Home Sweet Home

We got home late last night after taking the overnight train to Xi'an on Tuesday night and a flight to San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon. We missed the first flight to Charlotte but we able to get on a flight that arrived at 9 pm last night.  I haven't added up the hours of traveling but it was a lot.  I think I have slept about 5 hours over the past two days.  No sleep last night, either.

I can't wait for the sun to come this morning.  We are all so happy to be home.

Amazingly, the airport in Beijing turned out to be the easiest part of the trip.  We were concerned because we had standby tickets dated Dec. 11 (! - I didn't notice the wrong date UNTIL last week) to travel from Beijing to Chicago.  The airline agent was amazing and, after talking to her supervisor, was able to immediately change the tickets AND give us boarding passes!  Beijing airport is ultra modern, clean and easy to get around.

The train in Xi'an was a bit (!) stressful - the taxi dropped us off across the street from the station and we had to figure out where to go.  There were 1000's of people and NO ONE spoke English.  Luckily (another God thing), Elyse (from Canada) mentioned earlier in the day that there was a separate lounge for passengers booked in soft sleeper cars.  Some how (!), we saw the sign for the lounge and an English speaking worker was able to confirm we were in the right place.  Glenn spent over an hour talking to an Australian family traveling throughout Asia who was also waiting for the same train.

Did I tell you that God was with us every step of the way?  He worked through so many people and was clearly visible everywhere.  Still, I experienced a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety and I continue to have a lot to learn.....I only pray that I get a reprieve so that I can caught my breath :)

Jake still has diarrhea and, let me tell you, it is no fun traveling for two days with a baby in this condition.  Poor boy could not fall asleep last night on his own, but did sleep the entire 4+ hours from San Francisco.  Kristen and Luann bought us a bunch of groceries so I was able to feed Jake and Ryan when we got home late last night, including a pro-biotic for Jake.

I don't think Ryan fell asleep until after 3 am this morning.  I found him asleep on top of the covers at about 4:00 am this morning.  From past experience, I know it will take us a couple days to get over the time difference.

Once I find the camera download cables, I will download some more pictures.  We went out to eat Monday night in the rain and it took us over 1/2 hour to get a taxi back to the apartment.  One of the waiters came out in the rain with us and was able to get us a ride after about 20 minutes.  We were asked to wait in the restaurant because sometimes the taxi drivers don't stop for foreigners....

This trip to Xi'an was our first (and last?) experience of city living. 

Jake is up!  5:00 am.  Got to run.