Day 8 Nanjing

Thankfully we didn't have anything planned at all for today – I say thankfully because I needed a full day of peace to recover from yesterday and to prepare for tonight, when more chaos ensued. But I will get to that later.

Right now, I will tell you about the relaxing part. I woke up about 6:30 because Jack was crying in his sleep. He calmed down before I got to him, so I decided to get online and see if anyone was on Skype. I saw that my friend, Kelehua, was on so I called her and we chatted for half an hour or so. I introduced her to Jack, since he was up by this point, and while we were sitting there he opened his mouth, leaned in, and gave me a big ole kiss right on the mouth. I was so surprised and excited that he did it four or five more times for good measure. Of course, as soon as Tim got the video camera out he stopped, but I have Tim and Kele as witnesses that it happened.

 After breakfast we put a movie in for the kids, packed up, had some lunch, and took a walk around the Confucius Temple shopping area behind our hotel. It was nice to have nothing on the agenda before the bus picked us up at 4 for our 7:15 flight.

Which was when the chaos ensued.

Our guide told us that the flight was delayed until 9:30, but we still had to go and check in so they didn't give our seats away. About 8:00 they posted that the flight had been cancelled. Thankfully there were a couple of other American families waiting for the same flight – one had their guide with them, and the other had a phone. We called our guide to let her know about the situation and then sent the dads to figure out what to do. They got us onto a 9:15 flight that was already delayed.

As I write this, it is 10:30. They told Tim that the flight from Guangzhou should arrive here about 12:30am, and that we might be able to board around 1am. Jack has slept a total of 20 minutes since 7am. He refuses to lie down or rest at all, so we are taking turns walking him up and down the hall. Tim just passed by singing, "And I would walk five hundred miles and I would walk five hundred more…" with Jack strapped onto his body. When it was my turn I hummed "Yankee Doodle Dandy." It is good marching music.

 Right now the rest of us are sitting on the floor in a corner. Large groups of people keep coming over to see about us. They are incredibly nice and friendly (helping me load Jack into the carrier for instance, or telling what a beautiful family I have), but also very nosey. They keep asking how many children I have (How many Chinese babies?), but they don't believe me, and I have to point out all of them and tell them how old they are, using a combination of Chinese, English, and pantomime. They also want to know what video games the kids are playing and are leaning over to see what I am typing.

I am considering asking the children to do a song and dance number to entertain them.

I am thankful at this moment that I am a pastor's wife. We have very thick skin and are used to living in a fish bowl. We can laugh at things that would drive normal people insane. I would like to post this immediately so that all of you fine people could pray for us, but if you are reading this it means that I am not at the airport anymore, and I am probably checked into the China Hotel in Guangzhou. Let's hope that's where I am.

12am Update: Not at the hotel, but an extremely nice airport official asked us to sit in the First Class Lounge so we could be more comfortable. The Chinese are very warm people, and I should not be ugly. Jack is asleep in the chair next to me. The other three kids are still kicking.