Last Full Day in China

Today's adventure consisted of a trip back to the American Consulate to pick up Katie's Visa and immigration papers. Most of the families in our group left today so there are only 5 families left. I went to the Consulate with 3 dads from other families to get the stuff. We took a hotel shuttle over which dropped us off and returned to the hotel. We got our paperwork with no problems and then our guide was going to get send us back in a taxi, but she could not get a taxi to take us. Apparently it was shift change time and none of the empty taxis were taking passengers. The hotel shuttle eventually came back with a family that our guide had to take to the train station. We went along to the train station, helped see the family off (they were from Seattle - I think the son said they live in Shoreline, actually) and then found a taxi at the train station taxi stand. Our guide, Shiyan, said she is definitely ready for a break after dealing with this big group. She was at the airport for 5 hours this morning trying to make sure the other 24 families made their flights, etc. This group also contained her first ever positive Tb test. That little girl had her 3rd negative test yesterday and will be leaving tomorrow morning with us. Thank you for praying for them.

Tomorrow is going to be the longest day of our lives - literally. We leave the hotel at 5:30 tomorrow morning (3:30 pm Thursday, Peoria time) and get home at 10:30 pm on Friday (12:30 pm Saturday, China time). So, you could say that our Friday starts at midnight here (10 am Thursday in Peoria) and goes until midnight in Peoria (2 pm in China) which is 38 hours. So, regardless of how smoothly our day goes - it will be the longest one of our lives. Please pray that all does go smoothly - no delays, lost luggage, illness or out of control children.

I also understand that we are in for severe thermal shock when we get home (especially Katie). The high today was easily in the 70s - I was toasty warm in my long sleeve shirt and pants while looking for a taxi. Friday evening's weather in Peoria is predicted to be around 2 degrees. Yikes. It had at least warmed up to 16 degrees on the morning we left Peoria!

This is likely our last update until we get home (maybe on Saturday). Good night.
Karen