Will and Brian

Tomorrow (Friday) I leave for a week long business trip to northern
China. I will accompany Plaid staff to several factories that make a
variety of products for us. I'm looking forward to it, but I will miss
my boys SO much! Matt and Dean = Home. As long as we are together,
home-sickness doesn't kick in.

I found out about the trip 6 weeks ago, and I was nervous at first
about leaving them alone for an extended period of time. We haven't
really met anyone outside of the Plaid office yet, and we haven't
hired anyone to help take care of Dean. We're still not even sure how
to do this.

To prepare for the trip, I started almost immediately begging my
younger brother to come visit us. And it worked! He is coming to
rescue Matt.

Before we left Atlanta, Matt's friend Brian came over to help us pack.
He heard us talking to Will about how great it would be for him to
visit us early on and help out a bit with Dean, and he wanted to come
as well. The timing worked for them to travel together.

The guys are flying standby via buddy passes on Delta Airlines to get
here, which is good and bad. Good = cheap airfare. Bad = if the
plane is full, they will be left behind. Anyone who has ever flown
standby probably knows how your heart sinks when the airline closes
the doors without you and the plane pulls away. Sometimes you can get
stuck for hours or days just trying to get on a plane going anywhere
closer to your destination. Sometimes you get stranded. Sometimes you
say forget it and pay insane amounts of money for a last minute ticket
home or to your destination. Sometimes, if you haven't been able to
catch an outbound plane, you give up and just go home, canceling your
trip.

Dad Adgate emailed us last night to confirm that Will and Brian
boarded a plane to Portland, OR early Thursday morning. We hope from
there they can fly to Tokyo and catch up with the original flight they
planned to take to Hong Kong. This flight arrives around 11 pm
Thursday, China time. The flights look very full, so who knows what
will happen or when they will really arrive.

To Will and Brian, wherever in the world you are, don't give up. We
can't wait to see you guys!!!!!