November 24-25

We've just spent the past two days - well, about 36 hours by the clock, two days by the calendar - traveling to Hong Kong. We departed early Thanksgiving morning, leaving the house at 4:45 AM to get to the airport. We then flew about 6 hours to San Francisco, enjoyed a quick snack in the airport, then boarded our 747-400 for Hong Kong. At the boarding gate, we discovered that we'd been upgraded to business class for the flight. We did not request this upgrade, but what a difference a few feet, from Economy to Business, makes on the trans-Pacific flight! Our seats reclined, we ate fantastic food, and we actually all slept some. Sydney was a real trooper; she was only a little grouchy and even when crying, we was remarkably silent. The result was that all of us arrived jetlagged but more rested than on other trips overseas.

We arrived in Hong Kong about 7 PM local time, and we cleared immigration and customs by 7:30. At the arrivals area, we received our second pleasant surprise of the trip - a CCAI representative, Matthew, was there to greet us and take us by bus to the hotel. We had expected to take a cab to the hotel, so being greeted, and meeting three other CCAI adoptive families, was a most pleasant surprise. We arrived at the hotel about 8:45 PM after traveling by bus and seeing just a tiny bit of the beauty that is Hong Kong at night. We settled in a bit, then wandered down to the hotel cafe for a quick bite of surprisingly excellent food. None of us were very hungry, but we figured we'd better eat a little before bed. We then bought a calling card, made the calls we needed to make, and now we are hoping for a good night's sleep before 6:30 AM breakfast and an 8 AM tour of Hong Kong.

Being here in Hong Kong is exciting, but we are all ready to get on out to Wuhan and get Emily. Three more days! In the meantime, we rest up and get adjusted to being 13 hours ahead of EST.