Hello from Beijing!

In China!!!!
We are almost there...airplane GPS, pretty cool!

There's that sun....here we come Matthew!!!

Well, after 24 hours of traveling since leaving Mom's house 6:30 in the morning, we are here in our hotel room in Beijing. It's 8:15pm on Sunday evening here, and we have had an exhausting but wonderful journey to China.

Let me take you back to early Saturday morning....after an emotional good-bye from Mom (who we are so proud of for driving us to the Philly airport all by herself), we checked in to the United Terminal. Our bags were 45 pounds a piece!!!! Yeah to the packing teams of Megan and Heather who helped us tremendously! We did check a little duffel bag too, which was a good thing since my carry-on strap broke! After they checked our bags, we realized we didn't have any boarding passes and the nicest man came over and said to us, "well I guess you aren't going anywhere then..." We just laughed and he asked about our trip and where we were headed. When we told him, he shared with us that he had 2 adopted children. What a refreshing wonderful way to start the morning!

We then sat at the airport and Chris was in heaven with his Dunkin Donuts coffee! We had some breakfast then I decided to go talk to the lady at the United terminal about making sure we had our miles for this trip logged in! We were talking for a while, she was asking about our trip, all about Matthew and was extremely sweet. She asked what I did and I told her I was a Pediatric Oncology Nurse in Hershey, and she said my daughter had osteosarcoma and went to this great camp called Camp Can Do near Hershey. Well, I about lost it......as so many of you know Chris and I met at Camp Can Do, and has been a HUGE part of our lives in caring for kids with cancer and a part of our relationship! I asked who her daughter was and she told me who it was and Chris and I knew her! She called her up on her cell phone and I got to say hello to her daughter! Now, who would have thought that what brought Chris and I together would also continue to be such a part of this journey to Matthew in China. So amazing, and then Sharon, Tori's Mom took amazing care of us from there. She looked in the computer and was able to tell us that our flight leaving to Beijing from Chicago already had mechanical problems so she double booked us on a flight that would get us to Beijing from Dulles just in case! She also gave us her cell phone number and bumped us to better seats on both planes! We ended up being delayed in Philly for a little bit on the plane and Sharon even came ON THE PLANE to tell us we are safer to head to Chicago and she'd keep looking out for us!!! After many hugs, we were off to Chicago. Even when we landed in Chicago she was in contact with us making sure we got on the plane to Beijing!!!! Camp Can Do is one of the most amazing places in the world, and truly is a FAMILY! That was proven again today in all that transpired. And, Chris and I'd relationship began at Camp, and now we are beginning parenthood with another link to Camp Can DO.....unbelieveable!!!!

We had a great lunch in the airport, and then met the greatest guy Ran who was from Cleveland, Chinese by heritage and has now lived in Beijing for work the past 3 years. We had a unbelieveable discussion with him, and he was so helpful in talking with us before we boarded the plane!

On the plane, Chris and I had 2 seats alone on one side, and had plenty of leg room! We each watched 3 movies each on the plane and didn't sleep AT ALL! But, believe it or not, it didn't really seem like a 13-14 hour flight which was unbelievable. I think the last hour was the hardest. We had roast beef and mashed potatoes for our first lunch (but we had a secret stash of Mom's roast beef sandwiches which were SO MUCH BETTER), then noodles for a snack, then we skipped the last lunch because the lasagna just didn't seem too appetizing. The last hour of the flight was the toughest for us because we were so anxious!!! We weren' sure what to expect, but we whipped through the airport and our guide Frank and his friend Selena were waiting for us with a big Roslevege sign! Too funny!

He brought us to the hotel and here we are! After about an hour and half, we finally have some heat kicking in, but what a neat drive it was from the airport to here. SO many lights, and so many fireworks! Chinese New Year celebrations will continue while we are here, so we were told to expect a lot of firewords AND we should get the lantern festival at the end of their celebrations! We are excited for that.

OK, here is the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS POST! We are getting Matthew at 10am tomorrow morning and our guide is picking us up at 8:45 to take us to him!!!! That will be 9pm for those of you back home on Sunday night!!!! Now, I need to join Chris in unpacking and getting ready for the biggest moments of our lives.....................................Matthew, we are REALLY coming to get you in a few hours!!!

Much love to all,

Melissa and Chris