We're Back!

We're back!! Thank you so much for your prayers and your patience! I finally had time this afternoon to sit down and get all of our pictures and thoughts in order! As a warm up to sharing all the details and pictures, it will do you a world of good to check out the PRECIOUS video below (it has sound!!!) and get a glimpse of just how much our sweet Katelyn enjoyed her first trip to China!



Overall, the trip was wonderful!! A verse to sum it all up: "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." Psalm 126:3

If you want to skip the details and get right to the pictures, click on the link below. If you want the details, so you'll know a little about the pictures you are looking at, read on.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BZNmLds1YsNe

1) Katelyn gets the international traveling baby award! She did so much better than we ever could have expected! She slept at our feet in the bulkhead area of the plane on our flight to Beijing, and on the flight back, a very nice gentleman who was sitting next to us gave up his seat to go sit somewhere else so we could have the third seat for Katelyn (or he was just scared that she was going to be typical crying baby and didn't want to stick around to find out for sure!). Little did he (or we!) know, she would do great! Our only flight-related hiccup was on the way back...we were delayed three hours leaving Beijing which caused us to miss our connection in San Fransisco. So....we enjoyed an unexpected one-night hotel stay (paid for by the airline) near the bay area. The weather was beautiful, so we took advantage of our very short time in SF and went on a nice little stroll while we were there! The following morning (Easter!), we took the 5 a.m. hotel shuttle to the airport so that we would arrive in plenty of time for our 6:55 a.m. flight. When we went to check in, we were informed that our seats had only been reserved (apparently different than confirmed!) by the ticket agent the day before, and therefore, because the seats had now been sold to someone else, our best option would be to take a shuttle bus down to the San Jose airport (about a 30 minute drive) and get on a direct flight to DFW (first class!) which would leave at 3:30 p.m. So we did! We took in some California scenery on the ride down to San Jose, and made the best of it! We finally walked in our door at 10:30 p.m. Easter Sunday, and boy did it feel good!! We have not recovered from jet lag nearly as well coming home as we did going, so you can by praying about that for us! :)

2) We loooooooved reconnecting with all of our friends (both Chinese and teammates!). They were all so excited to meet Katelyn too! Our first night in China we stayed in a hotel in Beijing. The next morning we headed down to the city where we used to live. Our first three nights there, we were fortunate enough to have an apartment all to ourselves! A family on our team who we are good friends with (Dave actually took Kung Fu lessons with the husband when we lived in China) was out of town and they offered up their apartment for us to stay in while they were gone. It was such a blessing just to have the place to ourselves while we were adjusting to being on the other side of the world! The remainder of our time in this city, we stayed with a very sweet couple, Kim and Patrick Smith, and their 1 year old son Moyer! It was so fun to see Katelyn and Moyer play together, and Dave and I really enjoyed visiting with Kim and Patrick each evening! They are such a sweet and hospitable family! Kim even made baby food, so that Katelyn would have something to eat while she was there! Their son Moyer celebrated his 1st birthday while we were there, and Katelyn and I were invited to his birthday party! It was a ball--literally! There was a tent set up with all these colored balls in it! The kids loved it, especially Katelyn! I was able to go to dinner with three of the Chinese girls that I studied with each week, and our family also spent a whole day with Dave's Chinese friend David! We had lunch with our Chinese teacher Belinda and also shared dinner with a good Chinese friend of Kristen's, Wendy (and her family)! These were encouraging times--both for us and for them (just as you prayed)!

A few highlights of times with our teammates--We had dinner with Mark, Megan, Grace, and Rose Wickersham. This is the family that is in the process of adopting our little friend Rose. It was so wonderful to see Rose and how much she has grown--in so many ways! She still has vivid memories of the time we shared together during the three weeks that we took care of her while Mark, Megan, and Grace traveled to America. She is absolutely precious and will always have a special place in our hearts! It was so neat to see Rose playing and laughing with her sister Grace (the Wickershams other adopted daughter)! She loved meeting Katelyn and especially liked two things about her: Her middle name (Rose) and her belly!! Rose just kept saying, "My favorite part of Katelyn is her belly!" She was a hoot! Another fun part of our trip was that the General Manager of our team organized a "drop in to see the McCurdys" party for an hour on a Sunday afternoon. It was great because it allowed us to visit with many people who we might not have had an opportunity to see otherwise! We also went to an open house for LDi's business office, as they had just finished adding on to/renovating their office space. We noticed that "seeing Katelyn McCurdy" was actually listed in the open house invitation (sent to our whole team!) as one of the top five reasons for people to attend the event. This open house was also a fun opportunity for us to visit with Dave's co-workers!

3) Typical Schedule--Dave worked very hard each day, as we were only there for 4.5 workdays, so his time for meetings was limited. He hit the ground running and stopped just in time to enjoy our dinner dates with different families each night! He did a great job of managing his time (just like you prayed)! The meetings he had were productive, and he was able to accomplish all that he needed to during his time there! Katelyn and I had 1-2 things planned to do each day (mostly people to see rather than places to go), but nothing too strenuous or inflexible! I will say that our sweet daughter has slept more places and met more people in a 10-day window of time than any baby I know! She was such a trooper!!

If you have any other questions about our trip or you were hoping we'd share something that we didn't, please ask! Thanks again for your prayers!

Also, thanks to Jessica Janko for letting us borrow her Baby Bjorn baby carrier and to Jenny Hipp for letting us borrow her umbrella stroller! They both came in SO HANDY!!