Travel day to Guangzhou

Yesterday was bitter sweet! For Grace and I it was one step closer to being home. For Sam, it was good and bad all mixed up in one. An abundance of differing emotions that took its toll on our boy. Most of the morning, he was pretty good. We know from previous conversations that he was/is excited to get home to the U.S. and to fly on airplane. We went to lunch at our favorite Cantonese place and as he finished eating, the reality of going farther away from his foster family set in. He just sat in that booth and tears began to quietly run down his face. We paid and got out of there and headed back to the room. There he began to cry and the knowledge of what this little guy was going through was very emotional for Grace and I too. We all 3 sat there and cried and I do believe he found comfort and then humor in the fact that we were crying with him. We let him make his phone calls to his foster family and finished packing. At 2, our guide picked us up to go get our last bit of paperwork and then they took us to the airport. In the van, Sam curled up in the seat and fell asleep...very uncharacteristic of our little guy. We woke him at the airport and he was excited to wheel his own little bag. We got checked in, got our tickets and found our gate. At this point, we were a couple of hours early...then...you guessed it, our flight was delayed. He handled it pretty well. He had his first Subway sandwich (I think). We tried to keep him entertained secretly hoping that the emotion of it all wouldn't cause him to melt down. We were finally able to board and he was very excited. We had 3 seats all together and Grace got in first. He quickly motioned her to the middle seat asking if he could sit by the window. Of course she let him. He sat and watched intently out the window. Unfortunately it was already dark. Just after we got of the ground, we hit some turbulence or they pulled up hard...it gives you the funny feeling in you stomach...and he went "ohhh" and started giggling. He loved it! And of course they won his heart when they served dinner. No troubles what-so-ever with him flying which is a huge blessing with a 15.5 hr flight coming up. Anyway, it made for a late night as we didn't even get to the hotel until 11:30ish.