Friday, February 2, 2007

We have arrived in Beijing!!!!!

Thank you, thank you , thank you for all of your prayers for our travel details!!! We decided the Lord must not have wanted the story of the arrival of Our Little Lottie to be any less dramatic than the story of our twin boys’ arrival. (24 hour labor ending in both a vaginal and c-section delivery)

Lottie’s labor pains started when the phone rang at 5:45 this morning and a recording told us that our flight had been cancelled due to bad weather coming into the area and we had been rebooked for the following day!!!! This could not be!!! Shannon called the airlines and spoke with someone who got us booked on another flight earlier than our original, so we rushed around throwing our last minute stuff into bags and into the car and rushed to the airport. On our arrival at the airport we discovered that now our second flight had been cancelled because the airlines did not have the proper de-icing equipment!!! There were no other flights out that would get us into Beijing. We begged the girl to look for anything as our daughter was waiting!!! She said the only flight out in the area was at an airport over an hour away from us. It was beginning to snow but we knew we had to try to make that flight. It was 8:00 and that flight was to leave at 9:50 at an airport over an hour away. At 9:15 we were still on the road trying to find our way around construction into the airport!! God was gracious and provided a very nice skycap who loaded up our bags immediately when we drove up and told him our situation and the ticketing fellow took care of us as well and assured us we would make it!! We did not even get charged extra for our “heavy” luggage!!! We ran to the gate with our carry ons and got there before the plane started boarding. We had not even had time to catch our breath when Battle realized he had misplaced his passport/money holder as he had to take it off when he went through security. Ugggghh!!! God was gracious again (Shannon was not so gracious :)) as he allowed Battle to run back to security and find that the officer had zipped it up in a side pocket of our luggage without us knowing. Battle returned just in time to board the plane!! We had an uneventful flight to Chicago. We had just enough time to get through the airport in Chicago before boarding our flight to Beijing. We had to get seat assignments when we checked in. We were a little concerned as some couples had not been seated together for this long flight . But again God took care of the details and we not only had seats together but in the bulkhead with plenty of leg room- WOOHOO!!!!! God is Good!!!!!! All the Time !!!!!!!!! We slept off and on throughout the flight to Beijing. We were exhausted and still are!!! We hope to crash soon and get up for a very full day of sightseeing tomorrow. Our seats on both flights were window seats and right behind the wing of the plane. Just another sweet reminder that yes!!! When we Give our God and King control we can rest in the shadow of HIS wings!!! And we can trust Him to work out ALL the details!!!!! What an awesome God!! What an awesome adventure He has put us on!!!

Lottie here we come!!!!