Gotcha Day

We got him today, and he is soooo adorable. He has a cold, but, other than that, he is doing great. He did not get upset when he came to us and has been doing just fine. I'm going to try to post some pictures.

We Made It to Nanning

We flew out of Beijing at about 11:15 a.m. today and arrived in Nanning at around 2:30 p.m. Our guide and driver picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel. We're staying at the Nanning Wharton International Hotel. It's very nice. We checked into our room, unpacked, had dinner in a restaurant downstairs, and are back in for the night.

Our guide is taking us shopping at Wal-Mart at about 10:00 in the morning and then to the Civil Affairs Office to pick up baby Hugh at 3:00 p.m. I'm soooo excited to finally be getting him. I've already packed his diaper bag and picked him out an outfit to wear tomorrow. : )

One day this week, we'll travel to Liuzhou City, where he is from, and visit the orphanage and the place where he was found. I'm really looking forward to that.

Say a prayer for me that his transition will be as smooth as possible. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow night.

We Toured the Temple of Heaven Today

I've added the Temple of Heaven photos to the slideshow of our Beijing trip. Hit the play button to start the slideshow. We also toured the silk factory and went shopping in the antique market today. I bought several beautiful paintings there.

Today is little Rachel's 3rd birthday. Happy birthday dear Rachel. We'll all have a huge birthday celebration for you when we get home.

Tomorrow, we fly to Nanning for the adoption part of the trip. We should get baby Hugh the following day. Yeah!!

We Climbed the Great Wall of China Today

Today, we climbed the Great Wall of China at Badaling. It was amazing. We then toured a Cloissonne factory and shopped there. We also visited the Beijing Olympic Stadium and then had dinner with the family of a good friend, who arranged the Beijing tour for us. They were so nice, the food was wonderful, and we really enjoyed our visit with them.

We Toured the Forbidden City Today

Today, we did lots of site seeing. We had a big delicious buffet breakfast in the hotel. Heath called me here at the hotel, and I was able to talk to Emily and Rachel. They were doing fine. Vivian also got to talk to her hubby and children this morning.


At about 9:00 a.m., our tour guide and driver picked us up and we drove to the Forbidden City. We did a tour there. It was really fun and interesting but a little cold. It was probably in the 30s or 40s and windy.


We had lunch at a local family's house, which was fun. They prepared a feast for us and were very sweet. Three generations lived there together. They were outgoing and seemed very happy. They didn't speak any English so our guide translated for us.


After lunch, we took a rickashaw ride through Hutong -- an old neighborhood that has been preserved to keep its old look and feel (instead of being demolished so that skyscrapers could be built there). That was fun, but, again, it was pretty cold. We then went to a local shop for a pot of hot tea, which warmed us all up.


We then toured a local kindergarten. We took candy for all of the children, and, of course, it was a big hit. The children were all so cute. They sang several songs for us. They reminded me so much of my children. The kindergarten was nice.


We then went shopping at the Pearl Market, which is a big shopping area where they have very nice pearls as well as all kinds of souvenirs. You'd think that I would have loved that, but all of the sales people were so pushy that it actually gave me a terrible migraine. I bought a small gift for each of my children, but that was it. We left there early so that I could take my medicine and go back to the hotel for a nap. After about an hour's nap, I woke up feeling better.


We had dinner at a wonderful Chinese dinner show where there was ethnic singing and dancing. It was just lovely, and we enjoyed it very much. I'll post more tomorrow.

We Made It to Beijing!

We made it to Beijing and are now in our hotel room for the evening. It's 8:00 p.m. here. The flight was smooth. It took us about 14 hours to fly directly from Chicago to Beijing, and our tour guide and driver met us at the airport and drove us to the hotel. We're staying at the Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven in Beijing in an Executive Suite, which is on the 16th floor (the top floor of the hotel), and has a bedroom, a sitting room, and two bathrooms. It comes with lots of perks, too, like free soft drinks -- including Coke Light, which is what they call Diet Coke here in China, free snacks, free laundry service, etc. It's quite nice. I'm really tired and the bed looks very comfortable. I'll post more tomorrow.

We Made it to Chicago

We made it to Chicago safely and are now in the hotel for the evening. We're staying at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, which is very close to the airport, so that we don't have to hurry to make our flight out tomorrow. The traffic was not bad at all, we had no trouble finding our way to the hotel, and the hotel is very nice. We had lunch at O'Charleys in Marion and dinner at a restaurant in the hotel. Our trip is off to a very good start. I'll post more when I can.