JET LAG!

We're home at last and going thru the rigors of jet lag. We arrived on time at Minneapolis yesterday afternoon at approx 2pm-- after a scare leaving China. We were delayed boarding the flight to Tokyo by about 30 minutes, and then just as we were about to be pushed away from the jetway, the pilot came on and said they were being held by Air Traffic Control for 1 hour. So, our 8:30 departure became a 10am one. We had a 90 minute planned layover in Tokyo, and we just used up all 90 minutes of it sitting on the tarmac in Guangzhou! Thankfully we had a great tailwind enroute to Japan and the scheduled 4 hour flight was slightly shorter than that. One thing I HATE about the airport in Tokyo is that when you arrive on an international flight, you deplane, go up an escalator, GO BACK THRU SECURITY and then back down the escalator and board your connecting flight. Like I picked something dangerous up on the plane from China!! Again though, God was good to us and there were no lines at the security checkpoint, AND when we went back down the escalator, our departing flight's gate was right there and we didn't have to trudge thru the airport looking for our gate. At the gate, the "Final Call" was flashing for our flight to Portland. We were the last to board before the doors were shut and we were off to Oregon. In Portland, we cleared customs and Jeremy became a citizen of our great country! We connected to our Minneapolis flight and I (John) tried to get some shut-eye, as I knew I had a 2 hour drive after we landed.

The Cox's met us at the airport, with all of our children. They all were very generous with their hugs when we entered the baggage claim area and you could tell they missed us greatly. Jeremy was very shy with everyone at first; he also wasn't feeling too well. He puked twice on the flight to Tokyo and again once on the flight to Portland. No warning was given, he just let fly all over himself, the floor, a blanket, Mary..... you get the point. By this time, we were exhausted, having been up for 24 hours-- our wake up call in Guangzhou was at 4:30am, which was 2:30pm the previous day in Iowa. We arrived in Minneapolis just about 24 hrs after the wake-up call.

We drove home, ate fried chicken and french fries from the Barrel Drive-In and were ready for bed by 8pm. Jet lag quickly reared its ugly head as even though exhausted, we slept poorly and were wide awake in the middle of the night. Finally at 4am today, I got dressed and came out to my chair to read a little and watch the news. Jeremy soon joined me. I've forced myself to not nap during the day today, and as I sit here blogging at 9pm, I've been up for 19 hours. I hope to sleep better tonight.

Jeremy is feeling better and is enjoying exploring the house and all the toys. He went out with Sarabeth, Nathan, Juliana and Daddy to play in the snow today and really enjoyed sledding down the little hill on the side of our house. Now, it is bedtime for everyone. We will blog again and include some new pics soon.

John