getting there

it is almost time. we are getting closer. i officially lost count of the hours somewhere between the 8th and 9th hour of this flight. for a while i kept grabbing rick’s arm to check out the time. i am sure he wished he would have remembered to pack a watch for me. it hasn’t much mattered though. every time we even mention The Time we have to clarify whether we are talking atlanta, west coast or china time. but as we soar high above the blackness of the pacific ocean, for the moment, Time seems to have stood still.  somehow we left atlanta at 7pm on friday night and will arrive in guangzhou city early sunday morning. i’ll say nothing more on the matter except…it is, indeed, time.
the butterflies have only grown stronger since leaving atlanta. the airplane’s regular lurching hasn’t helped much. i can’t complain though, this aircraft is amazing. we really are quite comfortable and ridiculously well attended. we are flying china southern airlines and it is top notch. we were greeted with orange juice and warm towels. no, we are not in our hotel, but on a plane. everyone has been lovely. as a mother and constant care-taker, i just eat up these kinds of little niceties. oh, thank you, yes, i’d love a steaming towel for my travel-weary finger tips. can y’all just come home with me in a couple of weeks? trip taking has taken on a whole new level these days. i certainly never experienced anything close to this as a child. many of you know the story of my family’s most memorable and prolific road trip to the grand canyon one christmas in the early 1980s. we piled all four kids into the van and if that wasn’t enough, decided to bring along grandma and grandpa for the scenic drive from ohio to arizona. there weren’t enough seats to accommodate all 8 of us, so dad, in his resourceful way, simply strapped down a couple of aluminum lawn chairs. i think i was given a book, a pencil, some paper and maybe a sleeve of ritz crackers and was told to keep myself busy for the next few days. it was surely on that trip when i fell in love with nancy drew and read the entire series from cleveland to phoenix while rolling around in the back of that seatless grey van.


tonight, rick and i are sitting in comfy seats with footstools and armrests. we have between us no shortage of technology: two laptops, two ipods, a blackberry, an iphone and two tvs attached to our seats. funny thing though, all i can seem to do is sit and stare out the window. i could very well be in the back of that grey van heading to arizona. i could close my eyes as easily there as i can on this 24 hour trek to china. the amenities wouldn’t matter much. i would still see the same sweet little face of a girl in china. i would still be picturing the moment when she is brought into the room where we sit waiting. i would still be dreaming of the day when we walk out into the sunshine and know she is ours. finally ours. almost ours. we are almost there.


** oh and that watch? …by the end of the flight rick had removed it from his wrist and fastened it to my own.