China Adventure Day 9: Flying to Guangzhou

Selah had a little bit of a difficult night; she was up in the middle of the night and it took us a long time to calm her down and get back to sleep. In the morning, unfortunately, Dan started to not feel well. We think he was coming down with what Selah had earlier in the week. I filled him up with Zofran and vitamins, and he slept most of the morning while Selah and I packed. Late in the morning, Selah took a nap on my back (her favorite place to sleep, as uncomfortable as it is for me) and then our group loaded up our luggage to head to the airport in Guiyang.
 
We stopped for about 15 minutes at the city center in Guiyang. It has a very pretty riverwalk area and a traditional temple where there are few merchants selling local goods. It was good to have this last little outing with our group in Guiyang. Without the other two couples with us this week, we would have had a much harder time. We are SO thankful that we could walk this journey with them and their little girls this week!
 
We are so thankful for the city of Guiyang because it is where Selah was born and spent the first two years of her life. We took lots of pictures so we can show Selah that chapter of her life when she is old enough to understand.  Life is not easy in Guiyang. We have never felt more appreciative of the things we take for granted in our daily life in America. We have it pretty darn good. We were, however, happy to move on to the next phase of our journey in China because it means we are that much closer to home.
 
Our flight was originally supposed to take off at 4:10, but it was delayed until 5:10, then 5:25, then nobody mentioned ANYTHING at the airport until about 6:50 when it started boarding. Then, we got on the plane and they announced that there would be another delay and we wouldn’t be taking off until 8:00. We finally arrived in Guangzhou at 9:15, then we walked off the plane and boarded a standing room only bus with all of our stuff and kiddos and took a jerky ride to the terminal. We waited for awhile for our luggage, waited awhile for our driver, and then waited awhile to check in to our hotel. Finally, at about midnight, we are finally in our hotel room in Guangzhou, even if we did all miss dinner (except for a roll on the airplane that had a surprise of beans in the middle) and are more than a little cranky about the delays today.
 
Selah did very well on her first airplane ride ever. She was a little scared and threw a fit and cried when Dan went to the bathroom. She is still scared that when one of us leaves we might not come back. We’ll be spending the rest of her life showing her that we will always be there and will always love her.  Early tomorrow morning, Selah has her medical appointment. Please pray that this will not be too traumatizing for her and that Dan feels healthy tomorrow! Thank you all for your prayers!