CHINA!!!

Packing was the name of the game last night!    Trying to pack for five people for two climates for two weeks and in only two suitcases proved more of a challenge than I had anticipated!   Thanks to my friend Crystal who came over late last night and miraculously found just a few more spare inches in one suitcase AND got it to close!!  I tell ya'll, adoption is full of miracles!!

We picked our sweet friend Anita up at 4:30 this morning and headed to the airport.  She is not a morning person, but no complaints from her about our early departure.  We were flying out of our local airport so we were all happy NOT to have a 3 hour drive to Atlanta ahead of us!

We arrived at the airport and unloaded our suitcases from the car.   

Two suitcases for us, one for Anita, and two suitcases of donations for New Hope Foundation in China.   I am so excited to be able to help out with this program!   New Hope runs an orphanage and foster care program in China.  One focus of their program is to help fund needed surgeries for children and then give those children a loving place to stay while they recover.   They are in constant need of adoptive families to carry donations and supplies to China.   They packed the suitcases, sent them Fed Ex to us on Wednesday, and will have a representative in Beijing to pick them up from us tomorrow.   Super easy and a great way to help a worthy organization!

We checked in at the airport and make it though a fairly lengthy security check and finally boarded our plane to Atlanta!

A quick flight to Atlanta, grabbed breakfast at McDonald's in the airport, and we got ready for our flight to Seattle.   Everyone is excited and ready to go!!

The flight was long, almost five hours, but the video and tv entertainment kept the boys occupied.  Abby worked on her school assignments and then took a quick nap.

The landscape coming into Seattle was beautiful!   I don't think the kids have ever really seen mountains....they were excited!!

We had a four hour layover in Seattle which was just enough to find something to eat and check in at our gate.   The gate attendant found us five seats together on row 41.   We had been in the very back of the plane on our last flight and assumed row 41 would likely be the very back of this next plane as well.   At least we were all sitting together!  We took our final bathroom break as they began boarding for our flight.   When we got back to the gate, we heard them announcing "Strickland party of five, please return to the counter".    I made my way through the crowd and was told that they were changing our seating....we would be sitting in row 9, in first class!!   The kids were so excited!!!

Seriously, if you have to be in a plane for a twelve hour flight, THIS is the way to do it!  The food was great and they even served ice cream sundaes.

We had a super nice flight attendant who talked with the kids a lot, even giving them a quick geography lesson on the Puget Sound as we left Seattle.

The best part by far was that the seats reclined all the way, making a flat bed.  Delta provided pillows and comforters and we all got some much needed rest (except for Will who continued to play the video games on the entertainment system!)

The flight actually went by pretty quickly and after a quick stop to meet the pilot, we were off to claim luggage, find our driver, and head to the hotel!

Pretending to fly the plane was THE highlight of the trip for Josh!   More to come later....