Thursday, February 19, 2009

It’s just after midnight here in Beijing, 10:10 am local Minnesota time. We boarded a plane on Wednesday morning at 6:00 in Sioux Falls South Dakota, were supposed to have a 4 ½ hour lay-over in Chicago and leave at 12:35 pm Wednesday afternoon; putting us in Beijing at 4:30 local time. There was a problem with the plane that we were suppose to fly to Beijing on, so we had to wait. They rescheduled us for a 4:00 pm departure time only to reschedule us for a 6:00 pm departure, ultimately getting a different plane, cleaned up, refueled, etc. that came in from China to Chicago at about 4:00 to turn right around and go back taken us with it, to start our physical adventure to Addison. We boarded the plane in Chicago at 6:13 pm and were in the air by 6:55.

Now, you might think that a 6 ½ hour delay would be a major pain, however, as Jen and I embark on our journey to Addison, we are taking things in stride, going with the flow, and took the opportunity to get to know the other 5 couples in our travel group. The delay actually worked out for some great bonding time for us and the other families. If we had met in Chicago like planned and only had a few hours to visit, we would have only gotten names, where they worked, what they did for hobbies, etc, where we were able to actually get to know them a little more.

There was one passenger that was to be on our plan that was visually and vocally upset about our delay - and it just so happened that he sat in the seat right behind Jen and I! However, let this be a testament to not judge a book by it’s cover. On the plane, Jen turned to the women seated next to him, who wasn’t traveling with this man, and quietly worded that we were praying for her (and us!) being that we were seated so close to him. I have to tell you that prayer has gotten us a long way on this journey, and it must have come into play today too. This man that I silently said to myself in the airport, “please let him be in first class so that we don’t have to sit next to him,” was actually very pleasant throughout the trip. He must have been just upset about the fact that he didn’t have any control over the situation. He was pretty nice when we could here him talking with the lady that Jen and I prayed for, and he was exceptionally polite to the flight attendants! Jen and I were both very glad that things worked out for the best, and it only reinforced our principles of taking things in stride, going with the flow and making the best of whatever comes our way.