Travel Journals - May 20, 2005

Today was sort of a half day. We had to start packing in the afternoon, so the morning tour had to be short. Our rep took us to the large park in the area. The word "large" could not fully describe this park. It had everything! Coy ponds, shrub sculptures and amusement park rides. It was beautiful. Absolutely breath-taking. There were even some older folks gathered to play music in the gazebo. There were many bicyclists and motorcyclists buzzing around the park as well. Our group seemed to be the celebrities in the park as everyone wanted to stop and stare (at US and the babies)! We did the room service thing again for lunch. I know, no guts. Mary was getting ready to take her nap so we didn't want to risk going to a restaurant and having her crabby! We ordered some fried rice for her and I to share. She was a pig!

I am glad to see that more and more of her personality comes out each day. The orphanage report said that she was calm and quiet. I think they were looking at the wrong baby when they wrote that. Mary is anything BUT calm and quiet! She is full of energy, loves to be the center of attention and is inquisitive about everything! She can't help touching everything. I am surprised though that very little goes in her mouth. She won't even put snack items in her mouth. The orphanage workers warned us of that. I imagine that will change as her environment changes. I am curious to see how she is around her new big brothers.

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to figure out how to get all of this STUFF into the suitcases! (the suitcases by the way are getting HAMMERED on this trip. I hope mom and dad did not pay too much for them for me at Christmas, because I am not sure they are destined for more travels) We got rid of a bunch of items that Mary either didn't fit, didn't like or would not use. The lists of travel needs I have been studying over the past many months were a little exaggerated. There are so many things I brought that will NOT be coming home with us (and not going to Guangzhou)! Rob got rid of a few "thrift store" pants he would not be wearing (too hot) and we threw a bunch of things away. There were a few items that we purchased in Changsha that needed to fit too. We bought Mary her jade necklace (going in the carry on thank you), an embroidered fan and stuffed animal, a collector stamp book (weighs a ton) and several other little things. They were gonna add weight, that was for sure.

We met up in the elevator lobby to receive all of Mary's paperwork from the
Registration and Notary office. We got her passport! We got her adoption paperwork! We are ready to go! Daphne also made this a special occasion by presenting us with more gifts. She gave us a map of Hunan and circled Zhijiang for us, and she gave us a priceless memento for Mary, a bit of soil from her home town. She had pre-arranged with Mary's orphanage to bring with them (when they delivered the babies) a small bit of soil for each girl. It is an old Chinese tradition to give a family member a small bit of soil if they are to be traveling far from home. This will help to remind them of home if they get homesick. Daphne put the soil in little silk pouches for the girls and made most (if not all) the parents cry. Such an amazing gift can never be properly repaid.

Tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou! Here are some pictures from today.

Mary & Mama on the bus


Martyrs Park sculptures


The monument at Martyrs Park


The happy new Mama and Baba posing with their new daughter


Ready for Guangzhou!

Travel Journals - May 19, 2005

Today started out with the normal breakfast buffet at the hotel. Mary ate quite well this morning considering the only thing she has wanted lately is her bottle. They had her spicy fried rice this morning and rice congee (like cream of wheat). She ate her fill! The food so far has been excellent, everywhere we have eaten. So much flavor that its gonna be hard to go back to the way we normally eat in the states. I am thinking some Chinese cooking lessons are in order. (Getting good with chopsticks too!)

There were two tours planned today. I opted to send Rob to the morning one so I could stay behind with Mary. She has been missing her morning naps and has been getting very crabby because of it. (Her schedule is REALLY messed up) Plus it gave me a chance to work on the travel journals. The outing this morning was to visit a local kindergarten. Rob took over a hundred pictures and video taped the whole thing so I could see it. The children sang for the Americans and then, the Americans had to sing for them! Rob said they taught them Old MacDonald and Itsy Bitsy Spider. I am glad that I stayed back though. Mary only took a 45 minute nap and was REALLY CRABBY! We tried to "walk off" her bad mood in the stroller...wasn't happening. So I let her cry herself back to sleep. THEN we got a good nap out of her. She woke up in a slightly better mood. She has attached herself to me and wants me to hold her all the time. If I am holding her and she has my undivided attention, she is happy and laughing and being silly. If not, its 50% / 50% what kind of mood she will be in. We think she becomes momentarily possessed. :-) Rob is feeling left out and my arms are soooo sore from carrying her!

We had room service for lunch. We were feeling lazy, plus we didn't have much time
before the afternoon tour. Rob ordered a "Hamburger without the fried egg on top" (every sandwich of that type has a fried egg on top...we cannot figure out why). We were able to get some fried rice for Mary and I was dying for some fresh fruit. Rob had to tell the poor Chinese guy on the phone "FRUIT" probably a dozen times. He eventually had to spell it. When lunch arrived, the waiter took the lids off the food, we signed the ticket and he went on his merry way. I turned to look at the food and about fell over laughing. Rob got EXACTLY what he ordered. A HAM-burger! A nice (he said tasty too) burger with all the fixings and a piece of HAM on the top! They took him LITERALLY! Oh it was so funny. It took Rob a minute to figure out what I was laughing at. I told him he needs to be very careful how he words things from now on.

The afternoon tour was to the Embroidery Institute/Factory. Rob tried to dog out of it, but I made him go (and bring the charge card)! It was rather neat. Hunan is known for their embroidery and now we see why. It was amazing. The embroideries that were displayed in their museum were breathtaking. It was hard to believe all of these items were HAND stitched. Then they led us into one of the working rooms to watch the women stitch. I have no idea how they are able to do that. It was astonishing the things they could do with silk thread! One woman showed her work-in-progress to the group. It was a tiger head about 12 inches in diameter. It was double sided, so the same image appeared on both sides of the fabric. The needle was so small, you could hardly see it! She had been working on this embroidery for SIX MONTHS and still was not done. Whew. What patience. Then they led us to the showroom of course. Absolutely beautiful stuff. Some with beautiful price tags too. We didn't buy anything large. We bought Mary a stuffed tiger with an embroidered face and an embroidered fan with a bird on it. Just a little something from her home province. Trust me, we could have spent a fortune in there. And to think, I was still feeling guilty about spending $250 at the jade factory!

Then it was a quiet evening. Daphne had us pre-order dinner, which she delivered to our room for us. It was some WELL needed western food. Pizza Hut!!!! Don't get me wrong, the food here has been amazing, but that pizza tasted awesome! We were only brave enough to order the Cheese Lovers as the other "options" on the menu all included some weird stuff (like tuna and chicken WITH pineapple...pass on those ones!!).

Here are some pictures from today.

Mary playing on the bed (she is an early riser!)


The kids and our travel group at the school


An embroidery that took FOUR years to complete


Mary didn't like the stroller too much!

Travel Journals - May 18, 2005

Mary woke up feeling much better this morning. She was back to her old self at
the breakfast table, laughing and throwing food at Daddy and playing the
"throw toy on floor and watch them pick it up" game. I forgot what it was like
having a baby!!

We left for a shopping trip at 9:30am. We were going to a place called the Apollo. It was a HUGE, fancy mall. Daphne automatically took us to the floor with all of the baby stuff. (Imagine that) I must say, what an experience! First off, there was NO AIR CONDITIONING! A big fancy mall and there was no AC. Eek. It was sweltering in there. No air movement whatsoever. Now, shopping in China is WAY different than it is in the states. There are different "sections" of the store, each separating a certain manufacturer. You pick out what you like (the staff was very helpful, but spoke NO English...we used a "cheat sheet" that Daphne gave us), then they give you a ticket (not the merchandise). You then go up to the central pay desk and pay for whatever you wanted. Then you go back to that section, show them the receipt, THEN they give you the merchandise. So if you pass by something you want, you have to go through the steps all over again. Not fun if you are buying from SEVERAL different departments and manufacturers. Absolutely crazy.

Oh...and we got yelled at! An older lady came up to me and was talking very loud in Chinese at me. Then she would tug on Mary pants and pat her bare skin. Then she did the same for her arms which were showing skin too! I felt like saying "Lady...its 100 degrees in here!!" but couldn't. I just smiled and pulled her pant legs and her sleeves down. We got KFC to go before leaving the store. We did get Mary a few outfits because all of the one piece outfits don't fit her. She's too long!

We went back to the hotel and laid Mary down for a nap. Dad went over to the post office to see if he could get come collector stamps for Mary and Mom was really hoping for a short nap. Ha! Mary had plans otherwise. She didn't sleep for very long. So we decided to go down to the pool. Mary wasn't too sure of the pool. It was a big cold bath tub and it took a while to get use to the water. She splashed a little.

In the afternoon, we took the hotel bus over to the river. We walked around the
gardens on the riverbank. It was raining a little so the hotel sent us all with
umbrellas. There were many people out (in the rain, mind you) flying kites. The kites were amazing! There were HUGE lizard and dragon kits and rainbow colored kites. It was so neat to see. Daphne says on a good day, there are hundreds of people out there flying kites.

For dinner, we went out as a group to another Dim Sum restaurant across the street. Our rep pre-ordered several dishes for us which made things easier. I have no idea what some of the dishes were, but we tried them. The radish balls were the best! There were huge tanks with LIVE fish and such in them that you could "pick out" for your dinner. They had HUGE fish, rays, shrimp and many other things. They also played live music although I have never seen some of the instruments they were playing. It was very nice. I was really hoping to update the website last night, but again, Mary had plans otherwise.

Here are some pics from today.

The popular mode of transportation in Changsha


Playing with Mama at the play area the hotel set up for the families


At the Xiang River

Travel Journals - May 17, 2005

May 17th-Adoption Day!
This morning we started off by going to the buffet breakfast at the hotel. They
actually serve a really good breakfast. Mary was pretty good at the table, a little
loud though. She likes to be the center of attention. She had some rice, which we are finding to be her favorite. After breakfast, we prepared our first diaper bag. The hotel would not let us take the sink, but I think we pretty much took everything else. Today is the day that we make Mary officially ours. We had to go back over to the Civil Affairs office and finalize the adoption. Lucky for us, they had power today. No air conditioning though. When we first got there, we were the only group. Then more and more and MORE groups started showing up and having to wait in the same HOT waiting room. Nice. Hot mommies and daddies and hot and cranky babies. It made for a pleasant sound.

We began with the interview with the Registration Officer. The first question she
asked was the important one. "Are you happy with this baby?" Duh. Like we really had to think about that one. Even if there were some doubts in our minds, I could not imagine saying "No". We had to put our thumb print in red ink over top of our signature to make things official and Mary had to put her footprint on the certificate. Then we had to go back to the hot, screaming baby waiting room. Fun. Them we went to get our "family" picture taken for the adoption certificate. Quick and painless.

Then we had to go back to....you guessed it...the hot, screaming baby waiting room. It was all standing room only now. At least they opened up the windows so we all could get some air. Everyone was amused watching the school kids across the alley wave and yell "Whats you name??" at all the people in the window of the waiting room. They came to get one parent from each family to go see the Notary. This was the time we got to take all that money (orphanage fee, etc). It was actually a relief to not have to carry that around anymore.

Then we were done! Mary was ours! Forever! What a neat feeling. We headed back to the hotel to feed Mary and put her down for a nap. She was cranky, but then again, so were we. She only slept for about an hour and woke up crying. This was really the first time she really belted out a cry. There was a reason. When we picked her up, she was hot. I mean really hot. We took her temperature...almost 103 degrees! Freak out time! We gave her some motrin and tried to cool her off with a bath. No dice. That made her scream worse.

We called our rep, Daphne to tell her Mary was sick and running a fever. It took
her less than a minute to get to our room. The doctor was due in shortly, so our room would be her first stop. Mary's throat had gotten worse so it was time to break out the antibiotics. The doctor also gave us some medicine to fight against a virus too. Between the two meds, it should knock things out.

We met for a group dinner at 5:30 pm after an afternoon of rocking Mary back and forth and walking the length of the hotel room. We weren't sure if dinner was going to last very long with her feeling bad, but were willing to try. I'm glad we did. Dinner was great! Best meal yet. We DID have to take turns rocking her and walking around the restaurant, but dinner tasted so good that we didn't want to leave. Then our rep breaks out the cake. She had a birthday cake for all the girls that had just turned or were about to turn one (Mary included). She also had a second cake to celebrate Forever Day (adoption day). This was the day all the girls had Forever Families and it was something worth celebrating. They had the neatest candles on the cake I had ever seen. Daphne called them magic candles. When you like them, they shoot up flames like a firework, then the big flame goes down, and the whole candle opens up into a flower with candles on the petals. It was COOL! The cake tasted awesome. Some type of sponge cake with whip cream and fruit. Then Daphne gave all the girls birthday presents. She gave them a Chinese Wall Hanging (for good luck) and a copy of the Hunan Times for that day (in Chinese of course). It was very special to us and to all the families.

When we got back to the hotel, I tried to get online and update the website, but
Miss Mary had plans otherwise. She really likes to be rocked to sleep and really
loves her Mama. Rob is trying to not let it bother him that Mary merely "tolerates" him. He's doing pretty well. He has not had the guts to try a diaper yet, but he is getting good at making her bottles and packing the diaper bag.

Here are a couple pictures from today.

Waiting at the civil affairs office


The interview with the Notary


The cakes for the birthday/gotcha day party


Poor little sick Mary

Travel Journals - May 16, 2005

May 16th-GOTCHA DAY!!!
Today started early. Around 3am. I couldn't sleep. After getting in at midnight, we were both hopeful to be able to sleep from pure exhaustion. No dice. We received our 6am wake up call, but we were already wide awake and playing on the Internet. We went down to breakfast at 6:30am.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel is pretty good, but there are definitely some
things on the buffet that you don't see everyday in the states. Fried noodles (my favorite dish so far), dim sum, steamed eggs (apparently a favorite for the babies...looks nasty!), steamed veggies, fried rice and other unusual things...for BREAKFAST Wow. They had eggs and hash browns and bacon and sausage too though, so Rob was okay to eat (although he is NOT complaining about the food so far, he says its pretty good)!

We met at 7:30 to fill out paperwork for the adoption. Daphne had to walk us
through it because every single parent in that room had Baby-Brain. Plus, the documents were not in English (minor detail). Then it was time to leave to go get our baby!

We again piled on a bus and headed for the Civil Affairs office. We were warned ahead of time that the power was out to the building so it was going to be HOT and stuffy and they were going to make this trip short and sweet. I refer to it as the "Grab and Dash". It truly was. As we were walking into the building, a group of babies were walking in (with their nannies of course). Everyone FREAKED trying to decide if these were "our" babies. Our rep finally had to tell us these were NOT ours and to hurry inside. Whew. What a roller coaster. We rushed upstairs of this hot & stuffy building along side of nannies and babies (not ours) which was very
overwhelming.

They immediately rushed us into a conference room and started calling names to "line up" in the order we would all receive our children. We were about seventh. All the sudden the flurry started. The nannies started showing up with the babies, one coming into the room at a time. Things all went so fast. Before we knew it, we were next! Once we realized we were next up, we looked up and saw her. There was our baby girl. Our names were called and we went through the formalities (showing identification, then comparing identification of the baby they were about to hand us). Then it happened. The nanny stepped up and handed us the most beautiful angel
we had ever seen.

Time stopped there for a minute. All of the noise and commotion disappeared. This was the moment we had waited for. Mary was in our arms. Words can never describe the feelings we had at that very moment. It was so surreal. Then time started again. We were rushed to the other side of the room so the next family could be "created". We stood there with Mary. She was little. Smaller than we expected. She was beautiful. She was fascinated with us. More specifically with Rob's glasses and my tongue (she would stick out her tongue, so I would stick out mine...so she could touch it). Then we got back on the bus and went back to the hotel. Mary fell asleep on the bus and we did not have the heart to wake her up. There were several babies screaming, but it didn't seem to bother Miss Mary.

We let her sleep back in the room for about an hour and a half. Then, as she opened her eyes to see a strange room with strange people, PANIC ATTACK! Luckily it only lasted for about ten minutes. We gave her a bottle and she was fine. We set her on the floor to play with her toys and she was fine. We even got some smiles out of her! And it was just like that, we were a family. We spent the rest of the day in the room, getting to know each other. Rob did go with a group to the local store for some formula and junk food (for me, not the baby).

The pediatrician came by later with Daphne to check on all the babies. Mary
had a little bit of sniffles, but nothing major. The doctor did notice Mary's
throat was red, as were all the babies from Zhijiang. We were to watch her and the doc would be back the next day to check on her. Then the orphanage director and some of the nannies came by the room. They brought us her camera back and the photo book! Then we signed some papers that relinquished custody from the director and gave it to us. The director played with Mary. She recognized him right away. I don't think Mary's nanny was there because she did not respond too much to any of
them. Just the director.

We managed to get her to go to bed about 8:30pm. I first laid her down and she started to cry. Then I remember reading in an update we received last night that she likes to be rocked to sleep. Okay! I can do that! Under two minutes, she was OUT!

Below are a couple of pictures from today's surreal events.

Waiting to leave for the civil affairs office


Waiting for the moment of truth!


Gotcha!


Mary sleeping back at the hotel


Playing with her new Mama


Precious Mary

Travel Journals - May 15, 2005

May 15th-Last day in Hong Kong
Not much to do today. We had to check out of our hotel room by noon, so
they set us up a "day use" room until it was time to go to the airport. We
didn't have to leave until 4pm, so that was going to be a long day. The day
use room ended up being OUR room, so that worked out rather well.

I finally talked Rob into taking me over to the pearl market which was about
two blocks from the hotel. This "market" was just a jewelry store, so no
excitement there. Holy s***! Those prices were OUTRAGEOUS! Granted, everything was beautiful, but very very pricey. I spotted (okay and tried on) this beautiful black pearl earring and necklace set. It was almost $1500! Owie. Not for me. I would be afraid to wear them!!!

It was very hot and humid so we didn't want to wander too far from the wonderful air conditioning at the hotel. We got to talk to the boys via instant message this morning so I felt a little better.

It came time to leave for the airport. I must say, our rep was just plain awesome. He handled every detail. We loaded our luggage and ourselves on to the bus and off to the airport we went. He helped us get checked in and told us which gate to find. (He even got us around that 44lb weight limit thing! COOL) Originally our flight was supposed to take off at 6:35 pm, but it had been moved to 7:15pm. So we waited at the gate. It was so funny to watch all of these "expectant" parents wait for a LATE plane. We were all antsy. Luckily, we found a Starbucks at the airport. That HELPED! Until they pushed the departure off again. To 7:30. Then again...to 8:00. We all were about to explode. Finally the time came to leave . I must say I have never before gotten on a plane via a bus ride to the tarmac. We climbed these funky steps and FINALLY we were on our way to Changsha! Let me tell you, this was not a pleasant flight. It was only an hour and ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Small plane. Small seats. And a smelly French man sitting next to us. Then they served us to poorest excuse for airport food ever! Oh well. We got off with only but a little nausea.

Customs and immigration was a little intimidating, but it was no problem. Everyone just smiled. Our rep (Daphne) in Changsha met us outside of customs with her sister. The airport in Changsha was much smaller, but not bad. There was a nice scuffle that broke out just before we left between some men and an older woman getting off the plane and some men at the gate. We thought for sure fists were going to fly. Very loud, heated argument. Whats worse is that I think they were all FAMILY!! Just another plain old family feud.

On the bus, Daphne gave us all a wet towel to clean up with (what a thoughtful thing), bottled water and OREOS! Definately what these cranky Americans needed! We got checked into our hotel about 10:30pm and got to bed about midnight. what a day. And tomorrow is the big day! Like we were going to sleep anyways!

Below are a couple pictures from today's endevours.

Travel Journals - May 14, 2005

May 14th-Hong Kong
We managed to get a little sleep last night. Still feels like not enough. The
jetlag thing is catching us pretty good. Today we were taken on an amazing
tour of Hong Kong. Our guide took us across the harbour to Hong Kong island and all the way up to the top of the moutain. The peak is called Victoria Peak. It was a very winding bus ride through very scary traffic. I could not believe those drivers don't hit each other more often. That bus got so close to other vehicles (especially other buses) that he litterally had to inch past it to make sure no one "scraped" each other. And those roads are so narrow! I know we are fat, lazy Americans, but apparently we have FAT streets in the US too!

When we got to the peak, the view was astonishing. A little hazy because of
the overcast, we were still able to see the entire city and the harbour. We
were surprised, here are MANY large cargo ships that frequent the harbour
as well as a large floating Casino.

Then we headed back down the mountain to Stanley Market for some shopping. Let me tell you, I don't normally like shopping but O-M-G! What a neat place. We only spent about twenty bucks, but we got a set of wooden dolls, post cards, 3 t-shirts, a scarf and we found Mary a rattle-drum! I was LOVING it! We were supposed to bargain with the shopkeepers, but we didn't. Everything was so cheap that we felt guilty. Isn't that bad? We promise to practice our bargaining skills in Changsha.
Then our guide took us to the Aberdeen fishing village. That was an experience. We paid $100 Hong Kong dollars (about $13 US) for this smelly boat ride through the fishing harbour. I took over forty pictures! What an interesting way of life. Our guide said there are still about 14,000 fisherman in Hong Kong. Those fisherman live on these itty bitty fishing boats all the time. Made us feel real good about how we have it.

Next, we were taken to the Aberdeen Jade Factory. We knew before we went
in there to think dollar signs, and WHOA! It was neat to see how they make a
lot of the jewelry (not just jade). Then they led us into the showroom (how
convenient). Okay...we will admit it. We DID buy Mary her traditional piece
of jade (maybe for her 16th birthday). It is a georgeous pendant with an oval
piece of green jade, acented with three diamonds. Don't ask how much we paid. I was surpised Rob didn't cringe more, but jade WAS on our list of things to buy for Mary while in China. She is gonna have to be a lot older before she gets it!

Our last stop on the tour was at the Jade Garden restaraunt for a traditional
Dim Sum lunch. It was the greatest meal I think we ever had. They kept bringing more and more food out and setting it on the lazy susan in the middle of the table. It was delicious!

I am only going to post a few pictures from today as the picture files are
HUGE and are eating up the memory on my site. I would rather give
everyone our travel log more than pictures, but here are a few.

A fisher-dog (notice the man SHOWERING behind him? Oops!)


More of the fishing village


The market


The view from Victoria Peak


Us at the peak!

Travel Journals - May 11 - May 13, 2005

May 11th-Denver
I can't believe we are finally on our way to China. This is really happening! So
long in the planning, even longer in the dreaming. Rob's anxiety level is high enough at the moment to cover our entire travel group. He was singled out at
the security check station and rec'd a "hand-check" from Mr Friendly Security
Guard whildest FREAKING out because his backpack was more than 5' from him. A little harmless nausea when we got to the concourse, and he is back to normal..sorta (see pic below with his JUNK FOOD). OMG! We have not even left Denver yet. I am in BIG trouble.



May 11th-San Francisco
We FINALLY made it to California. I say finally because our plane was late
coming into DIA, late getting back out of DIA and ran into a whole run of
problems once we landed in CA. We had to WAIT for someone to "park" the
plane. We had to WAIT & WAIT & WAIT for someone to come open the dog-gone door! Sigh. At least we made it. Rob got hung up AGAIN at the security station and had to be hand-checked. The man honestly didn't even think to take off his BELT! Brilliant. Now there are several hours of pacing and harmless nausea before our flight to Hong Kong leaves (at 1:20 am).

May 13th-HONG KONG AT LAST!
Yes, you will notice that May 12th for us just disappeared. Between the time change and the evil flight, its gone. The flight was brutal. I will kid you not. The seats are uncomfortable and close together. But the staff were simply the best. Those flight attendants were the best I have ever seen. They were all so nice and polite and helpful...and BEAUTIFUL (they were all Chinese). The food was quite good, although I was not able to eat much. The old tummy was riding a roller coaster during the flight. I was able to get very little sleep, so I am now a walking Zombie. Rob was able to sleep more, although the man fidgeted every five seconds (not kidding). Made it real hard for me to try and lay my head on his shoulder. Sigh.

I am happy to say we are back on the ground now in a most amzing country. I have never seen any place like it. The flight was hard, but so far it was worth it (and we have not even gotten the baby yet). Our travel group is awesome. Some first time parents, some parents like us (older kids and starting over) and one couple who has been-there-done-that. Its a great combination of personalities.

Our guide in Hong Kong is Mathew and I must say, his "Chinglish" is a little hard to get use to understanding. He's great thought. Tomorrow he is taking us on a tour and out to a fabulous Dim Sum place for lunch. Can't wait.

The hotel is amazing. We sort of feel out of our element. Very ritzy and posh. We feel like rich folks here! Rob has gone around the entire room and touched EVERYTHING at least twice. (Ha...and we don't even have the toddler yet..double sigh). We are having a lazy day today because we are simply exhausted. I had
a nice bubble bath which made me feel SOOO much better. We might venture out to dinner either to the Steak House down the street or to one of the three restarants in the hotel (they are supposed to be GREAT, but with a great price tag too). Oh well. We will only be in China once.

We'll update more tomorrow after the tour. Not too many pictures today, but here's a couple...



On the bus from the airport to the hotel


The view from the hotel lobby


The hotel room


The harbour

May 2005 - Pre Travel

Its hard to believe we are honestly leaving for China. I'm finding it hard to
breathe just thinking about it. We have gone over the packing slips a thousand
times. Everything that is in the suitcases now is ALL that we are taking. Not
that I could find any more room anyway!

This begins the next, exciting chapter in our lives. Not only are we going to see
our baby girl for the first time, but we are going to travel across the world and
see the most amazing sites.
We can hardly wait!

April 13, 2005

Today we received another update, this one with pictures!



She has grown so much! Isn't she beautiful???



She has 4 teeth and can stand up!