Tea Parties and Changed Flights

Dear Lucy Hope,

We are on our way, sweet baby girl. Soon, we will see you face to face. I'm not sure that you know yet how your life is about to change. All the adoption books tell us that sometimes it's really hard on a child  to be adopted because everything that they are familiar with is suddenly removed from their lives. We know that and we are planning to comfort you and love you to help you transition to your forever family. In fact, Lily Grace and Lia Faith are planning their own ways to welcome you, including teaching you about life at the Green's and playing with you and sharing their toys. They have many things they want to do with you starting Monday. They may have you occupied 24/7, so I hope I at least get a word or two into the conversation. Here are some pictures that we took on the way over!

 A Tea Party at 32,000 ft. This wasn't my first tea party, but it was my first at this altitude and speed. Granny bought these tea party sets for Lily Grace and Lia Faith to play with on the airplane. Connie and Austin were asleep, so they missed the tea party. We even had real, hot tea provided by the nice flight attendant. She wanted to join us, but had duties to tend, so she just left us the tea - and some lemon cookies to sweeten the deal!

It's time to get to the hotel. I'm tired! 

I think this picture was taken in Beijing. We were trying to figure out whether our baggage had been sent on to Guangzhou. It turns out that we had to claim it in Beijing and re-check it ourselves to Guangzhou. I thought that was going to be the case, but the United Airlines representative in Birmingham had told us that it was checked all the way to Guangzhou and that's what the tags said. So, there were a few confused moments on our initial arrival into China's capital city of Beijing. Eventually, we reclaimed our luggage and headed toward the Air China counter.

Our last flight of the day - Air China from Beijing to Guangzhou! We're so happy that mommy put us in this cart. No more walking, yea! 

When we got to Beijing, we found out that our next flight had been delayed an hour due to a combination of weather and a big, important gathering in Beijing of government officials from all over China. But the Air China representative quickly realized that we were on the delayed flight and took it upon himself to get us changed to an earlier flight. He was certain that our original flight would be canceled altogether because of the bad weather - it was also snowing in Beijing. We were very happy to have his help.

In Chicago, we met Ruth, who was on her way back to China to see her family. Ruth is married and living in the U.S. now. She was interested in adoption and shared with us that she and her husband were considering it. She immediately fell in love with Lily Grace and Lia Faith and they were equally smitten by her. When we got to Beijing, we ran into Ruth again at the Air China counter. Now, you have to know that the airport in Beijing is massive, so the chances of us running into Ruth again were minimal. It turns out that she was able to help translate the Air China representative's explanations of the delayed flight to us and was greatly helpful in getting us to Guangzhou. Besides, it gave her some more time to spend with Lily, Lia, and Connie, while Austin and I worked on the change of flight. Without Ruth and the Air China representative's help, we probably would have spent the night in the airport in Beijing - not a good thing! So, we were greatly appreciative of their help. Both were very sincere and wanted to see that we got where we were going. They were a great blessing.

Not long now, Lucy Hope. Soon...

Love,

Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, Lia Faith, and Lucy Hope

Green, Party of Six