Orange juice please...Gas or no gas?

So after a total of 53 hours of flight time, 19 hours of delays, 1 lost hotel reservation, numerous bus rides in absolutely crazy traffic, walking miles to find a pizza or good coffee-all with a 21 month old Chinese baby that doesn't understand or speak English and in a country where most of the people don't speak English-We are finally home!!

This picture of Adah shows how we felt at the beginning of the trip home and the nex picture is how we felt after 27 hours of travel.

We definitley have some interesting moments on our trip and we will surely talk about them soon but for now I'll explain the title of this post. On the flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo I asked for some orange juice. It took me a minute to figure out what the flight attendant meant when she said "gas or no gas". Slightly personal don't ya think. After glancing at her cart I guessed that she meant orange soda or orange juice! Interesting way to ask your drink preference. I'm leaving up the clock with the time in Guangzhou because that is the time Adah is on. Needless to say that means we are on that time too. Except for Marley who can sleep through anything.

These pictures are of the last hotel we stayed at in Guangzhoue and our whole group of new families. We loved the people we traveled with and hope to keep in contact with them.

We are in Guangzhou since Tuesday about 7pm. We had another delayed flight. It was scheduled to leave at 11:00 but didn't leave until 3:30. I hope this isn't the way our flights go on the way home. It is very beautiful here. Also very very humid! Everything is green, flowers are blooming, it's very tropical. We well post pics as soon as we can. Marley, we are still looking for cool toys for you but we may have to wait until we get to Hong Kong to find anything. There aren't any snoopy stores here on the island. We did buy you a Chinese outfit though! Adah's personality is coming out more and more every day. She loves to laugh!! Oh I do have to add the picture of the squatty potty for mom. You'll love this. You aren't supposed to flush your toliet paper either.

These are the gentleman that own the birds. They were thoroughly intrigued by Richard, Adah, and me-as is the rest of China. They chattered and chattered at us but we had no idea what they were saying. We definitley make a big spectacle here when we go out. At any given time we have numerous people staring at us and sometimes following us. It's rather unusual.

A couple of days ago we went to The Nanjing Silk Brocade Factory. Huge looms ran by two people are used to make elaborate silk material. The person on the top of the loom directs the person at the bottom as to what color to use. It's pretty cool. In one of the pictures you can see the pattern reflected by the mirror on the gentlemans lap. They make about 5-6 cenitmetes in 8 hours of work. A garment for the emperor would have taken about 3-5 years.

Tomorrow to Guangzhou

Hello! We have a free day today and will be getting our suitcases re-packed for our flight to Guangzhou tomorrow. This morning we will be going to the park across the street to see the old men and their birds. They bring their birds out in cages and hang the cages in trees so that the birds can get some fresh air. Love it. ,g h n hhhhhhhhhhhhhjjjjjjhx--that's from Adah. Yesterday we went to the Confuscious Free Market which is like a HUGE pedestrian mall which sits where Confuscious temple used to be. On the way back from there we stopped at Walmart. It was three stories high. Believe it or not the quality did not seem as good as what we get in the US. Here are a few pictures from the Ming gardens and the silk brocade factory.

Some things we know about Adah

1. She loves to be outdoors

2. She doesn't like to go to sleep

3. LOVES chocolate-she'll fit right in

4. She's very busy

5. She's a lot like Marley

6. She wears a size 18 month perfectly but can still wear 12 and 24 month clothes

7. She like to have her arms covered-does not like short sleeves yet!

8. She like to be held by mom

9. She's warming up to dad

We made it finally. We got here but are just now getting the chance to add to the Blog. This will be short but we are going to add some pics of Adah as well. Terri Slept for about 15 hours when we landed in Bejing and then back on a plane the next day to head to Nanjing to get Adah. More will come later but for now, here are some Pics.

A little detour

Well, we g0t to the Des Moines Airport early only to learn that our flight had been delayed. The person at the gate assured us that we would be in Detroit in plenty of time to connect with our next flight to Tokyo. According to her, the delay was nationwide, not just at the Des Moines Airport. So we boarded the airplane without worrying too much about it. As we exited the airplane in Detroit we saw a clock that let us know we had 5 minutes to get to the next gate. Of course the gate was all the way on the other side of the airport. Needless to say we didn't make it. They rescheduled us for a flight to Amsterdam with a 10 hour lay over there and then a 10 hour flight to Beijing. This will put us there 12 hours later than planned BUT we got to tour a little of Amsterdam. Althought we felt as if we were walking zombies as we have not slept for over 24 hours we thouroughly enjoyed Amsterdam. Marley-I wish you were here. There is sooo much to see. You would love it. Anyway, we are hoping to sleep on the next flight which should take us to Bejing. So we will get there a day late and a lot more tired. Here are some pics of Amsterdam for you all to enjoy.

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