Travel Journal - Day 1

Our day began at 5am, Thursday and it ended at 5am, Friday, US time, but it was 7pm here in Beijing. Basically, we skipped Friday! J I have been up 24 hours now so this post might be a little short. Our flights over couldn’t have been better! Everything went perfectly. We made it through customs in Alb. in 15 min! That is including checking in and regular security. So, we had 2 hours to sit and wait. Our flight to San Francisco was on an “express” jet; in other words, a very small plane! That was interesting! We had about a 2 hour wait and then we were on our way. I was so relieved once we left S.F! We flew over Alaska and across. The flight was smooth and the movies and food were wonderful. Kara and Meredith were like professional travelers! They slept about 5 hours but Mike and I only got an hour or so of sleep.

We made it though customs in Beijing with no problems and our guide was right outside of customs to meet us. We took a very scary shuttle to the hotel where our guide gave us instructions for tonight and tomorrow. We haven’t met anyone else from our group yet. We were the 4th family here and the guide was headed back to the airport for more families. There were three other families on the plane that are adopting with another agency. We had a great time sharing stories and encouraging each other. The airline attendants were very nice and everyone wanted to talk about the adoption. Of course, I obliged and showed off Lani’s picture!

I can’t believe that we are only 3 days away from meeting our daughter! We have prayed and planned for so long and it is finally here! I will try to enjoy these few days of sight seeing but my heart is in Guangzhou where our little Lani will join our forever family!

I will post tomorrow about our sightseeing and shopping adventures!

Tired but happy! – the Goff gang