We made it!

Dear friends and family,

We made it to China!!  Wow!  What a week!  It has been exhausting, trying, happy, sad, and humorous!  Yes; each of us has experienced all of those feelings several times throughout this week.  Here's a little recap:

*    EXHAUSTING:  After a smooth flight to Chicago, our plane to Bejing was delayed 3 hours.  We arrived in Bejing to find out that we didn't miss our flight to Zhengzhou because it actually had been canceled.  Through Dennis' broken Chinese we made it to the Air China ticket counter where we were told they would pay for a hotel that night for us in Bejing.  We stayed at a fairly nice hotel that had very small beds. Emily's feet were almost hanging off; you can imagine what Dennis looked like stretched out.  We were awoken by someone from the front desk calling and Dennis just said "yes" to whatever she was saying but had no idea what it was about.  Then around 1am, there was a knock on the door.  I woke up Dennis and he answered.  It was some guy knocking on the wrong door.  We then got up at 3:30am (which is 3:30pm KY time) and were all hungry.  We decided to eat cookies, peanuts and candy for breakfast.  Thanks Ellen and Deb for sending those with us!  We arrived in Zhengzhou later that morning and were promptly escorted to the school where Dennis would be working and Emily would be attending.  We then were taken to see our apt. and then shopping for groceries.  Benji fell asleep at the store, Emily was not happy, and Dennis and I were very grumpy because we were so jet-lagged.
*    TRYING:  The language has been a huge barrier for us.  Dennis picks up bits and pieces but the rest of us are lost.  Very few people speak English here.  We have a beautiful brand new apartment but nothing was working at first.  The AC (which we are very thankful for and didn't expect), kept turning off, the stove did not work, we just got our phone and internet hooked up yesterday.  We managed to eat at Pizza Hut and McDonalds but they are not close.  We've been trying to guess what foods are at the store and have been living off of dumplings and noodles.  We are so sick of noodles!  We live in an apartment which is quite an adjustment for the kids.  They are used to running, jumping, singing, yelling, etc. and we constantly have to hush them, not fun.  People warned me about this one - the toilets are in the floor.  The only sit down ones are in private residences, fortunately we have one in our apt.  All the others - stores, restaurants, schools are squatters!  We try to avoid them at all costs!  As you can imagine not everyone has good aim so I don't want to even think about what's on the bottom of our shoes!  Oh, and you have to bring your own toilet paper and you can't flush it; you have to put it in the trash.  There are very few Westerners in this city and everyone stops, stares and points at us.  They don't even try to hide it.  We've had groups of people just standing, staring, watching our every move.  We've almost caused a couple of scooter accidents because people don't expect to see us but feel compelled to stare.  People have also stopped us to take our picture.  For a family of introverts (well, not including Benji) it's been very uncomfortable.
*    HAPPY:  We got to meet a wonderful couple that provides housing for orphans with special needs.  It is exciting to see what they are doing and ways we can help!  Another happy note - Emily is doing GREAT!  She has probably adjusted better than all the rest of us.  Maybe she needed to get the frustration and anger out in the US so she could fully enjoy China upon arrival.  We are so proud of her.  Dennis was promoted yesterday from teacher to Headmaster of the secondary school.  It's more pay but also more hours.  We'll see how it goes. The staff at the school have been very nice and helpful.  The president of the school even invited Benji to attend school there 1/2 day.  This is HUGE considering he has Down syndrome.  They of course also asked me to teach while Benji is in school, so they are getting something out of it too.  A lot of bartering goes on in China!
*    SAD:  We've all been a little homesick.  It's hard to adjust to such a radically different culture and way of thinking.  It is soooo different than Hong Kong.  Benji has been out of sorts, not listening very well and saying he wants to get a ticket and go home.  He is scared when we go out in public and has wanted to be held all of the time we are out (not easy in 95 degree weather with high humidity).  The last 2 days have been much better though; he even excitedly yelled "Home!" when we arrived back at the apartment yesterday.
*    HUMOROUS:  We've seen a grandma being pushed in a grocery cart with her grandchild while mom pushed the cart and shopped.  We've seen English translations on signs that weren't quite right like "woman thing" in the feminine hygiene isle at the supermarket and "enter hurrying and leave swashing hands" in the bathroom.  Babies and toddlers don't wear diapers here!  The babies just wear a shirt with nothing on the bottom and toddlers wear shorts with no crotches!  They are just open so the kids can go pee/poo whenever and wherever.  I haven't seen one in action yet but have seen a lot of naked bottoms.

Thanks everyone for all you thoughts and prayers!  We'll keep you posted.

Love,
Sarah, Dennis, Emily and Benjamin