The voyage to the other side of the Earth

I've decided that so much has happened in the last few days that I have do several different entries or I may lose your interest. So, installment one is the flight over.
The flight over went pretty well as flying goes. We were lucky to have no delays which seems to be a huge deal these days. We did not have any over weight baggage and even took 5 bags instead of 6. I figure that leaves me one bag to fill with China stuff to bring home.
The flight to Detroit was not that long. Bliss like the idea of flying. Zade fell asleep. He was a bit restless and it was a smaller plane. We did not have tons of time in Detroit, barely enough to grab some food, eat, and get on our plane. We did have problems while boarding, because they wanted a separate paper ticket for Zade even though it was marked on mine as having a lap child. Huntsville didn't make us have one and they didn't print one for us. We got that taken care of and were on our way. Bliss wasn't too thrilled to get back on the plane, but there was promise of watching a movie. We talked a lady into swapping seats with Blasen, so we could all sit together. I was not looking forward to this leg of the flight...not just because of my kids, but because of me. I can not sleep on airplanes. I think I finally fell asleep for about an hour at the very end of the flight. They had a couple of movies they showed and I had a book of crossword puzzles and a book to read, not to mention children to entertain. Bliss and Zade slept for a few hours. We laid Zade out on the floor, and Bliss laid down in his seat with his legs up on me. The flight to Tokyo was 13, almost 14 hours. I wanted to shoot myself by the end of that flight. I was seriously doubting my sanity in agreeing to this move by this point. Watching that tiny plane move across the screen indicating where you are in the flight is very depressing. I hate that they have that on long flights.
We make it to Japan and have a longer layover there. The boys are very restless by this point and irritable. The thought of getting on another plane was not pleasing to any of us. Bliss loved all the moving sidewalks in Tokyo and I have to say, their bathrooms were the nicest I've ever seen in an airport. They had several play areas for children, so we let the boys play for a while.



We finally arrived in Foshan at about 11pm Wednesday night. That's 10am Wednesday in Alabama. So we'd been traveling for a little over 24 hours at this point. I am exhausted. Thankfully, I was so exhausted on the flight from Tokyo, that I slept for the majority of the flight. I was so dreading another 4 hours in the air. We got our bags and got thru customs with no problems. Two employees from Blasen's office from here came with a taxi to pick us up. I will comment on driving here in China later, but they are maniacs! The taxi pulls up and stops in the road, because there was no place to pull over. I throw the kids in the van while folks behind us our honking like crazy and we're off. Bliss was exstatic that he didn't have to ride in a car seat. We get to our apartment in Foshan about 45min later and I'm ready to sleep but the kids aren't. I think we got 3 hours of sleep that night. Ugh. But we made it and I'm glad we did with all familial bonds still in place.
I'll write more entries over the next few days to set some good ground work for life here in China. I've decided this entry is too long for me to proof read, so forgive me for any grammatical errors, etc.