Double Happiness

We're here

Hi, this is Andrew reporting live from Beijing. We arrived last night after a 12-hour SFO-Beijing flight. After about nine hours, we were heavily ready to be there and the remaining minutes dragged, but the flight was uneventful and pretty pleasant. For unknown reasons, we got promoted to United Premium Economy, which meant we could sit in the seats without kneecap surgery -- much appreciated. We made it to the hotel by about 7:30 pm local time, and were immediately whisked off to a restaurant before we could check in. Apparently restaurants close early and are unforgiving. We drove through Tianenmen Square, which is very impressive: the heart of the city, capable of holding a million people. At night, it's still busy with tourists, and all the ancient buildings and limned with white lights -- very nice. We'll be going back during the day, so will have more to say.

Restaurant was good, and was more or less what I'd expect of an semi-authentic US chinese restaurant. They served Beijing-style food, including great eggplant and home-made tofu, with a few more daring items: pigs ears in particular, and various entrees with their heads attached.

We met some old friends from group 106, and a set of new friends, including two northern CA families who were on the plane over with us. Our group in Beijing will apparently number 23, plus our tour guide Robert and our driver. I wasn't totally clear on the itinerary, but there seems to be a pretty strong sense of "leave it with us -- everything will be fine." I'll miss Wednesday and Friday to visit some places in the city, but I'm sure Donna will provide complete reporting.

So far, the hotel is beautiful, and city is industrial and a little smoggy, and the people have been helpful and friendly. We managed a great hotel buffet breakfast this morning, so come what may, we're not likely to starve. After a good nights sleep, we're feeling much more alive than last night, and ready for adventure.

Leaving in the morning!

Leaving in the morning! Originally uploaded by Donna & Andrew.

After nearly 11 months of waiting, we're on our way to China in the morning! We managed to get the weight of the larger bags under 44 pounds (as required by China Southern Airlines). We'll arrive in Beijing Monday evening and we have some fun tours on the agenda: Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Haven, Acrobatics show at night, Summer Palace and Hu Dong Tour. We'll leave Beijing for Guangzhou next Saturday and we'll get our baby on Monday September 5th!

Bookmark our blog and follow our journey! We'll post updates (including pictures) daily!

Our China Trip

I bought our plane tickets today! We're leaving for China on August 29th! We'll spend four or five days in Beijing with a half dozen other adoptive couples before meeting the rest of our group in Guangzhou on September 2nd. Then we'll meet our sweet little baby girl on September 5!

We all arrive back home on September 17th.

Don't forget to check this blog often while we're in China for updates and pictures of the most exciting part of this journey!

I guess it's time to dust off the suitcases and start packing!

Our hug delivered to Gwen!

We've been in touch with Ewa from SWIC, a woman's group in China that frequently visits Gwen's orphanage. She offered to specifically look for Gwen and give her hugs and kisses from us and report back to us via email with little updates on how Gwen's doing.

I was so thrilled to get this email from her today!

UPDATE 8/24/05: Another week has passed and Ewa visited Gwen again. Here's her newest report:

"Hello Donna!

I only want to tell you that your girl is running now. She is so proud that she can walk and she have no time to walk she want to run instead....... Not always good...... She always to me and want to sit in my knee when I am visit them.... She like the big ball just now and run after them. She is wonderful.... you going to see...only one and a half week left.... I hope we can see each other when you are here! Maybe you can come for a visit when you got your kids and waiting for passport.

Her hair is around 1.5 cm. Not so long but she look so nice with the big eyes so you don´t think about it. Last friday she cry when I had to go home and I feel so bad to leave her. But I told her that she soon going to have a mum and dad who never going to leave her. She are so happy and you are going to be so happy to see her! When you see her coming nearly run and you just wait to see her falling but she manage it then you see her smile you feel so happy. She is wonderful.

Regards Ewa"

Music to Baby's ears...

Uh oh! Something else for the diaper bag!

We just bought something really cool today and I'm so impressed with it that I had to share!

It's a Philips PSS clock/radio and mp3 player with built in 256 MB memory. You can upload music to it from your computer (the way you would to an iPod, etc). The sound is amazing! Honestly, you'll be shocked to hear how good it sounds!

We bought this for the nursery so we could have music for Gwen. We put all of her music on it and set up different play-lists to separate the energetic stuff from the "sleepytime" stuff. It's got a sleep timer so it will automatically shut off. It also has a rechargable battery like your cordless phone and will play for up to 8 hours before it needs a recharge.

The entire thing is about the size of a banana! It costs about $130. We're taking it to China for sure! Usually, things aren't as good as they seem but this is better than I could have ever expected!