Could I have a side of drama with my drama please?

We got to the front of the line at the Minneapolis ticket counter to check in on Thursday morning and we encountered a major snag! Back in August when we ordered visas to go to China to get Meilynn in September, Lauren and Marcus got 6 month visas--lasting until February 25, 2010. Back then, when we checked visa expiration dates we didn't check them all, as we assumed they were all the same and the ones we did check were the kids'. Unfortunately, David's and mine expired at the end of September!

There was a period of time where panic/freak out was the name of the game. Then David told me to get a hold of myself, we'd still get Sophia...sometime. Well, you can't go to China without a visa, so we started thinking. One of the few places in the USA where there is a Chinese consulate is in Chicago. We have a 3 1/2 hour layover in Chicago before we need to be on the 12:43pm flight to Beijing. Maybe, just maybe, they can rush a visa and we could at least get out only one day late! So, we got on our first flight to Chicago.

Once there, Dave and the kids picked up bags and I sprinted to the taxis. There was no traffic in Chicago (minor miracle), and I was in a short line (another minor miracle) to talk to the visa people by 9:55. After telling this nice Chinese lady as much of my sob story as I could cram into my 3 minutes, she looked at me with sympathy and said she didn't think they could get anything done before 10:30. By this time, those were 25 minute visas and I almost fainted with relief! That was a major miracle! We were told that visas handed in by 11 could be picked up at 2pm, so this was a huge favor from the Chinese government and we weren't even here yet!

Needless to say, we made it! We are in Beijing. David is snoring behind me (it's only 9:30, so I'm afraid he'll be up at 4!) and the kids did great. We're all very tired, but so so glad to be here! We are 14 hours ahead of Central time and 13 hours ahead of Eastern time. We flew over the Hudson Bay, the North Pole, and Mongolia to get here (weird). Tomorrow and Sunday we see the sights of Beijing and Monday we get another daughter.

Thanks for your prayers!