Saturday, January 30, 2016

Jan 12 2016 - Traveling Day to Beijing!

** FYI - We didn't realize we had to purchase a VPN code to have  access to all the American websites before going to the US, we thought we had everything we needed with the router friends let us borrow... Therefore, we didn't have access to Facebook, Gmail, Google anything (including the Google Translate App we were so excited to use over there!!) while we were over in China for 2 1/2 weeks!  Thankfully, we did have wifi access to our phones for texting and skype sometimes worked, but mostly we communicated with the kids and grandparents through Voxer.   We were planning on posting each day while we were gone to keep everyone up-to-date, but due to the blog site and social media sites not working, we just journal-ed in document form to copy and paste when we got back... Sorry for the delay, we'll get them all on here as quick as possible.  :)
Another FYI- We went to China 3 days earlier than required, because we knew we wouldn't be able to go anywhere to celebrate our 10 yr anniversary July 1 of this year, so we decided to celebrate it early by sightseeing Beijing and having a "baby moon" :) 


January 12, 2016 (Ben typing...)

Well today was the day we have been waiting for a for a long time. We have been thinking, praying, and planning for this day. What would it be like? How would everything come together? When would this day that we leave actually be? When we finally knew that our leave day was 1-12-16 the excitement hit new levels as we knew for sure when we would be leaving. For the past couple of weeks I have thought a lot about this day. Not only are we going to get our daughter, but I am able to travel half way around the world with my wife and experience another culture and country. That is so exciting to me!!! I never thought that I would be traveling to China to see places like the Great Wall, and now here I am embarking on that journey. I feel so blessed and grateful to be able to go on this amazing adventure. And the best part is, after the sightseeing and touristing around, I get to bring my beautiful daughter home.

This morning my wake up was not to my alarm clock, but my sweet little Lilee crawling in bed with us. It was so awesome to have her there snuggled up with Brandee and I and to hear her sweet little voice, and smell her hair one last time before we would leave her for a little more than two weeks. I knew we would be leaving the kids, but this just kind of reminded me how much I will miss them and also how much I don't want them to grow up. I want them to be with us forever and be our little kids that cherish to be with us. I pray that we will always have that kind of relationship with them. We got up and began to get ready. The boys awoke and got ready almost as if they were going on this journey with us. Right before we left, Brandee and I went up to say goodbye to Lilee, but she was deep asleep. While we were waiting on the limo service, Noah took it upon himself to wake Lilee up so we could say goodbye to her. He is so sweet and his heart is so precious towards others. I was glad he woke her up because we were able to get a good last family picture together of just the 5 of us. It's crazy to think that the next time we are all together, there will be 6. A-mazing!!!

  












Well, we gave our hugs and said our goodbyes. Our hearts raced as the excitement of the trip was upon us while battling the sadness of leaving our precious ones behind. We know they are in extremely good hands but its still hard to pull away from the house and know we won't see them for a while.

My dad graciously purchased our ride down to O'Hare airport in Chicago via limo service. We didn't know what to expect as we waited for the vehicle to arrive. Would it be like a taxi? Would it be a minivan or station wagon? All of those would have been great but to our surprise a nice black Yukon pulled up and we went out and put our luggage in. It's funny because Brandee and I aren't used to nice things like that so I looked at how much room we had and thought we had to have others that were traveling with us. It was surely too big and too nice for it just to be us. But to my surprise, it was just for us! We got to ride in comfort with heated leather seats and enough space in the middle row to fit our whole family. It was so nice to not have to worry about driving or competing with traffic. We simply got to talk and take it all in.

After arriving ahead of what time we both thought it would take, we were able to flawlessly check in and go through security. We were here, we made it, all that was left was to get on the plane and fly! We were able to go get a really good turkey BLT wrap while we waited and it was Dlish. Thick freshly cut pieces of turkey and veggies. So worth the money. Since we made it to the airport early and went through security so quickly we were able to wander around, talk, explore, use the bathroom with the super cool rotating seat cover, and talk to our kids without feeling rushed. We even tried to get a seat upgrade with customer service but it would have cost $300 extra. That's ok, we could save that money and buy gifts. While waiting we ate some more, like normal Americans : ) Brandee got an orange scone from Starbucks and I got a Chicago style hotdog....both excellent choices. To our sadness, we were unable to find a Cinnabon. That is the only disappointment of this day-haha. How can a guy fly without being able to enjoy a sugar filled Cinnabon. It just isn't right : )

Well crowd began to grow at our gate and the flight attendants were now there ready to check documents. I told them I was a Paramedic in case they needed any medical assistance during the flight. I also asked about upgrades in case they started to have a clearance sale on them since we knew there were a lot of seats still open in Economy Plus, just one section up from ours. The price was higher that what was offered earlier so we definitely were not going to get the upgrade. Well the time came to board the plane and the attendant at the counter told us to hang on and not go through the line just yet. After she helped a few people she called us over and upgraded us for free!!!! What an amazing little gift to start this trip. More leg room and no one else in our aisle.....winner winner chicken dinner! We were very grateful for this and excitedly boarded the plane feeling like we hit the jackpot. We got settled into our new “home” for the next 12 hours and sat in awe and excitement of where we were and what we were doing....WE, were going to China to bring home our Lucee!



The plane took off and within the first hour we got our first meal and to our surprise free beer and wine. We didn't have to be going anywhere....this felt like a date to us : ) From the endless options of movies and tv shows, to the comfort of our seats and being in the presence of each other, we are content as can be. As I type this, we are currently flying over some place that's really cold and snow covered. We are at the same level as the middle Iceland....or Greenland. Hmmm, don't know which one it is but I know it's one of those places and it's really cold. It is -76F outside as we are all cozied up and warm in here. We are traveling at 629mph and are at 34,000 feet. It's funny because everyone has said how miserable this long flight would be, but we are seeing the time tick away as we get closer and closer and we are actually sad that our flight will come to an end. It goes by way faster than you think. Maybe it's the comfort of the seats, or the endless entertainment options, or being able to look out at the starry sky, but we don't want it to end.....at least for now. What's on my mind now is....when is the food and beverage cart coming around again : )


This trip is not meant as a vacation, but we get one out of it. In a few days we will meet our daughter for the first time and will begin a new chapter of life with her, but for now, I get to share an amazing adventure with my lady, my girlfriend, my love, my Brandee.

We enjoyed the flight and everything that came with it. Surprisingly I slept really good and Brandee tried to, but didn't get the sleep like I did.
CHINA!!!

We arrived safely in Beijing and found the airport to be huge and beautiful. It had an open air feel all throughout the terminal and we were kind of just in awe of being in a foreign land with foreign people. We made it through the check point and at each point we kept looking for our guide Rocky but didn't realize that we hadn't made it all of the way out. The airport was huge so it took us a while to get to him. The smell in the airport was that of fresh flowers and was a very clean and pure smell. Besides how big and beautiful the terminal was, that was the first impression of China and that will stick with us forever. We finally made our way out and found Rocky holding a sign with our name on it. He was very friendly and spoke very good English. We made it out to our vehicle where our driver Mr. Wu was waiting. Everything got loaded up and we headed into the city towards our hotel. Obviously we were crazy tourists just looking around and staring in awe of everything. The sun had already gone down so we couldn't see very far but we saw lots of buildings and LOTS of vehicles. We noticed right away that driving here would not be like driving back in the states. There is lots of lane merging and close encounters, and as we would come to realize, this is very normal.
Rocky showed us new pictures of Shan You and our hearts leapt with excitement. She is growing up so much and we noticed how she has many features similar to Lilee. These two girls are going to have fun together. Rocky was very helpful and told us many things about our time in Beijing and what to look forward to. We immediately felt safe and appreciative of having Rocky.
We arrived to our hotel at the JW Marriott in Beijing and were blown away by the service right away. Everyone was very helpful and friendly. I had a feeling that this was going to be a hotel stay like no other. Rocky helped us get checked in even though everyone at the hotel spoke very good English. Then we were off to our room to get settled in for the night and prepare for our first day sightseeing in the morning.
Our hotel had so many wonderful smells in it too. It's amazing how a wonderful smell can make a lasting impression on you. The room was beyond the level of luxury we are used to and were very excited to be here. We were so thankful that Matt Neimiec offered and gifted us Marriott points to stay in such a nice place.

So after unpacking a little, we did what we do best at a new hotel....go explore. Although the exploring we did was outside the hotel this time. We went down the street to look for some food, and came across a group of older ladies outside on the walkway doing Tai Chi. We were already falling in love with the people and atmosphere of China. We then stumbled upon a mall and went inside to look for food. Inside was a small grocery store, so we got some bananas, yogurt, and a nice big 5 liter jug of water for in the room. On the way back we decided to stop at a KFC because we couldn't find any other restaurants open. With us being up for a long time, a long journey, and ready to go to bed, we just wanted to get some food in our bellies and go to bed. We had done it....we successfully made two purchases on our own, paying with Chinese Yuan and no translator.....but we couldn't correctly get a bag for all of our groceries so there we were walking down the street and into our uber fancy hotel with all items in our hands and a bag of food from KFC of all places.


With food in bellies, settled into our room, and said goodnight to the kids (technology is great) it was time for us to crash and get some much needed sleep. What a great first day it was!!! We are actually in BEIJING, CHINA!!!!



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