Labor Pains

My friend and colleague Kelly, also a mother of adopted children, once said that every child enters the world through pain. She told me to think of my trip overseas as my labor. I love the analogy! That being said, I would consider Sam's delivery quite smooth and uncomplicated. Nathaniel on the other hand is requiring a c-section!

Our first plane left O'Hare airport in Chicago yesterday 45 minutes late, because the connecting flight from Minneapolis was late. We did have fun getting to know Annie, a 2 year old little girl traveling with her Dad. His wife had just had a baby on Sunday, another girl named Sarah. We thought the coincidence was funny. We got into Detriot and as we headed toward our gate we heard the announcement overhead- "Last call for passenger Barsch." So we sprinted to the gate and made it... just to then sit on the tarmack for an hour and a half because of problems in the cargo area and the need for refueling. We eventually took off and flew a good 8 hours [of a 12 hour flight] before this announcement was made- "Folks, I apologize but I am embarrassed to make an announcement I have never had to make before. The lavatories have become full and we can no longer offer them to customers." SO for the rest of the flight there were no more bathrooms and no more food or drink to help with the situation. CRAZY, right! So we do land and at this point in Osaka Japan and we want to kiss the ground. We get up as we pull into the gate and then hear the overhead annoucement- "Please be seated immediately and buckle your seatbelts. The oxygen masks will drop. Please put on your own first before helping another person." This came over the intercom twice. Everyone just sort of looked at each other and laughed thinking this has to be a mistake. Which it was. We enter the airport and run to the bathrooms with everyone else. While in the bathroom we hear overhead- "Final boarding call for flight 69 to Taipei." Once again we are sprinting to the plane. We made it and got here trouble free after that. We got through customs just fine, got our bags, and found our guide Fion. She is the best! She commented that I had cut my hair- what a memory!

We made it to our hotel, got some potato chips and peanut MnMs, showered and went to bed. After sleeping about 4 hours we are up and ready for the day! Today we will go to get Nathaniel. We leave 10:30am Taiwan time which is 9:30pm Chicago time.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. The devil is determeined to interfere with this miracle, but we are fighting him tooth and nail with all your help!

Pictures of our second son coming next...!