in it and stay up longer today. She wants to make friends with the dogs, but having a feeling it will be like "50 first dates" Each day we will have to re-introduce them and hope eventually she will be fine with them. Just a lot of tears right now.

Will update you with some home pictures shortly. We were greeted at the airport by our friends and David's mom. It was awesome to see everyone, and Hayden was full of smiles....most of it at least.

Last Day

Look how sweet she looks laying on her daddy. She loves to sleep on you, and if she wakes in the night she is climbing on top to go back to sleep. She and her daddy will be enjoying many naps together I am sure.

These cantaloupes are gigantic, but again the picture does not show their size off. This market sells all produce and around 4 o'clock it became full of people and the market was hawking the produce like beer at a baseball game.

I am pretty sure that Taipei is the scooter capital of the world, and it seems as though every single person of driving age has one. They all wear mask, and mitts on their hands because the pollution is so bad. It feels like you are living inside a giant video game with them.....it is like playing frogger. This is just one little alley with them parked.

Sausage I guess, they were huge, but you can't really tell that in the picture. Not exactly sausage on a stick at the Texas State Fair.

Shilin is the largest night market in Taipei, and it is packed full of booths selling anything from squid on a stick to stinky tofu(boy does it stink) We strolled through here yesterday afternoon before it became packed with people. It was very interesting to see all the different stuff, and the conditions that it was cooked in.....let's just say there was not going to be even a little chance that I consumed anything, I won't even go to a potluck dinner and eat, so this was waaaay outside of my comfort zone. I did enjoy going, these markets are very famous in Taiwan.


Well it is our last day here in Taiwan, and I can't wait to get home and sleep in our bed, snuggle with the dogs, and introduce Hayden to all of those who have been waiting for her for such a long time. She is still having some really tense experiences, and am wishing her peace in this transition. There has been so much introduced to her this week, and it must just feel so overwhelming.....and now we are getting on a plane with her for 13 hours. I am worried about the plane, she has quite the set of lungs on her, and I would prefer everyone on the plane not to hate us.

This has been such an experience in so many ways. I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity, and especially to be given this amazing little girl. We feel like the luckiest people in the world right now. We are so glad we had so many follow along with our journey, I hope it was fun for everyone at home to watch this experience and have a feel for where Hayden is from. We want to encourage her to be proud of her heritage, and for her to know as much about where she is from as she can learn. Taiwanese people are very kind, and proud people and come from a very rich culture. They have helped make this trip so incredible. We will be back when Hayden is old enough to appreciate it, and understand, and we look forward to bringing her back to her country.

We have a few things to do today to wrap up and get us ready to leave in the early morning. We will see if we have time for one more post, but if not the next pictures will be of the United States newest citizen when we land in Los Angeles and David's brother picks us up. We can't wait to get home!!!!

I know so many of you are anxious to meet Hayden, and we can't wait for you to meet her either.....however please remember she is getting ready to make a 13 hour time change and I am pretty sure it is going to wreak havoc and we are going to need some time to adjust to that and her new surroundings. So we will have days that we are sleeping and nights we are wide awake, and so calls and emails will probably go unanswered for a bit. Our priority is to get her settled and adjusted to her new world, and for her to learn that David and I are her parents and caregivers that will always provide for her. So please be patient with us, we promise you will get to meet Miss Priss soon!

Well it is Thursday folks, and we are about 48 hours away from heading home. We have been blessed with a great trip. We have seen so much, learned even more, eaten amazing food(and some food not so much) We have tried to soak in every bit of the culture and people here. But I think we are all ready to get home and sleep in our own beds, and have a taquito and Dr. Pepper from Whataburger:)

Today has been a hard day for Hayden. She seems to be really grieving and having a hard time coping. One minute she is happy as a clam and the next she is inconsolable. I just hold her tight while she screams(excellent lungs) and we work through it, and just keep telling her we love her, and that we understand why she is so angry and frustrated. This is a lot of change for one little girl, and while I know she will work through it and be fine in time, it really just breaks your heart to see her so upset....and to understand why she is so upset. But again all we can do is hold her and let her get it out the only way she can which is telling the world she is p!ssed off that her life has been turned upside down.

She loves to smile for the camera, and she is fascinated by all the people who come up to her and talk to her. I feel as though we are famous with her....seriously it is hard to walk around with all the people wanting to say hi to her, and tell her how beautiful she is.....and since I don't think once in my life I have had anyone stop to tell me how beautiful I am.....I am not really that use to this attention. But she smiles, and then does the dragon growl. We will have to get it on tape for everyone to see. When she is sad or when she is happy she does this growl thing that is hilarious, and the more you laugh at her for doing it, the more she does it!!!! So now we just call her dragon baby. DB for short. We will attempt to video it and see if we can get her to do it....telling you it is funny stuff.

**By the way Dragon baby loves rice, she ate half of a bowl at dinner last night!!

Okay, gotta start figuring out how all of this (crap) is getting back to the US!!

AIT and a view from the top

We went to our visa appointment at AIT this morning, Hayden has the cutest passport picture!! We were asked several questions like.....how is the baby treating us?? do we live in the same house? is the baby living up to our expectations~LOL They will process her visa today and we will pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Technically this is the last step, and once we have the visa we are free to leave the country.

We went to Taipei 101(tallest building in the world) we went to the top, and although the weather is a bit gross with rain and fog, we were still able to get a birds eye view of Taipei.

We then ran to the handy market to purchase a couple of things. We have no room to buy much of anything else, the bags are were bulging before we arrived, we did get a strand of pearls for Hayden to have for something special somewhere down the road. We bought a few other gifts, but everything was small.

We had another good night last night. Hayden slept about 9 hours, and mommy slept about 7 which is the most sleep in one night I have had since before we left home. Hopefully we have another good n.ight tonight. Hayden slept with her foster parents....so guess who is not at all interested in even looking at her crib....we are having it removed today as it is taking up valuable space in the room. She is going to have no part of it, so we will work on that when we get home. I like having right by us now anyway.

So for those families that are coming right behind....here are a few suggestions I have.

While I was told by many not to stay here, we didn't have much of a choice, as the hotels this particular week seem to be really high and most were at least $100 more than the Golden China.....I would tell you it is worth it. This is a hotel for tour groups and each night around 9-10 the groups start to arrive and are in the hall yelling(in Chinese) and slamming their doors, then they get settled and find it necessary to go from room to room visiting.....while we are trying to sleep. Just know that the last two nights I have been in the lobby in my pajamas at 1 in the morning complaining. The hotel itself is fine, not awesome by any sense. Our room is clean, and without the noise I would be okay with it(not love it, but doable) If I had to do it all over again I would pick somewhere else, this is the start of the tour season and that is why is has gotten so bad.

It is HOT and humid!! pack accordingly, if you are planning to have good hair....good luck!! my hair is big and frizzy, so it is a ponytail everyday. Basesball hat would be a great decision. It rains a lot here!! A LOT!! think monsoon.

Squatty potties don't have toilet paper...really plan accordingly. Dresses and skirts work the best on squatties.

Okay, that is all I have today. Enjoy the pictures.

We leave in 3 days!!!!

All is well in the world

All is well in the world....well at least our world. Hayden is doing great, she has moments of some hard grieving, but overall she is making progress. She slept 10 hours last night and woke up happy.

Tomorrow is our visa appt, and some sight seeing.

We are floating on cloud nine:)

The day our lives changed forever!!!

This picture is blurry of Hayden because she was so upset and flailing her body around....so sad.
Nirvanna........

I will not waste much of your time....I know you have little interest in what I have to say. Today is a day that will be cherished forever, it was an awesome day, it was a really hard day for our baby girl, it was a day that changed our lives forever, and for that I am so thankful.

Sorry it has taken me a little longer than planned to post. It was like a monsoon this morning and the drive to Taichung took over 3 hours!! So we were way behind schedule. We stopped at TWCA, and then made the drive over to the Mrs. Chin....the best foster mom around, and we were welcomed inside her home to meet our daughter. Hayden is so much smaller than she looked in the pictures and video.....and way more beautiful than you can ever imagine. She has the longest eyelashes, and the biggest brownest eyes!! She is breathtaking as far as we are concerned. She also has quite a temper and set of lungs. I will only share the nice pictures(maybe one of our little dragon...I will explain later) but she was pretty certain that she wanted no part of leaving her awesome foster mom. I was completely prepared for this reaction, but my heart broke into a million pieces to see her so upset. She really was broken hearted to leave, and I think Mrs. Chin was just as upset to see her go. She said she would miss her big beautiful eyes, her pretty smile, and her happy attitude. So to those of you coming right behind me, just know that you really need to prepare for the saddness that comes in a moment that is so big and happy for you, but filled with loss for your child. Again we all know that, and prepare for it when you are adopting, but to actually see the hurt you are causing is almost more than you can take.

We went back to TWCA, changed our diaper(Hayden's) and I changed her clothes because she was so HOT and sweaty from her fight to the end. David then held her and got her calm, while I did a few things with the agency, and prepared our thermos of hot water for our bottle on the way home. We made a very quick stop at the baby store, and for such a quick stop....David and I were shocked at the $200 we spent. We splurged on a cheap stroller for while we are here....she seemed to love to ride in the stroller that the store has avail while you shop. So much so that Hayden went to sleep while Taylor was pushing her around the store, and I went through the store with Fion saying sure, sure just throw it in the buggy, it can't hurt to have it. Then back in the car for the long ride back to the hotel, which went much faster and much better than I was expecting, and when Hayden woke up from her cat nap, she was ready to play some and actually smiled a few times!!!

I will wrap this up by saying we are just over the moon with our little girl. She has had my heart for a long time, and I can't believe that I am looking at her laying on the bed right next to me sleeping so peacefully.

I am a mommy!!!

So enjoy, thanks for all of the nice words, thoughts and prayers....we appreciated each and everyone of them. Keep sending good thoughts for Hayden....this is a really hard transition to make, and I hate seeing her hurt, but that reminds me that she was very loved by Mrs. Chin and she loved her as much back....so we know that she will love again:)

one last quick one!!

First let me say that I have no idea what I wrote last night. Hopefully I will have time to go back and read it. I was so tired, but wanted so badly to let you know what was going on on the other side of the world. I know when I am at home reading someone else's trip to pick up their child it is like a good book, you can't wait for the next chapter to come. Plus I wanted to let you know we were here safe and sound, and and feeling the angst of wanting to jump in a car and head towards Taichung to get our girl.

Thanks for the sweet post, they really are such a big part of this journey. It has me crying all over again.

I did sleep, but up an hour earlier than I had planned. Taylor was the first to wake up this morning and is already in the shower. So I guess we are all getting a little excited.

*Fion is our guide, and she will be here at 8:40 to pick us up.
*I do hope I can give David some time with Hayden later and I will update you with eye candy (I know that is what you want) as soon as I can.

11 hours and counting

First let me say....no pictures, I will try and load a collage tomorrow night and finish off the trip to Chongqing for you. As a family we have been afforded the opportunity to travel all over the world, and I must tell you that the trip to Chongqing far exceeded any trip we have ever taken. We truly had an amazing time, we experienced so much, learned more than I would ever be able to share, and have made lifelong friends in Shiyu's family. I can't even tell you how warm, generous, kind, FUNNY, and loving they are. They treated us like royality, and I am certain we will never have another trip like that again. We have already taken about 350 pictures, and so that is why I don't have time to get them loaded tonight...but I will because I want everyone to get to see the China we were so fortunate to see. I am fairly certain that Shiyu's dad is president of the Chongqing Tourism Board!! You are going to be shocked as how much we covered in 3 days.

We left Chongqing this morning after arriving home last night at midnight....yes we are tired and it has nothing to do with adjusting to the time change. I have no idea how I got everything packed. We are coming home with a lot more than we left with....and we only barely contributed to China's growing economy. But everyone else in Chongqing that brought gifts for Shiyu's American family, and her impending new Taiwanese sister made a HUGE dent into the economy. Yes....Hayden's now owns even more clothes than any one person should ever own. We did have a minor issue when one of the suitcases decided to instantaneously combust as it was being loaded into the car. Thank goodness I knew nothing about this until we arrived at the airport....David knew not to tell the crazy lady who had only had about 4 hours of sleep. Firecracker Auntie took control(what a surprise) and tied that bulging mess up, and then had the nice packing men at the airport saran wrap it permantly shut. Apperently I am not the first for this to have this happen:) We only ended up with $10 in excess baggage(which of course I was told that I could not pay because it was not my fault that my bags weighed more than when we arrived)
The time finally came for us to say our goodbyes, and let me say that the tears were rolling, and it was not only hard to say goodbye to the girls, it was just as hard to say farewell to the whole family(yes...they all went back to the airport with us) Those 5 days are days that I think all three of us will treasure, and never forget.

We boarded our flight to ShenZhen and after the 3rd time of the the pilots turning on and off the power I said to David....this is not normal, at least at home, and I hope something isn't wrong. Well since we have a very small select Chinese vocabulary list it does not do us much good to listen to the announcements, but it was clear what the last announcement we heard said....Get off the plane, and collect your belongings....something is wrong with the plane. I don't need to tell anyone that is not what "this crazy lady needed to hear" We had come to Chonqing, we had an awesome time, I did very little anticipating while we were there....but I am now on my way to our baby and I will be damned if a mechancial is going to keep me from getting to Taiwan to pick her up tomorrow. So it is Sunday, we have no cell phone that we can use, we can understand a damn thing anyone is saying, they found us a translator who spoke about 5 more english words than the five people prior that we tried to communicate with, we know from the departure list that we don't have a lot of options in front of us, and they are now handing out a box breakfast that has a bowl of beans in it and a roll with some unknown piece of meat in it, and we have to be in Hong Kong by afternoon to catch our flight to Taipei. Well let's just say that they finally found another airplane, we boarded with no joke 22 babies(what is up with that) all in split pants and all under the age of 6 months who could teetee on command??? (did I miss something in the parenting books I read??) We flew to ShenZhen, boarded a bus with all of that cargo we are schleping around in a torential rainstorm so that we could then sit on a bus sopping wet for a mere hour...hence the term: come hell or high water:) When we got on the bus and settled into our seats, a man got on with a video camera and came down the aisle and videotaped everyone. I asked the "british" man next to me what that was about and he said that they do that to have a record of who is on the bus in case it blows up?? I looked at him puzzled and he said "you know if we were to have a suicide bomber blow up the bus, then they would look back and see who might have done it" Well now, thanks for sharing that little story with me. After driving to the border we then had to get off the bus(yes with all of the cargo in tow) to go across the border, but we understood that we would be getting on another bus once we showed our passports, but then some guy showed up and said we needed to get in this mini-van to go to Hong Kong Airport, and you are gonna laugh but even though we all looked at each other and thought that would be a poor travel decision, and why would a mini-van take us when a bus(big bus) had brought us....we got in. Once in we decided that if we were being kidnapped that they would for sure bring Taylor and myself back as we are far too annoying for anyone to want to keep and certainly no one that we love has any money to ransom us out. So we decided that we were probably okay, and sure enough we were, and he took us straight to the airport, and we found out that no one else showed up to go to the airport at that departure time and so instead of wasting a bus they used a van to take us.

By this time it is 3:00 in the afternoon we had arrived at the airport at 7:00 that morning, we had been through a monsoon, and had had no sleep.....we looked awesome when we walked up to the business class counter to check in. But good lord I was so happy to see the lounge and made great use of cleaning myself up so that when the guide picked us up in Taipei she would not make any phone calls claiming that they might want to reconsider our family....we looked terrible, and didn't actually feel that great either. Once we were semi clean and put back together we finally made our way to our gate and that is when the emotions started running pretty high. I just started crying, and for anyone who knows well knows that tears do not come easily for me. It was like an out of body experience. I really just started to feel the final leg of this very long journey. We were really going, it wasn't pretend anymore, no one was ever going to ask me again when Hayden was coming home, and to be honest I was a little caught off guard by these feelings. It was happiness, excitement, shock, and probably some exhaustion thrown in, but it was real we were getting on the plane and flying the 499 miles to Taipei to get our girl.

So I sit here in our hotel, everyone else is asleep, I am surrounded by a very big stack of baby things that need to get organized before I go to bed and I just can't believe in 12-13 hours from now I will be meeting our daughter for the very first time. Amazing is all I can say. I can't thank you enough for all of the nice comments, and emails I have gotten since we left. I am sorry I have not responded, I am hoping that after tomorrow our time will be a little less hectic than it has been for the last 5-6 days. I will load pictures, and I will absolutely post pictures and some thoughts for what I would guess is going to be a day I will never forget. Yeah....I am crying again. So I say goodnight...actually good morning to you all. I know you will be thinking about us and sending us your love and good thoughts. But please send good thoughts to Hayden, it makes me very sad and emotional thinking that tomorrow is such a day of huge change for her, I pray for her to have a very peaceful transition. We have loved her for a very long time now, but we are total strangers taking her from all that she knows and is comforted by.

We really will see you on the otherside now:)

Sorry no proof-reading tonight, too tired and still too much to do:)

Welcome to Chongqing

Sorry to have disappeared. We arrived in Chongqing late yesterday afternoon to be met first by the drug dog and his soldier wanting David to unlock and open his bag.....whaaaat? It must not have been too important, he stuck his hands in there just once and barely felt around and didn't really look at all, and said good. I was relieved to hear that since I was wondering what I could have packed that could have ended David up in a Ch!nese prison for life.



We were met outside of departures by Shiyu's entire family, yes, almost every single one, plus our friend's exchange student. We were greeted with flowers and hugs, and cold Pepsi!!! I felt as though we had met them a million times, everyone was so excited to see everyone.



We drove in several cars to Shiyu's house(an amazing house by the way) and off loaded the cargo we are calling our bags. We visited, ate fruit and candy, and exchanged some amazing gifts. We then all loaded up and headed for a hotel where a private room had been sat up for us to have dinner. There were 11 or 12 of us around a huge round table, with a lazy susan almost as big as the table, and well the food just started coming out and I am actually not certain that they ever stopped bringing out food. I just couldn't believe how much food there was to eat. The food was incredbile, but despite that most of the table spoke Chinese and could not understand or speak any English, the company was even better than the food. Our family was toasted by every single member of Shiyu's family in gratitude of having hosted her in our home last year, and the appreciation of taking good care of her. David and I laugh at this, as it was incredibly easy to host her, and have her join our family. She is such a great kid, and she just fit in with us so easily. Anyway, we took some pictures(will try and get them loaded tomorrow) and then headed back home and into bed for an early night.



We are doing pretty well I think with the time change. It has been one of my biggest worry's for most of this process, but we seem to be making some headway, rallying, and making the turn towards regaining some sort of regular schedule. I think we will be pretty adjusted by Monday morning when we get Hayden.

I have so much more to tell you about our first full day in Chongqing. It included a real initiation into "driving in China" most of the driving laws are just a suggestion. We drove about 3 hours north to visit the Dazu Rock and Carvings, and well let's just say that when you look up and you are on the wrong side of the road and a truck is headed straight towards you that you see at least part of your life flash before you. I am pretty sure David will never allow me to open my mouth again about his driving. It was really insane!!

We saw so much of rural Chongqing; which is really very beautiful with mountains everywhere. We saw a lot of what rural life for the Chinese looks like, and it really makes you appreciate all of the modern convienences that we normally take for granted. For a girl who has seen a lot of the world, this was even eye opening to me. We have a lot to learn about work ethic when you see the hard work that is done here.

Dazu was incredible. I recommend you visit sometime or take the time to read about the carvings. Most are around 800 years old, and walk you through the story of Buddism. It was incredible to see how well preserved they were, and the intricate story that went with each one. We visited the monastary where approx 50 monks reside. We lit the biggest candles and incense I have ever seen asking for peace and a safe trip. Shiyu's aunt(we love her) prayed for us at each stop, and along with the incense and candles she also purchased a giant roll of firecrackers....to ward of the scary and the evil. This was one of the most interesting tours I think we have gone on. We enjoyed every minute of the rituals, and we loved that Auntie wanted to cover all of the bases and make sure she did her part in making our trip as safe and peaceful and happy as it could possibly be. On our way out we broke up into pairs and had the bicycles take us back to the starting point, as it was time to start making our way back towards Shiyu's house.

We made our way to downtown Chongqing.....wow, can you say a lot of people and a lot of traffic!! We met the rest of Shiyu's family for "hot pot" which is your own small boiling pot of spicy(very spicy) broth and then a table full of options to cook in your broth for your eating pleasure. It was amazing, and a ton of fun. The squirming skewered shrimp and the port blood cakes were a little much for me, but the beef, lamb, pork, and vegtables were just what we needed after this long day of driving, and walking. Once we finished with dinner we were headed for "our treat" Shiyu, Shang(exchange student who stayed with friends) and David, Taylor and myself went for massages. Well let me tell you, this was the most needed and incredible 2 hours of my life!!! Yes, that is right 2 hours(about $18) and it was just what this stuntwoman(little sore from the ceiling experience before we left) needed. Incredible is all I can tell you and just such a treat!!

Today has been an incredible day. We love Shiyu's entire family. They are so generous, and kind. They have such a great energy about them, and after spending time with I don't have to wonder why Shiyu is the amazing girl that she is. We will never be able to thank them for allowing us this experience. We hope that they will soon come to Texas so we can show them the same great hospitality.

Tomorrow we are going to something called "Asia Village" and then we will have dinner with everyone for our last night here, and then we are taking a cruise down the river. So we are looking forward to what the new day brings.

Enjoy the photo's. I feel like I am not doing a very good job of being up to date, but it just feels like there is not enough time in the day. So bare with me. I may always be a day behind. Which seems strange since I am a day ahead.

Made it!!

view from our hotel in Hong Kong

Here we are right before we took off in our cubicals in business. They look small in the picture, but it didn't feel small, and the seat folded down into a flat bed, and we had down comforters!!

Taylor digging her seat. We have probably ruined her for any future husband:)

Posting from Hong Kong....no easy task, we have had some major technical issues, but it seems at least for the moment we are up and working.

Cathay Pacific business class was amazing, we sat in the upper deck, and it really felt as though we were on our own private airplane. The service was impeccable....Hey to all of my DAL and AA stew buddies, we have a thing or two to learn about service and hospitality:) Our flight was 15 hours from San Francisco, and it really didn't seem that long. We all slept pretty well, and were ready for bed when we arrived here at the hotel.

Had a great night of sleep, and woke up and have had breakfast, David has been working(I know that will shock those of you who know him) We are just packing up to head to the airport to fly to Chongqing.

It is really all so surreal to actually be here, we are very excited to see Shiyu and meet her family. Our next post will come from Chongqing.

**I added a picture of the ceiling...or what is left of the ceiling(I put it in yesterdays post)

Well this is how the evening of getting ready went...

here is the hole I created in our ceiling.....don't ask me how I actually got through there, and didn't really hurt myself. I really was feeling like a stunt woman at the time....well a stunt woman out of control.

The last day before you leave on any trip is crazy busy, chaos, and a lot of list that need to be completed. Well, this day was no different, I was running around trying to a very big list of last minute things done, and actually most everything was completed.

Came home, had our awesome friends come over to bid us farewell with gifts, and hugs and well wishes....and a few tears. We then tried to finish packing(I thought I was basically finished with this task....oh no, so the blind man) Taylor had not really started....well that is what it looked like to me. But what do I know?? I thought I was finished, you can see by this picture of our bedroom no one was done packing. It was not going to be the early night I thought it would be.

We practiced skype in between the runs up and down the stairs. We tried calming the dogs, as they knew something was going on, and were just going crazy. We finally finished getting most everything in its place, and then I remembered that I need to take more wrapping paper(red wrapping paper) to wrap some of the gifts we had brought. Well that meant up to the attic I would go to hunt down some nice Christmas red paper to stick in the bag. This was at about 1:15 a.m. Never in my life has a picture been worth a thousand words until last night......I will not need to say anything about what happened, just know I was really lucky, and the gods must have been smiling down upon me, and knew nothing was going to stop me from going to get our baby....not even a fall through the ceiling in our bathroom from the attic. I really am okay, and thankful, and now it is mostly just funny!!! So anyway, needless to say by the time we got everything cleaned up and David checked my pupils a few times, and fixed up some nasty scrapes, there was not much time left to sleep. I think it we got maybe 2-3 hours. Oh well, we know have almost 15 hours to sleep on our flight.

Now we made it to the airport(thanks Connor) checked in, made it to San Fran, and now we are just in the Cathay Pacific lounge waiting for boarding on our 747(upper deck we get to sit) and I am so excited I feel like I am 5 years old. I have always wanted to fly on this airplane, and Delta did not have them. So this adds a little extra to the trip.

So all is well, we are really excited, and I have actually not been that emotionally. But check back in a few days and I have a feeling that will all change.

We will see you once we get to Hong Kong!!