there and back again

hey! i'm typing this from china! but not on my laptop. unfortunately i can't get the hotel network to play nice with my mac. but i'm still working on it. so i sneaker networked some pics and short movies for your viewing pleasure. go to the journey to joy - files link to the right to view them. if that doesn't work try the flickr link also to the right. just some raw footage of us landing in changsha, the "barkers" hawking stuff at walmart, and us saying hello from our room. kinda like the astronauts when they say hello back home. (editor's note: i typed the above sentences before actually trying it out. so far it's not working. i'll keep trying so you keep clicking those links to the right. if nothing else, you get our thoughts if not our pictures.)

below are some thoughts i've typed up along the way. i type as we go even though i'm offline. hope you don't mind the non-sequester-ish-ness of it all. in brief: things are really, really good. we're on the trip of a lifetime and haven't even met our daughter yet. that's tomorrow after the 8 hour bus ride. more on that later. here are my thoughts from earlier:

LAX - wednesday night

i really must have something important to say right now because i have no guarantee i can charge my laptop while on the ensuing 15 hour flight (which still doesn't happen for another 2 hours). i better say something more entertaining than napoleon dynamite because that is the potential sacrifice here. at least for me.

i think i'm finally excited to be on this trip. i'm finally able to focus on the task at hand. having said goodbye to isaac - though he slept through the whole thing - i can be here now. and even though i'm in the midst of being incredibly bored i'm having a good time being so. i picked up a couple books while in wichita. both are about basically the same thing - the world is not as it appears. that we have, typically, boxed God up which is a foolish thing to attempt. so these thoughts are floating around my head, mingling with all the people watching. observations on people gathering in LAX late on a wednesday night mix with my internal dialogue on the nature of existence. and i had wolfgang puck for dinner. it's interesting and passes the time.

we've met our chinese travel coordinator, morgan. the same man who walked my aunt and uncle through this whole experience two years ago. we've also caught up with everyone in our travel party except two couples. morgan is off somewhere looking for them, i imagine. or drinking a beer in a different concourse putting off the inevitable ball and chain all us will be over the next two weeks. we're like little baby ducks to his momma duck. and a very capable duck he be. so far, it feels like we're on some sort of reality show. like the great race mixed with real world. we have the first time parents, yoga/new age-ish couple. a couple mother/daughter teams. one from alabama and youngish, the other from las vegas, new mexico and older. native boston couple who now live in metro denver. ex-military guy and his wife. and the reclusive couple, wife being a doctor, don't know what the husband does, with 4 year old daughter in tow. who knows, maybe we'll get some drama going while on the trip? outside the expected going to china and gaining a daughter type drama i mean.

joy feels more real to me now than ever before. maybe the process of being strip searched in airport security is the difference? i'm hoping for electricity on the 15 hour flight. typing is fun. i apologize now.

changsha - dolton hotel.

it's like we're in a whole other country. couldn't charge the laptop on the flight. so i watched (with chinese subtitles) spanglish, a series of unfortunate events, hero (english subtitles), and a candian variety show (no subtitles though the accent could be tough) - 3 times. i've taken lots of pictures already. basic here we are in the airport kind of thing since that's all we've been doing for the last day and half. the hotel in changsha is SWANK. very nice. i now have power. but no internet access. tech guy comes up here and says, oh, that's an apple. internet doesn't work on apple. he leaves up dialing his cell on the way saying he'll be back. that was two hours ago. america or china some things are always the same.

we ordered chinese food to our room. i busted out my mandarin on the phone to order. i asked, in mandarin, if they spoke english. which they did, barely. but the guy who brought our food up spoke english very well. i asked him about the internet. he said he didn't know. we purposefully ordered our usual meal from the chinese place up the street from our house. turns out, the place in hays makes some fairly authentic chinese.

here in a bit the whole group of us gets together for dinner. we'll grill morgan for tomorrow's plan. one point i've learned already which makes sense but bums me none-the-less our girls go back home tomorrow night with their foster parents. i'm so excited to just get this girl with us. she feels more like my daughter now than ever before. it just fits. she belongs here. all the families are on the 26th floor and they've put together a play place for the girls that overlooks the city. i'll post pictures. when i can post. we're also getting a calling card after dinner so i'm hoping to get isaac called. it'll be friday morning for him. friday night for us. i miss that little guy. so excited for him to be a big brother. i'm just happy to be here. just having a blast. if only i could post so you can actually read this. details.