Well it has been a busy week of preparing to go to China. Gratefully I officially started my leave from work, so I have been able to focus completely on my family and the journey ahead of us. On Thursday, June 23rd, we were notified that our appointments with the consultate had been made and were scheduled for the 18th of July. So we definitely need to be in China on the 7th of July now! Friday we focused on getting airline tickets. UGH!!!!! It was the longest, most frustrating day! Mark & I both individually worked on getting tickets, along with having 2 travel agents actively looking. There really weren’t a lot of options for us, and we considered ALL of our options, flying out of various airports, including going to Kansas City, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Minneapolis! One of the problems we would run into was the layover time between flights. Now typically when you fly you like to have shorter layovers, so you can just go from one plane to the other & be on your way. WELL….not when you are traveling internationally and have several flights you are catching. You miss one, you have missed them all and that is NOT good! Another consideration, the Omaha Eppley Airport is in danger of flooding, with all roads but one closed to it. Now a few people that lived in the area said it would be ok, but we decided we have enough things to worry about and didn’t want to add one more worry, wondering if our flights would be cancelled or which airport they would be rerouted to…so Omaha was out! Our agent, Sue held some tickets for us, actually flying out of Grand Island. They weren’t the most ideal tickets, but at least we had some held. All weekend long we continued to work on this all consuming task. What finally happened….went with the tickets that were held. The part that isn’t great is that we don’t get into Beijing until 11:30 at night and we can’t get a flight out on the 20th, so we are staying another night and will get home at 10:00 at night on the 21st. We hoped to travel on the 20th, Anastyn’s 2nd birthday, plus Bethany had freshmen band camp, and of course our little guy will be at home waiting for us, so the sooner we get home the better, but it is what it is. We will celebrate Anna’s birthday in China & then sometime with family when we get home. Bethany will miss freshmen band camp, but will be there for the band camp with the entire band, and Blayten will get spoiled one more day from his aunt, uncle, and cousins!
Tickets bought……………..ah, cross it off the to do list!
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