A year ago today...

We were on a plane headed for China. The bags were packed and repacked, the documents were double, triple, quadruple checked and we were on our way. We were a bundle of nerves and excitement. I was awake when the alarm clock went off at 4:00 a.m. and I leaped out of bed. I just couldn't believe the big day was finally here. I'm a pretty emotional person anyway and that day there was no stopping the tears. I cried when we walked out the front door knowing that would be the last time we'd be there without our daughter. I also got a little teary boarding the plane in Chicago at the thought that that would be the last time we'd be on U.S. soil without our daughter.

I was kind of dreading the flight because I can never sleep on a plane and 13 hours is a long time to sit on a plane and be uncomfortable and wide awake while everyone around you is sleeping. My mom is the same way so we brought our iPods, books and a lot of puzzles to keep us occupied. They showed four movies but we didn't watch any of them because they didn't look very interesting. We got up every couple of hours and stood at the back of the plane and stretched and looked out the window. The view was actually nice. We were over snow-covered mountains. We think it was Siberia. Overall the flight went much faster than we expected and really wasn't as bad as we feared. The only issue was that my neck started hurting a lot and turned into a bad headache.

We finally landed in Beijing around 4:00 p.m. the next day and of course I cried again as the plane touched down. I couldn't believe we were in the same country as our daughter and would have her in our arms in three days.


Michelle's once adorable room looked like a tornado had gone through in the days leading up to the trip. Somehow we managed to pack all that stuff in addition to our own stuff.