Thursday, July 06, 2006

This time next week . . .

I will be on a plane headed for China! We should be somewhere over Russia at this point (I hope). I need to check our tickets again, but I think we land in Tokyo on the 14th at around 1:00 P.M. or so. We have a two-hour layover and then a four hour flight to Beijing. If I calculate correctly, the flight from L-ville to Chicago is about an hour. We have a two hour layover in Chicago and then a 12-13 hour flight to Tokyo. That is equivalent to going to Vegas three times. I can handle it! I'm just concerned about the time change and becoming acclimated to it. We don't get into Beijing until 8:25 P.M. (that is A.M. here) on the 14th. We do some heavy-duty sightseeing in Beijing on the 15th and then we head to Wuhan to pick up Lilli on the 16th! We don't actually get her until the 17th, but that gives us a day to prepare in the province. I don't know how long the flight is from Beijing to Wuhan but I am guessing 2-3 hours. That flight will be cake compared to the Chicago-Tokyo flight! I'm rambling at this point.

We had dinner with our good friends Tom and Karen and their little girl, Tomi Li. They are the ones responsible for getting us into this mess! LOL! We got all kinds of packing tips tonight and they are going to let us use their money belts. I am going to look very cute in that thing! I didn't realize how prissy I really am until this trip. I thought I was made of tougher stuff. I have a feeling that I am going to be learning a lot more about myself in the next several weeks.

I gotta tell you that this nonsense in North Korea is making me a bit uneasy. I believe China and Korea are VERY close to one another if not right next to each other. I just hope that Korea's crazy dictator keeps himself sane long enough for us to get to China and get back! Holy Moses! That guy is a loon!

I'm also starting to get a little nervous about our homecoming. I know people are going to want to see Lilli and I am going to want to show her off, but we have to make sure that she has bonded with us before we start parading her in front of everyone. I think I want to impose a CALL FIRST order before people come by and I think I may put a note on the door as well. I have been doing a lot of reading about bonding and attachment and I feel this will be the best thing for our family. Tom and Karen even suggested that I say that on our answering machine (the Call First order). I also think we will have to play that one by ear and I am always flexible. She is going to dictate a lot of what happens. We will just have to see!

One more thing . . . I think instead of spelling her name Lilly, I am going to spell it Lilli. It seems to fit better though I am not really sure why! I hope this doesn't screw up anyone's monogram plans! Ha!

Well, I'm off to download more songs onto my I-Pod. I copied 128 songs from CD's yesterday. I figure I have 18-20 hours on a plane and I don't want to run out of soothing music! Now all I need is my Valium prescription!

No comments: