Saturday, March 27th, 2010 Forbidden City, Tiananmen

Buildings of Forbidden City

Emporers Throne, Forbidden City

Beautiful wall murals

Tiananmen Square and outer wall of Forbidden City

Processing silk worm cocoons to make strands of silk.

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 Beijing

Despite crashing after 2 am, we were up bright and early to meet our travel group at 9 am.    We were given an orientation on the events we were about to undergo, and some helpful tips and hints on coping along the way.  We have seven families in our group.   Surprisingly, only two of the children are girls, and only one child is under age one.  We met Steve and Liz who are also adopting from Datong.  We will be traveling with them to the province of Shanxi.    One family has their four year old little girl along, also adopted from China.   She is so lovely and well behaved!!   After a group lunch, we were off to see the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.    The Forbidden City was enormous and quite impressive architecturally.  However, some of the artifacts seemed poorly kept compared to in the US.   

View from our room,  Novotel Peace Hotel

the haze is apparently "normal"

The outer wall of the Forbidden City

Our H*lt travel group

Thursday, March 25, 2010 We are on our way

I have had what I can only term "adoption brain" as we get ready to go to China.   Tuesday I discovered half an hour before the car service arrived that I booked our tickets to NY for the ~wrong~ day.   Somehow I managed to reach a reasonable rep at So. West who rebooked us without any penalty for the flight I thought the kids and I were on, in less than twenty minutes.  (Thank you SW,  you wonderful airline!!)   Once I got to NY I realized I forgot to pack my cardigan and DH's coat (it still gets cold in Beijing and Shanxi province.)   Then on Wednesday afternoon I got a call from DH -  he came home at noon to take the dog to the vet only to find a message on the answering machine from the vet - we close at noon and where are you??   Off to another vets office for the night and thanks to our kindly neighbor for taking her to the correct vet the next day!!!    Nevertheless, we made it to JFK for our flight to Hong Kong with a connecting flight to Beijing.   Cathay has wonderful service in terms of programming and headphones,  blankets, pillows and great food.   But I have to say that hubby and I found the seats to be as hard as rocks and not the most comfortable (is this a test for the hard beds in China??)  We left NY at 3:30 on Thursday and we arrived at our hotel in Beijing on Friday night at 1 am China time.   We could smell the smog before we left the airport.    It was like driving past the site of a burnt out wildfire.

OVERpacked

We're home!!!

We arrived "home" to NY on Saturday and "home home" yesterday.   I was unable to post to the blog while we were in China but I plan on doing so if only for myself and Daniel's memory book :o)
Dan Dan is a love.   We found out he was called Lan Cheng (pronounced Lan Shen) by his foster family and this is the name the orphanage used.   So we alternate between that and Dan Dan since Dan and Lan sound similar.

He is so tiny!!!   He where's size 18 month pants (the 2T's fall off him.)   But he is as bright as a button and a smiley happy child.   He learned to sign "more" and say it, also knows the sign and phrase "all done" and says "uh" for up --  all while we were in China.    He loved meeting his sister and brother, and has been happy playing today while I try to get things done.  Unfortunately when I went to take the kids to school this morning the transmission on the minivan seemed to have gone.    I have learned to be flexible and go with the flow however, and I am determined not to let the challenges of daily life get to me.   So look for posts and pictures from China soon!!   We had a great time :O)

Count down to blast off!!

The suitcases are pretty much packed.  The paperwork organized and duplicated.  Passports and Visas - check.   $$ - check.    The house is in chaos, but it will wait for me to return.  It all still seems a bit surreal.

But I bet I will cry when that airplane takes off!!   Next Monday we will have Daniel in our arms!!

Happy Birthday, little boy!!

No, not Daniel :o).    Sunday my "D-bird" turned seven.   What a lovely child.   Always happy.  Friendly... as a matter of fact he gets in trouble in school because of his gabbing :o).  Always there with a hug and a kiss.   How did you get so big, so fast?   

Test posting

Well I've been running around doing last minute shopping, met with our
pediatrician for advice, laundry, and cleaning cleaning cleaning.
I am going to get the packing done tomorrow so I won't be stressing as
much before we leave. Nights in Datong are still in the 30's. But
Guangzhou is in the 60's at night!!! This is going to be a
challenge!!!

Joanne xxx