We Made It!

Nina Faith HongLi is a new Meigua! We went through customs, and she became an automatic U.S. citizen when they stamped her paperwork!! What a thrill it was to tell her that she was no longer Chengua (Chinese), but American like the rest of the family. She's been playing this game with us where she asks us if she is Meigua or Chengua, and of course when we say Chengua, she says "no Meigua." Today, she was absolutely overjoyed when we gave her a big hug and told her that she was finally an American like us! All smiles and giggles!

The girls did GREAT on the flights....the prayers were all answered in the affirmative! They didn't sleep as much as we might have liked...a couple of hours on the first flight, and 1 1/2 hours on the second LONG flight...but they were well entertained with the t.v.'s in the back of their seats. They mostly played video games and watched t.v. shows and movies. We were seated together also, which was a huge blessing!

We left our guide, Siman, at the Guangzhou airport at 7:30 a.m., and arrived in San Francisco the same day at 10:30 a.m. Pretty wild! We also had some really, REALLY bad turbulence. We were not able to take our seatbelts offs, or move anywhere, from Tokyo until almost 3 hours into the trip. Believe it or not, that wasn't the worst of it. There must have been some severe air currents over this area, because on the way down at SFO we had the worst turbulence that I have ever experienced! Both girls were petrified, and Emma was crying and crying. It was VERY scary, even by Roger's standards. I've never seen a planes wings shake or bend like they did. I was praying out loud, and trying to get both girls to take deep breaths with me. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but that was long enough!

Ann picked us up at the airport, and we came to Nana and Papa's house in Lafayette. Both girls were sound asleep by the time that we arrived, but it didn't take long to cheer them up. Roger's great aunt, Elsie, is visiting also so it was a great reunion for all! I fell asleep right after lunch, and everyone else joined me later. We woke up at about 7:30 p.m., and had a delicious dinner waiting for us. HongLi has done wonderfully...we are both still amazed at how this adorable little child has experienced a life completely turned upside down, and she stills seems to be having a blast! She had lots of hugs and kisses for all of the new relatives, she ate well, and she and Emma just went to bed about 30 minutes ago.

I wasn't able to post pictures on the last day....stupid firewall! ;) I will definitely try to post some while we are here. Oh yeah, and I just called Parker thinking that it was 4:30 p.m....it was 4:30 a.m. He was not at all thrilled to hear from me! That's how messed up we are with four different time zones right now!! Sorry Parker!!

We are going to enjoy some "In and Out" burgers tomorrow, and maybe go see Aiyi's horse. We are planning on taking it a little easier tomorrow to give ourselves a chance to recover from our jetlag. On Monday, we may go into the city depending upon how Nina appears to be doing.

We love you guys, and cannot wait to introduce our newest addition to you!

Talk to you again soon!

Kris