September 7

The last day, trying to get ready to come home, leaving on the train to Hong Kong, getting in late and getting out early pretty much slowed us down. But, I thought we would take a minute to give everyone one last group update. After the consulate, we had one more night and most of the next day in Jinan. We did a bit of shopping and organizing and then hopped a train from Guangzhuo to Hong Kong. This was about a 2 hour trip. The kids all played and everything went fine. Then We got to Hong Kong and everything went at light speed. We must have been the last train and we were the last people, taking our time to make sure we had everything, and the customs people really, really wanted us out. They skipped a lot of steps and pushed us out the door as they locked the turnstiles. Then we got (or were gotten by?) a cab. He drove almost as fast as he talked and tried to short me 400 Hong Kong dollars. He was pretty funny. The hotel was in the airport (very helpful!) and we ordered a bit of room service and then crashed. The next morning was early, but probably not early enough. Delta was super helpful in getting us to the gate on time (Hong Kong is a big airport). Then we were off to Tokyo. That was fine and Tokyo airport was interesting. Next time we will schedule longer layovers - there was an origami museum and some interesting snacks. We said goodbye to Roseann there. She was off to Minneapolis and we were off to Atlanta. The Atlanta flight was less good - there was a passenger who was sick about 5 hours into the flight. Keely was caught in the crossfire and that was not pleasant (to say the least). She kept her cool even though she slept only about 2 hours the entire 23 hour trip home. It was crowded, fussy, and long - but it was half-way around the world. Got to Atlanta in a bit of a daze, crashed out on the 45 minute flight to Tally and got out, glad to be home. Karwen was a champ the whole time with only a bit of fussiness at the touch screens that were mis-behaving. We were met by several people from our church and I cannot express how nice it was to walk out and see some friendly faces. Michael Zhang picked us up and surprised us with a pizza dinner. Today we picked up the dogs, went shopping and met the cousins for a bit. Pretty mellow day - the kids played and played and played - kitchen set, play-doh, card games (or 'poker' as Karwen refers to it). We expect to take it mellow for a while, although we have a few things next week that will have to creep in. But mostly we will take advantage of this time and settle in to life here. Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, wishes and help through all of this process. It already seems like the new normal, but we are getting ready for the next few steps which should present their own challenges. If we don't get pictures/updates out to any of you - just let us know! We all learned a lot during the trip - a bit more Chinese, a bit of the culture that I am not sure you learn unless you are there, how strong children are, how strong our family is... To represent this I am attaching a picture of Kolya's chopstick abilities with a peanut and KG considering his third bite of Jellyfish! Love to all, The 6 Cogans