China and I got off to a rough start. 30 hours door-to-door travel, missing luggage, and a hotel arrival at 3am doesn’t build our relationship. Three and a half hours after arriving, I was out of bed and up again. There was no time to waste today on jet lag. I had a very important meeting today, one that could not be missed for anything.
One ran to greet me arms opened wide. The other hung back in shock to see me there. It took them literally 5 minutes to request OH HAPPY DAY on my phone and charade asking me if I brought him his camera. We played Legos with a kit his mama-to-be sent to him, watched old videos on my phone of their time in America, sang some praise songs together, and gave a lot of hugs and kisses. We called home and woke Mark up for them to yell a few words into the phone including “Shūshu! Āyí zài zhōngguó!” (Uncle! Aunt is in China!) Drew and Ashlyn were awakened (5:40am there time, mind you) at the boys’ request. Then another call to wake up the other Ayi and Shushu for another round of yelling and laughing.
30 hours of travel. 4 hours meeting waiting children. 2 hours dining with directors. 1 hour with these boys. 26 hours total in this city before flying back to Beijing.
Every minute redeemed.
