quick update and a little backtracking.
we are doing well and we arrived home on friday evening. it was a long, long day. we started out leaving our Garden Hotel at 2pm, all the others in our group were there to see us off, that made it so special to us. we took a van to the consulate where our guide picked up our documents. a one minute drive later and we were at the train station. Even that is a huge building, thankfully our guide, Simon, took us to the right spot and then he was off to the next family. We had to pay a pretty penny to get our bags checked onto the train, 70rmb or about $11 each bag, which is steep for 5 bags. The usual thing to do is to take all your luggage on board with you.
the train ride was about 2 hours and it was really nice to see the "country side" along the way. it was very rural and you could see little patches with gardens and then some larger cities along the way too. nate was very excited to ride the train and he knew this was the last part of our trip and that made him happy too.
we arrived in hong kong about 6pm, we had to pay another porter to take our bags to the street. we had to rent a van with a driver to take us the our hotel. we arrived around 8pm. We spent about 12 hours in the hotel and then we were off to the airport. the morning light brought some beautiful sites, hong kong is beautiful! there were huge mountains and enormous buildings. we were close to a lake or ocean and on the way to the airport we could see the gondolas going across the highway and up the mountains.
the lord was watching over us on this trip. he blessed us with some amazing people who took great care of us. as we checked in the computers were down. when they finally started working we had waited about 1 hour and had just 1 hour to get checked in and make it to our plane. there were some complications and it took them 50 minutes to check us in! one of the women walked us the entire way to the plane, she took us through staff security entrance, and probably 1 mile of walking, 4 elevators and a train ride to our gate. we were pretty much last to board and they held the plane for us and our luggage. when we started to board they wanted to check our luggage, my lifeline to our babies EVERYTHING. i had a small backpack for a few diapers and a bottle but all our supplies were in the carry on. i had to fight pretty hard to get that bag on the plane but they finally found room.
we were on the plane with a "celebrity" stewardess, here is a link to her,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/28/eveningnews/main7192655.shtml
i asked her if she was on TV and she didn't really answer me, but i knew it was her as soon as i saw her and P recognized her too.
We arrived in Newark and had to go through customs and immigration, it took about 1 hour. Our girls became citizens at this point, it seemed a little uneventful and we couldn't even take picture. we had to pick up our luggage and drop it off in another place. Once again, it was up elevators, down a few escalators, walking and running through the airport, and standing in line for 30 minutes for security. we just made it to the gate and they said we had 90 seconds to get on the plane or it was leaving. it made for a quick goodbye to grandma. this time they did take our carry on luggage, we opened it up on the plane and took diapers and formula for the two hour flight and we were done.
i had a few problems on this flight, the last flight during landing, it triggered my vertigo and i was sick most of the time in the airport and getting on this last flight. P did an amazing job taking care of the kids, he is my super hero! the lord was good to us, things could have been so much more difficult but He provided abundantly.
We arrived home around 8pm and it was a wonderful site. nate was so happy to get home, he dumped every single toy out on the floor and practically laid down in his toys. he was happy. the girls have had an easy transition, they have had no problems with their crib or the play yard, or the highchairs. we are still working on attachment with them and have a long way to go.
