From China....

Hey friends and family. We are in Lanzhou China. Lanzhou was established in 86 BC! We are on the 17th floor of a beautiful hotel called Sunshine Plaza. The smog is pretty bad but we are handling it. The city is still decorated beautifully since CNY and we came through from the airport last night. It was spectacular. It is a cross between New York City and Mexico!!! Very interesting.

We left DFW at 7:50 am CST Thursday morning. We flew to San Francisco which was a 4 hour flight. We left San Francisco and flew for 12 hours to Beijing China. It was really weird because it never got dark. We were flying into the sun and it was day time for us for over 24 hours. We got to Beijing at 3:15 Friday (China time), caught a 2 hour flight to Lanzhou and met our guide at the Lanzhou airport. We then took a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the hotel. We got to bed about 11 pm. Luke cried alot last night but the other boys went right to sleep. Luke will adjust by tomorrow and then get a new sister!! Boy, is life hard for him right now. He got diarrhea on the plane and during turbulence we were in the TINY bathroom changing him........needless to say, we used ALOT of wet wipes to clean up the place! He is terrified of flying and I held him for 30 hours straight, except short stints when Meredith held him so I could rest my arms. It was hard getting here but all in all it was okay.

When we arrived at the Lanzhou airport, Luke through a fit that was top notch! Really, it was funny to think that there was about 100 Chinese people watching (I mean staring and talking to each other about it) this exhausted American family trying to shuffle a lot of kids and ALOT of luggage with a 2 year old laying flat on his face in the airport kicking and screaming like a wild banshee!!!! I was really embarrassed. It was 15 degrees here and I was sweating. A priceless memory!!!! I can't wait to tell his fiance about it in 20 years!!! I was so tempted to pull his diaper down and spank his ---- but I was afraid the Chinese police would arrest me!

The children and I sat down in the airport to wait on Meredith, Dad, and Bradley to exchange money and people came up and started taking pictures of the kids. They tried to smile and be friendly but they were exhausted! The babies here are so pretty and Bradley is quite impressed with the shy smiles of the young ladies!!!

We are relaxing in the hotel room right now and will go to the museum this afternoon. Our breakfast was great and we are hoping to stay well from stomach problems.

I lost my camera somewhere between the Beijing airport and the hotel so I must purchase new one today. Sally will help me. I will pst photos asap.

We are tired but very excited and happy to be here. Rebel is blogging for me until I can access my blog from here in China. Thank you for helping me Rebel!!!

We love all of you and will update as often as we can.

Bye for now.