Day one...

Today was the day.... Just Teasing !!!!

OK.... First off, after an uneventful flight, we arrive in ChongQing, meet up with our guide and basically the first words out of our mouths were, What time do we meet Carli tomorrow? "No, that not until Sunday".
No, you must be mistaken, we got a call saying we would meet Carli tomorrow. As you can imagine, that conversation continued for awhile just to make sure that there wasn't any confusion with the language barrier preventing us from being on the same page or any jet lag clouding our ability to digest what was just conveyed.

So with all that said... We don't meet Carli until Sunday. The reasoning for the change is that there is what they call a 24-hour harmonious period and it would have been "against the law." Don't really know the details, but we accept the change.

Now for some details on the flight here.... hum, well... pretty uneventful to say the least. However, from the moment we knew Carli was meant to be our daughter, we really wanted AnLi to come back to China with us, but we were concerned she was too young to be traveling that far, and mostly, Brian's lack of patience when it comes to traveling. But early in our debate, it was evident that whatever the pro's or con's were, there was never a doubt that Anli would be making the trip back with us to her homeland. And I must say, that was the best decision we could have ever made.
AnLi was an absolute CHAMP!!!!
We drag her out of bed at 3:30 a.m., haul her off to the airport (Thank you, Jen, for getting up at 4:00 a.m. and dropping us off, you're a sweetheart!) to start the journey to Carli. So at 6:00 a.m., we're off to Chicago and it was real uneventful (although we had to pay $50 in Omaha because our luggage was overweight). After a 3 hour wait in Chicago, we load up and we're headed to ShangHai. We take our assigned seats and after waiting on the plane awhile we realize that the plane isn't very full... so at this moment it's time to start claiming territory. AnLi and Kayla sprawl out in the middle four seats and Brian stays in our assigned seats straight across. The doors to the plane shut and after all is said and done, we have SEVEN SEATS, yippee!!!!!!

After 6 movies , 2 meals, and 1 snack later... we're in ShangHai!

As we're getting off the plane in Shanghai, AnLi looks up and says, "No more plane, we go get Carli now." Oh how that just broke my heart as I tried to describe to her that she has to wait in another airport for 3 hours, and then take another 3 hour flight to ChongQing. But she did, and have we already said, we're just so darn proud of her.

Now in ShangHai...
We have to go to the baggage area to claim our $50 overweighted luggage and go through customs since we are changing airlines for our "in China" flights. Brian's pushing the cart with all of our luggage, Kayla with AnLi in the double stroller, we make our way through this long, wide, winding path, on each side packed with people, all pointing and staring at us. Had we only had candy to throw, we would have been the main attraction in the parade! We finally make it to the right counter to get checked into Air China. The man behind the desk types on his computer a while, gets on the phone, types, phone, types, phone. After about five minutes of this, he says, "Maybe your travel agent mistaken." We both just sat there and didn't say a word, although I know both of us had many, many thoughts running through our heads!! Brian started sweating, Kayla was frantically looking through all of the paperwork like something magical was going to pop off the pages, even though we had no idea what the mistake was. Another ten minutes of this exercise of typing, phoning, typing, phoning, and the next thing you know, three tickets were being spit out of the machine and we were on our way.

Once we got to ChongQing, Mae, our guide, was there waiting. She's very, very nice, speaks very good English, and seems to have a handle on everything. They're gearing up for Chinese New Year and there are lights everywhere. On the ride to the hotel, AnLi started squealing, "Oh, Christmas lights! They're SOOOO pretty!" Mae explained that we probably shouldn't go out at night because the workers are working overnight for CNY and it may not be safe. They brought us to the Marriott and got us all checked in. Mae left some instructions in Chinese for us to order food at a hot pot, local cuisine here.

They brought us up to our room and we were more than impressed. We have two rooms, two bathrooms and even a walk-in closet! We all slept well. Well, Brian may disagree. AnLi can't fall asleep with his snoring, so he was banished to the couch. Well, loveseat. Well, maybe just a hard, small flat surface.

Today has been a free day, so we hit the buffet this a.m. and then found the swimming pool. Of course, Waterbug AnLi couldn't have been happier! We swam for quite a while this morning and came back and played for a while. We lugged a heavy suitcase full of books, puzzles, Play-Doh, you just about name it, we brought it, and AnLi spent the morning makes piles with the play-doh over and over again. AnLi is still sleeping, but after she wakes we're going to try to find a grocery to get a few things and then probably do more swimming. Tomorrow we meet Mae and will be touring Old Town. Sunday is now the day we will finally meet Carli. AnLi has asked a few times when we're getting her, so I know she's just as anxious as we are.

One other funny thing - I had been told that the locals are real sticklers about the children being completely bundled up as it's their winter here (nothing like Nebraska's). It was about 40 degrees last night. AnLi had on leggings and a long sleeve t-shirt. The bellhop who delivered our luggage to our room last night said "Maybe she wear more clothes." Now, I thought we might get scolded at some point, but not by a cute little 18-year-old bellhop!