You did not hear from us yesterday as it was a very busy day and included the first leg of our travel home. We finished up in Guangzho, did some final shopping, packed, cleared up our rooms, had lunch and so forth. By 3 pm we were at the American Consulate in Guangzhou along with about 50 American families to finalize paperwork and take the oath for the children to become US Citizens, which actually happens the moment we hit customs in the US. It was an interesting process where paperwork was finalized and such. Though we waited some time, over an hour, it took only a few minutes. Technically, you are not allowed to get the child's visa until the next day but as we were to fly to Shanghai our guide, Susan, had worked it out ahead of time to get our visa for Jin and the others in the travel group. How she accomplished this, as it is not standard government procedure, is beyond us. It was certainly a God thing! Praise God from whom all blessings flow !
It was very sad saying goodbye to Susan.
Afterwards Susan had pizzas waiting in the van and so to celebrate our visas our travel group had a pizza party in the van on the way to the airport. We got checked in fine, but our flight was delayed a few minutes. After arriving in Shanghai we found that there were a few problems but we had a driver and a guide who took us to our hotel, the Holiday Inn in the Pudong district of Shanghai. It was 11:30 pm when we arrived at the hotel only to find that for the three families there was only one room. After a lot of fussing and calls back to Susan they finally found us rooms in the hotel. Tired, but triumphant, we crashed into bed about 12:30 or 1 a.m.
"Say Cheese!"
Our adoring Chinese onlookers- I just had to get a picture of them
"Look Leila, that is our plane."
Jin and Leila shared one final conversation before boarding the plane.
We're leav'n on a jet plane. Don't know when we'll be back again
Oh, babe I hate to go
Pandas heading to America
We do not have a guide today, that was part of our troubles of yesterday. That means seeing the sites of Shaghai is out of the question. So we will wait it out in the hotel until our driver, Mr.Li, comes to pick us up at 1. The international airport is 45 minutes away. Then we leave on Continential flight 86, at 4:55 pm for Newark. we arrive in Newark at 6:30 pm ....only a 2 hour flight!!!! (we wish! .....Plus 12, as we fly north, over the Artic, rather than around the world). We are scheduled to leave Newark 6:30 and arrive in Nashville at 10:37 pm. We are so looking forward to being home.
It has been an amazing trip, so full of new experiences, foods, people and sights. But it has also been stressful, exhausting and stretched us in what we thought we could do. It seems as though it has been two months since we left home, not two weeks. But it has also been a time of growth and amazing opportunities to see God at work. We thank you who have helped us along the way and those who have prayed and encourages us, and those who have helped keep an eye on Jon Campbell, in our absence, especially his beloved grandmothers, Karin and Kathy.
We need your prayer for several things:
*Safety in travel and timely flights without delays or glitches
*Jin (and all of us!) as he has to sit on the plane for 14 hours. Hopefully he will sleep some.
*Adele (and me so a slighter extent) is still badly congested with a head cold
Much love, The Holloways
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