Nana Arrives

Today my mom arrived from Chicago to visit us for a couple of weeks. This is such a blessing as Dustin leaves tomorrow for three weeks of business travel, and it will be so nice to have an extra pair of helping hands with the boys while he is gone. As it is a holiday we had to rent a van to go an pick up my mom--Tom is back at his home in a different province spending time with his wife and two kids. Before we left for the airport, we were suppose to meet our new landlord (this is our second attempt at meeting her), however, yet again she does not make it in time. We are really wondering where she is coming from, since a 9am meeting was too early for her, and we told her to be here before 10:30 and at 11 she is still no where to be found. We call the person coordinating the meeting and tell her we are sorry but we have to leave.

We leave early before my mom's flight, as we thought maybe the traffic would be bad (the new landlord said she was stuck in traffic). Yet, we find that there is surprisingly little traffic today--mostly due to the fact that many of them have left the city to go back to see their families for the holiday. We arrive at the airport an hour before my mom's flight, and we let the boys walk around for awhile. They announce my mom's flight, and we line up with everyone else to welcome Nana to Shanghai. Danny and Josh made signs, so they are holding those up for her to see. Unfortunately, there were about three or four other planes that ended up landing at the same time, so we ended up standing for awhile waiting. I was getting nervous that she was okay with the luggage and getting a cart, but Danny had befriended the family next to us and he was cheerfully chatting to them. The girl studied in Rhode Island, and she spoke really good English. Danny was telling her all about his signs, that Nana was coming and where we live and where we are from. Finally, we spotted Nana and Danny held up his signs and screamed out to her. She made her way around and we headed to the van.

As it was still a little early, we decided to take my mom down and see the river and look at the Bund (this is the section of Shanghai that foreigners were allowed to set up many years ago before China became shut off to the world. The architecture reminds you of Europe). We enjoyed walking around and then we headed home for dinner and to finish getting Dustin ready for his trip.