Destination: Shanghai

With too much to get ready, and not enough time, I did not get much sleep going into this trip.  Three nights before we left, I went to bed at 2am, two nights before I went to bed at 4am and the night before we left, Ryan and I pulled an all-nighter.  But we made it!  So much of the preparation was actually for leaving Mason and Jordan behind.  And a lot of my last minute packing time was taken up with an unexpected trip to the doctor where Jordan finally received an official asthma diagnosis, and multiple trips to the pharmacy to acquire all of the new supplies we'd need for him.  We knew it was coming, but it was pretty terrible timing.  In the end, when we dropped the kids off at Ryan's parents house, we had enough medical supplies and typed up instructions to fill a sizable duffel bag.  I think we might have slightly overwhelmed Ryan's parents.  What usually doesn't seem like a lot, feels like a huge load when you actually sit down and try to explain it all and I started to feel anxious about leaving them behind.  So... any prayers that all of our kids stay healthy for the next 2 weeks would be greatly appreciated!  I already miss Maddie, Mason and Jordan like crazy!!

After staying up all night, you would think we would have made it to the airport with plenty of time, but somehow we still left a half hour after we wanted to.  Then, Ryan, in his exhausted state, missed the exit to the airport, adding time, and we had issues at our check in, including a boarding pass that didn't show up.  We ended up cutting it much closer than I ever like to, but thankfully we were pulled into the expedited security line, which helped us made it to our gate with enough time to take a breath and take the kids to the bathroom one last time

 Enoch is our only child who has not been in an airplane.  (middle child problem)  He's been kind of nervous about it.  A few weeks ago we were talking about how long we'd be in the air and he told me he didn't think he could make it that long without a bathroom.  Poor kid!  He felt a little bit better after he found out there were bathrooms on the airplane.  But I still think all of the unknowns have had him worried.

Enoch and Kaitlyn proudly wearing their TSA Security badges.

 Next stop: L.A.

If only the flight to China could be this quick and easy!

We had a 3 1/2 hour layover in LA where there was a lot of swinging in between this...

...and this.

 And then finally... we boarded a plane for China!!

 This flight never gets any shorter.   The kids spent waaay too long staring at screens in a zombie like state, and then finally crashed.

 Touchdown.  Here we are in the "Foreigner's" line at customs in Shanghai.  Kaitlyn was not feeling so good.

Finding a taxi driver willing to cram all of us and all of our stuff into their cab was much easier this time.  It helped that Ryan made friends with a an American man on the flight who was on his way to China to visit his Chinese wife... it was a kind of a long complicated story, but his wife met us at the airport and took us straight to a cab, told the driver where to take us, and we were off.  No hassles like last year!

Does the fact that this picture cracks me up make me a bad mom?  It just captures how we all felt so well.  Shanghai rush hour traffic meant it took an over an hour to get to our hotel from the airport.  It felt like at least 3 hours.  In all of my planning for the trip, I didn't think about the fact that Enoch gets car sick very easily and even people who don't get car sick easily would have a hard time with they way they drive in China.  Good thing we grabbed a few airplane vomit bags.  They might come in handy a time or two.

We were all asleep not too long after settling in to our hotel room.  And thanks to jet lag, we were all awake around 4am.  I gave everyone some Melatonin and they all fell back asleep, even I was able to drift back off!  But it didn't last long for me because Kaitlyn keep talking in her sleep about "Chubby Baby" saying things like, "Come here Chubby Baby", "You're so chubby, Chubby Baby", and "Chubby!"  So thanks to "Chubby Baby" I was up early enough to get a little blogging in before we start our day.  There are just 2 days until we meet Hallie!