Saturday AM

Saturday Morning:

We had a good night’s sleep - went to bed around 9 and got up around 8:30. Last night we walked to Wangfujing Street to get something to eat, but were so overwhelmed by all the choices and the Chinese-ness of it all we ended up just buying a few things at a grocery store.

My biggest lesson of the night - don’t buy Snapple in China. I think I paid about $10 for a bottle. I did a really good job searching our the best deal on bottled water, but was so excited to see Snapple I just put it in the basket without a second look at what it cost. Oops.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel was delicious, especially considering our food intake since we left. At the airport before we left Chicago the only thing I had time to eat were Cinnamelts from McDonalds. The plane food was less than appetizing, of which I ate mashed potatoes (mine and Joe’s), pretzels, cookies, and a roll. As you can imagine, Joe had even less than me, though he did manage to get himself a roast beef sandwich in Chicago before we left. At breakfast this morning I was so excited to see fruit I nearly cried - canned apricots and mandarin oranges have never tasted so good (and the fresh apples, pineapple and watermelon were awesome). Ditto for the honey nut cheerios. We had our fill of pancakes, ham, hash browns, and various bakery items as well. It would have even been better is the two of us were more adventurous eaters - they had Chinese items too - but we stick with what we know, at least at this point in the trip. I am sure in 2 weeks we will have branched out a little.

Joe is off to make some photocopies needed for our adoption processing, and I am getting stuff up here organized so we can head out to the Olympic venues this afternoon. I’ll write more after we get back from there.

Holy Moly!

We are in Beijing! It is still quite surreal. The flight was fine - didn't even seem like it was 13 hours long........and we enjoyed our extra 5 inches of legroom in economy plus.

Here's Joe retrieving the lovely suitcase he swore he wouldn't touch.
View out the hotel window


Neither of us slept much on the plane, so we are heading off to get something to eat to keep ourselves awake long enough to make it until a normal bedtime Beijing time. It's 5am in Illinois and 6 pm here, so we've basically been up for 22 hours right now.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to the Olympic venues, but only after we sleep in late!

It is 12:40 AM....

and we will be lifting off in 12 hours. Joe is doing just what I predicted he would be at this time in the trip preparation - downloading more songs for his ipod. I'm just obsessing about what I have forgotten to pack or do...........

Almost to China

Jane is off to Illinois this afternoon and on to China with Joe tomorrow. Sam is here with Grandma and Papa and Uncle Carl and Aunt Alissa. What fun!

The Schedule

Here's the China trip schedule for those of you interested:

10/9: Leave Chicago around noon
10/10: Arrive Beijing around 3
10/11: Free day to explore Beijing on our own. Joe is hoping to somehow get to swim in the Water Cube, but I am guessing he's going to have to settle to drive by it in a taxi.
10/12: Tour of Great Wall and Hutong Lane
10/13: Agency orientation and tour of Tiananman Square and Temple of Heaven
10/14: Fly to Guangzhou and have Sadie join our family!
10/15: Registration at Civil Affairs Office
10/16: Apply for Chinese passport
10/17: Free day - lots of shopping, I am sure
10/18: Random Guangzhou fun arranged by our agency
10/19: Paperwork meeting (gee....doesn't that sound like fun? Like we haven't filled out enough forms already....)
10/20: Free day - more time to shop
10/21: Medical check
10/22: Visa appointment
10/23: Oath-taking ceremony
10/24: Fly home - arrive in Chicago around noon
10/25: Sam gets delivered back home and gets to meet his long-awaited sister!

I have to see all my friends!

We stopped in Muscatine to see our playgroup friends on our way to Cedar Falls today. Sam was very excited and exclaimed "I have to see all my friends!" This is the playgroup that befriended me and helped me through Sam's first couple years. I am the last one to join the "Two Kids Club" and they have been so supportive of us on this journey to Sadie. We miss them a lot and wish we could see them more often!

I suggested we try to take a picture of all the kids on the couch, not thinking we would be able to accomplish it. Wonders never cease - we got good pictures on the first try! Pretty good for 9 kids under the age of 4.

Getting close!

Sam and I are off to Cedar Falls tomorrow to drop him off. We'll make a brief stop in Muscatine to visit our playgroup friends - maybe you'll get to see pictures of that tomorrow if I am organized enough to remember to take the camera with me. Then I come back here Wednesday, do the final packing, and we fly out Thursday around noon.

Some of you have asked for specific things to pray for - here's a short list......
- Sam (and all the people caring for him over the course of 2 and a half weeks)
- Sadie and her transition from her foster family to us. She has been with a family for at least 4 or 5 months, if not longer, and is most likely quite attached to them. Pray for her (and the foster family's) grieving process.
- Safe and uneventful travel for us
- Joe's health, as his rhuematoid arthritis can get worse with stress. We also have to transport some of his medication that needs to stay refrigerated (or cool) and hope the logisitics of that work out like we think they will.

Thank you to all of you for your support and encouragement. We can't wait to have Sadie here with us!