Madison feeding Jenna congee
Hello again,
We are finally back in the states. While we enjoyed our time in China, learning about Jenna's heritage and experiencing first hand how others in a third world, communist country live, we are so thankful to be back to our wonderful USA. This experience has been a major eye opener for us all. As Americans, we tend to be a "stuff" happy country. We never have enough "stuff", the right stuff or the newest stuff, the biggest and the best stuff. We are always searching for more "stuff". Most americans are guitly of this, incuding us. There are so many more important things to worry about like the millions of orphans whose basic needs (food, water, shelter and TLC) are not being met. This experience has helped us put things into perspective.
Our flight from Guangzho to Hong Kong was uneventful. However, the 14 hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago was quite scary - there was so much turbulance - one of the worst episodes of turbulance was during our lunch, so our drinks were shaking around so much that most of it landed on the tray table instead of in our bellies. Who can eat after a white knuckle episode of about 15 minutes or so anyway.
Surprisingly enough, Madison and Jenna didn't have a clue. They played with their sticker books, ate snacks, enjoyed the scenary from the plane window. Madison slept approximately 60% of the time. Jenna, after about the first 6 hours was a little fussy. She was very tired and would fall asleep but could not get comfortable while sleeping and would wake up screaming. To top it all off, an older lady sitting in front of us on the 14 hour flight back home was not very tolerant of the kids. I knew we were going to have a problem with her from the very beginning - when she first found her seat she said "Oh no, we are going to be in front of them" I assumed she was talking about the kids since she was american. During our flight while Jenna and Madison were having such a good time with the sticker books, laughing, giggling and being silly, the lady leaned up and said "Some of us are trying to sleep". Well, most of you who know me know I do not typically "bite my tongue" but since Madison was right there, I didn't want her to see me lose it on this lady, so I bit my tongue. Rick, on the other hand, had smoke coming out of his ears - we couldn't beleive she would say something to us when the kids were laughing, not crying.
Oh well, Jenna gave her an earful of screaming a few times prior to landing! hee, hee!
When we got to Chicago, Jane and Gil's (rick's parents) luggage was taking forever to come down the belt - we found out later, one peice of their luggage never showed up. Two peices of our luggage were damaged.
As usual, we got stuck in traffic in Chicago - it took us 4 hours to get to Jane and Gil's lake house. Surprisingly enough, we beat them home. They flew from Chicago to Milwaukee but their flight was delayed and they had to file a claim for their missing luggage. Jenna, never fussed about the car seat, which was shocking. She actually slept in the car seat for about 2 hours.
We all made it back safely, which is the most important thing.
Jenna slept until about 9:30 this morning - about 12 hours. She was a tired girlie! Madison, on the other hand, was up at 4:00 full of energy.
As I am typing this message, I am watching Madison feed Jenna congee - they are both so happy and comfortable with each other - my heart is so full of happiness and joy seeing my girls together finally.
Thank you all for your support and prayers - we couldn't have made it through this journey without all of you!
Many Blessings,
Teresa, Rick, Madison and Jenna Gilbert
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