Still in the US

We were unable to get on the flight to Beijing this afternoon.  We are in Reston Virginia and will try again tomorrow. Even though the flight tomorrow looks equally as bad, I am hopeful that we will get on.  It has been a LONG couple of days.

I spoke with my mother and sister and both are doing as well as can be expected.  There has been so much support and encouragement from so many people and my family truly appreciates it.  My father will be greatly missed by all. 

We were able to catch a 3-hour nap this afternoon after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night.  Even though we arrived home at 5pm last night, our luggage did not arrive until after 7pm.  Thanks to Kristen, Jill and Luann, we got everything packed and made it to the airport on time this morning.  We had to re-distribute some of the weight between a couple suitcases but are officially traveling with three bags weighing 50 lbs. each.  Plus, I think our backpacks weigh at least that!  The airport is VERY big and we did ALOT of walking today. It felt like they weighed 100 lbs each. We also opted to bring the baby carrier instead of a stroller.  At one point, Jake even feel asleep for a short amount of time while sitting on my back.

We were able to book a room at a hotel with an airline rate - $68 versus $250!  The hotel room is very nice and we all enjoyed the rain shower and Crabtr** and Evelyn shampoo, conditioner and lotion - well, at least I did :)  We had pizza delivered to the room and searched through the bags for my cell phone charger.  It was exactly where I thought it was but I did not see it until AFTER I went through every other bag!  Lack of sleep truly slows a body down.  I have not gotten much sleep since the phone rang Tuesday night at 11:35 pm.  I miss my dad....

We did get to practice our Chinese while waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the shuttle bus to the hotel.  We spoke with an 11 year old boy and his mother who are visiting the US.  Sadly, the child has cancer and is seeing someone in Maryland this week.  I did not recognized the name of the institute until the mother showed me the business card.  It certainly put things into perspective for me. 

I am in the business center and need to head back to the room. Internet access is free here so we opted not to get it in the room.  I will update again - but hopefully not from the US.  Thank you all for your prayers - it means everything to us!

Oh, one last thing. I was able to go shopping at Cost*o when I was in Boston.  I bought enough supplies to totally FILL one of the suitcases.  It was the ONLY bag that was searched today at the airport (they left our other bags unopened).  I'm sure they were wondering what I was doing with such LARGE supplies of medicine, Benefiber, toddler pajamas, toothbrushes, candy  (for the bigger kids), etc. I can't wait to deliver it on behalf of those who donated and prayed.