Home from China!

We are home, but it was not an easy trip. Ron left one day earlier than us to make a side trip to Hangzhou to meet with a man interested in helping with our work. He said we could take the bus from Pingliang to Xi'an with the medical team and then fly to Shanghai and meet him at the hotel. From the Pudong airport, I know where to take the hotel shuttle bus to the hotel where we always stay. Sounded easy enough.

Three of our workers were helping to take four orphan babies back to Beijing and Mongolia (along with a lady doctor traveling with the babies). We all took the four hour bus to Xi'an. Then we took a taxi to the airport, arriving there about noon. Leigh Ann and I were to catch our flight at 7 p.m. but could not check in until 5:00 p.m. One of the workers found a buffet inside the airport and paid for us to all have a meal. He got the waitresses to let us have a back table and stay in the restaurant until time for our flights. They were kind, seeing that we had four babies under one year of age that had just had surgery a few days before. A young male worker took one of the babies with him to Beijing on a 3 p.m. flight. That baby was sick during the medical mission and unable to have surgery. The other three babies were not flying out with workers until 8 p.m.

Leigh Ann and I helped with the babies so everyone could take turns to eat. They were good babies but they were active and wore us all out after a few hours.

Jackie (our medical mission coordinator) booked our flight from Xi'an to Shanghai to the wrong airport, but I didn't know that at the time. Our flight was late so it was about 10:30 p.m. when we arrived. After wandering around for an hour in the airport, not recognizing anything and unable to find the bus to the hotel, I got someone to call Ron. I didn't even have a cell phone in China. He said he had checked on our flight and we had landed at another airport (about 50 miles away). It was too late to get the bus between the airports. We got a taxi (which cost us $45 U.S.) but the driver took us to the wrong hotel. I knew immediately it was wrong but could not communicate with the taxi driver. I called Ron from that hotel which was close to the Pudong Airport. He asked if I could get another taxi and go to the Pudong Airport Gate 28. It was about 11:30 p.m. I told him NO, I could not communicate with taxi drivers and I might end up at the first airport again. He said O.K. and got a taxi to bring him to this hotel to find us. I thought this would not be difficult but when just one thing goes wrong, then I'm in trouble in China traveling alone.

We had to get up early to be at the Pudong Shanghai Airport the next morning at 7 a.m. We got on the flight from Shanghai to Detroit. We were able to get first class seats so that was a great help. We were already so tired. It was a 14 hour flight to Detroit. We arrived about noon on Sunday. We spent the next 9 hours in the Detroit airport trying to find a flight to Atlanta or any other city that would connect and get us to Atlanta. All flights were over sold. We gave up and got a hotel for the night and left Detroit on Monday but had to fly to Nashville and then to Atlanta. It was an all-day trip. It was about 6 p.m. Monday night when we got home.

I started taking a sore throat about the time we landed in Detroit so I really felt bad the rest of the day and all day on Monday. It's better now and I'm finally getting some sleep.

This was a hard trip and the most difficult of our missions. So many things were disorganized but we learned some lessons if we do another medical mission. I have to remember that no matter how hard it was for all of us, there were a lot of little children helped.

Ronald arrived home a week before us to get some needed rest. He is doing fine but arrived home to find that his renters have skipped out (leaving his house and yard in a mess). He has many repairs and cleaning to do before it can be rented again. We will help him work on it next week. He's trying to get the grass cut and yard back in shape.

Today, Ronald and I went to the Botanical Gardens. He didn't feel like going to work in the yard with the heat and wanted to do something fun. I had never been to the gardens so when he invited me to go with him, I jumped at the chance. I enjoyed being with him very much. He won't get to do much in the way of fun things while he's home, so this was a good day for both of us.

I have plenty of work to do but felt he was more important. He will return to China Sept. 7th. We will leave again for another long RV trip across to Texas on September 8th. I don't know how long we will be gone this time.