Day 15: Stopping to Smell the Roses

This morning was spent packing and organizing for our final travels of our trip.  We left the hotel at 3:00, picked up Christian’s visa, and then drove for four hours to Hong Kong.  I tried to pack things in a way so we don’t have to unpack anything other than one suitcase for these final two days in our journey.  Hopefully that works for us, because I am a bit tired of unpacking and packing J 

I was nervous about getting our visa because about a month ago there was a group of families who had to re-arrange all of their final travels and stay in China five extra days because there was a computer glitch.  In the past few weeks I have heard others have also had complications, so this was a major deciding factor in us delaying our trip by two days (that and we are able to save six hours of travel on an already long way home by skipping the first layover, which was going to be Hong Kong).  As far as the visa, I wanted to have one extra day for a cushion in case there was a delay.  But, fortunately, no delay for us!  We had to wait ten minutes once the office opened at 3:30, then we were off to Hong Kong. 

The drive was long – Christian was not too happy about the car ride.  It was well worth it though.  This is by far THE most beautiful place I have ever seen, and that is just from what I have seen from the interstate.  We have all of tomorrow free with nothing to do other than what we want to do.  We decided to go and see “The Peak”.  I am also working on Adam to go on a river cruise, which I heard is $2/ person and well worth the time. 

I miss AJ & Abby so much and I can’t wait to start what is going to be our new routine.  We have so enjoyed this time with Christian and as much as I miss the kids, I know this was the right thing for our family to do.  Not only have the kids started school and had this time in their classrooms, but we have just connected so much – not only with Peng Peng, but with each other.  It has been like a second honeymoon in a way.  Adam has worked sooo hard this past year helping save up for this trip and I have been so busy with the kids, school, applying for grants, fundraising, and adoption paperwork, that we have barely seen each other.  Adam told me I have used up all our dates for the next ten years, but I am thinking this might be the beginning of stopping to smell the roses a little bit more and to make time to be together.  I don’t think he or I have ever had hours to just kill and relax.  It is kind of nice!