Where Baby?

It took about 34 hours to get here from the time of our wait for our first flight until the time we were settled into our bed in Fuzhou. 4 cities, 3 flights, long layovers, and a not so great airport experience in Beijing, and then we were here - the city where will meet Calli in person for the first time.

My mom and dad (Gigi and Peeps) got Calli a new stroller that is light weight and folds up very compact.  Perfect for air travel!  We gate checked it at every airport and pushed it around empty for hours.  Countless security personnel, airline agents, and even Chinese customs and immigration workers would look at Ashley, look at me, and look at the stroller with our carry-ons rested inside and ask - "Where baby?"  One person even said, "No baby?!"  Time and time it was as if they thought we had forgotten something important and they were reminding us.  The empty stroller even sparked a conversation with the agents in the United Club (yes, we were in the club thanks to Kent Evans - man it was nice in there!).  After we explained the empty stroller and explained that yes we had two biological children, and yes we were going to bring home our third daughter that we are adopting from China - the very interested and thoughtful agents wished us all the best.

Where is baby?  She is waiting.  Did we forget her?  Never.
How could we forget her?  All 34 hours she was on our minds.  Every time I opened and closed and gate checked the empty stroller I was thinking about it being filled - with Calli Fei Fei.  She has been on our minds since before this process started in January 2012.  Fei Fei has been on our minds since we first laid eyes on her back in November, when we received an update in December, and our final set of pictures in March.  She has been on our minds everyday for months.  And now we are here!  We are grateful for all the prayers for safe travel and all the prayers for our meeting tomorrow.  I spend a lot of my time in meetings.  Tomorrow is one of the most important meetings of my life.  27 hours from right now we will have a meeting in a hotel conference room where we will hold our daughter for the very first time.  I've done this twice before (in hospitals).  The circumstances are different but my heart and stomach feel the same.

We are here baby!  Safe and sound, thank God!