We have arrived!

The bags finally got packed...
Christmas day was a wonderful time of food and fellowship with family.
We said our "see you laters" to Brian's mom and grandma

Before leaving we ate at our favorite restaurants one last time for a while..

Family were so gracious to help us get to the airport with all our luggage then drive our van away to prep it for sale.

Did I mention it took 2 vehicles to bring all our luggage?

Being the procrastinators we are - it isn't too surprising that Brian and I only got one hour of sleep the night before take off.  We made it to Brian's uncle and aunt's home at around 3:30 am (we had to wake at 5am to leave for airport).  The kids went to sleep pretty quick on the first flight. 

The next leg was the long one.  We all took turns sleeping.  Although, the entertainment provided kept three little people desiring to be awake more often than not.  

IPads can be such a dichotomy of blessing vs. evil.  On long trips like this flight - it was a HUGE blessing.

How cool is all this ice near the arctic circle?  We flew over the north pole although I'm not completely certain where we were at this moment.

We've traveled to many places but arriving at the Shanghai airport was by far the hardest international interchange we've ever done.  We had to collect all our bags (which is normal) then transport them by ourselves (they said everyone was too busy to help us) to an entirely different terminal (which is not so normal), find the check in desk (which was exceedingly difficult being that no one spoke English) and recheck our bags as though we'd just gotten to the airport.  Looking back I should've taken pictures of the kids laying on the floor in the airport trying to sleep.  Then they went to the benches to sleep then they fell asleep on top of the luggage as we waited to recheck our bags.   By the grace of God five of our bags didn't make it to the airport.  How is that good?  Well, these were the bags that did (along with our carry on luggage) and we are pretty sure Meisi couldn't have pushed a cart of five more bags all the way through customs and 2 terminals- lol.  

The rest of us pushed one cart each.  The whole ordeal took about 3 hours.  We thought we were going to miss our plane because our incoming flight was 2 hours delayed in Detroit due to people carrying on items they shouldn't have.  They had to completely unload all the bags and reload them which is why five of ours didn't make it.  

So... as the saga continued - we got to the check in counter to learn that we were booked as stand-by instead of real seats.  We waited about half an hour while three folks from the airline made calls.  I just stood there silently chatting with Dad and He answered me and all of you who were talking with Him on our behalf.  They created a space for us, an entire row actually (we had one extra seat)! They apologized for it being on the back of the plane.  haha  We seriously could've ridden in cargo at this point.  I think we all slept nearly the entire flight to our final destination.  We arrived just before 1 am here.  

We were excited to finally get to meet our fearless leaders face to face.  They loaded us on a bus with seat belts (may be the last time we see those for a while)...

We thought we would all immediately fall to sleep but we had the munchies since, we think, we missed dinner in the midst of the chaos getting to the last flight then sleeping through the food served on the plane...

Thankfully, our leaders blessed us with snacks and food that we could eat for breakfast!  

After a quick snack they all piled into the same bed trying to warm up. It was cold outside and inside. The thing on the wall is the heating and a/c unit but it takes a little while to heat up the space.

That lasted about five minutes before they ended up in our room which was the warmest room in the house that night.

They have since gone to sleep in their beds (we've learned to start their heaters a couple hours before bedtime) but as usual we wake with at least 2 extra people in our bed each morning. :)  A dear friend told me years ago that the time passes by too quickly, so if they want to be close to you - savor those moments.  :)

After sleeping a few hours we got up, ate a little, started looking at the bags that did make it and went to lunch at a noodle shop across from our new home.  It was amazing - a spicy beef noodle dish that caused a numbing affect the more you ate.  It truly was delicious although that explanation probably doesn't make it sound so appealing. 

Most of the rest of this week we've spent cleaning and trying to unpack.  Cleaning here is totally different than cleaning back home.  

Yes, that is what it looked like inside drawers and cabinets.  Baffling to me to think how that is possible.  Setting up the place is coming along and we actually have luggage unpacked.  We still have many things stored in space bags for other seasons but we are getting more settled daily.  AND our five bags that didn't make it with us, came a couple days later.  Yay!  

Hopefully soon we can do a tour of our apartment (you did get some glimpses through the pictures). Here is a another little snapshot. 

This is the outside.  

The playground

View from the kids' window.

View from our balcony

We had our first dinner on our own tonight.  We love steamed buns and managed to pick out a few from the street vendor/market to bring home for dinner.  Not real fancy, but it was yummy and cheap. :)

Meisi has the right idea here (amazing how she can sleep anywhere).  Our couches are getting refinshed so for now they are decorated with our Wildcat blue, of course!  

We really are overjoyed to be here.  Yet, we have so very much to learn and that is a bit overwhelming.  We are certainly in a honeymoon period and loving everything right now.  Ok...so maybe not everything - the constant smell from the bathroom is a force to be reckoned with - not sure why that is with being on the 10th floor out of 11...seems like gravity would, you know...

There have been some other small trials (refrigerator not working, heater not working, washing machine not working, power outage for a few hours).  However, we can feel the HS working in us, helping us keep a positive outlook.  Looking back now that all that is fixed I'm so thankful for our family and friends who are walking alongside us, lifting us up.  It is not our nature to roll through those like we did.  We know it is our Dad's faithfulness in answering the requests that have been lifted up for us.  Thank you. Thank you, thank you!  Of course, we are so thankful for people here helping us get all those things fixed quickly.  

If you've made it this far in this very long post, you are a special gift for sure!  Hoping future ones will be shorter.  :)  Thank you for loving us and intervening  for us and our people.