Sunday August 7th

As I type this post, I am sitting in the train station waiting to leave for - Zhengzhou. There has only been one other time in my life where I have been so stressed. Being stranded in a foreign country is not something that I would like to repeat. The fear that creeps in is hard to squelch. My stomach has been in a constant knot, and I do not think I will eat until Monday morning. That is probably almost 2 days without a good meal. We will survive.

Once we learned that we would not fly out, we tried to get a hotel for the night. Both hotels off of the airport were full and we needed to find another. A man at the airport was happy to direct us to his hotel. At that point I didn’t care if it cost $1000. I just wanted to be somewhere where my senses were not being bombarded. They even had a free shuttle! Not taking a taxi made things easier.

The hotel was rather nice, but I did not sleep more than three hours. I have probably had four hours of sleep since Friday morning US time and it is Sunday morning China time. Amazingly enough we are ok. Upon check out, we ran into a little trouble paying for our room. None of our cards were working, so we had to exchange money with the hotel. I’m not sure if that was something they really liked doing, but there was no other choice. This detour was not planned.

The front desk called a taxi for us and we were off. At this point we still didn’t know if we would even be able to purchase a ticket. The weather outside is like nothing I have been in before. I am thankful we did not fly in it. The wind was blowing fiercely causing the rain to pelt the car. At one point it felt as if the taxi would blow off of the bridge we were crossing. It was shocking to see that people were still riding their scooters and bicycles. I have no idea how they were able to stay upright.

Driving through Beijing last year, I was surprised by the lack of trees. Shanghai is completely different. Majestic trees line the highway. It is very cloudy and I cannot see much around me, but I loved the trees.

Upon arriving at the train station, I felt like shouting praises. I never thought I would be so happy to see a train station. Our first attempt at buying tickets put us going to the wrong city. I guess our pronunciation is a little off. We quickly realized the mistake and had them exchanged. The only bummer is that we will not be leaving until 9 hours from this moment. We arrived here at 6:30am and will leave around 4 this afternoon. The other unfortunate circumstance is that we could only buy second class. We are definitely in for an experience. I am so thankful that we packed light. I have been teased often about my packing. Today it is coming in handy. Luggage on a train is difficult to manage.

I am just so thankful to have a train ticket in my hand. The relief is immense. I don’t care if I have to stand the whole time as long as we arrive in time to meet our children. Nothing could deter me from that moment. Well, except for a typhoon! LOL!

The next 15 hours will not be easy, but they will pass. We will arrive. That is the important part.

He is faithful!