Tiananmen Square

Well it rained again today. Wouldn't you know it when you want to do some sight seeing. We visited the Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square today in the rain. We also had our orientation meeting and were able to see some more recent pictures of the baby.

We travel to South China and get the baby tomorrow so the next time we are posting we will have her.

Greetings from the Great Wall

First, we must apologize for the lack of postings and email. The internet connection has been spotty, it’s expensive when it’s working (they charge by the minute), and we haven’t been in the hotel much. We’ve been on quite the adventure – and this is all before we meet Sarah on Sunday.

Today we went to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Mutianyu section, a relatively new section that’s 600 years old. The oldest part of the wall dates back to Jesus’ time. It was cool and overcast, which was great for such a strenuous trek, but not so good for photography. We did catch some long shots as the fog rolled in and out between the hills.

Dad, this one’s for you – we geocached on the Great Wall! As it was overcast we couldn’t even use the GPS, but the clues were so specific we found it anyway. And we took the doll you bought in Paris for Sarah with us to the wall and got a photo J

After that we went to a cloisonné factory, got a tour and had lunch. Very interesting and complex process. Photos later on that.

We also took our whole group on rickshaw bicycles through the Hutong Lane section of Beijing. It’s about 100 years old, and the houses are built in quadrangles, with common courtyards. This section of town has lanes that are so narrow that rickshaw is the only way we could get through. We stopped at the home of a local family, and were served jasmine tea and cake by the matriarch of the family. She used to be an accountant, but is now retired, and invites tour groups to come in and learn about her, her family and this fascinating section of town. Photos and lots of videotape to come.

We’re finally back at the hotel after about 10 hours of touring – whew! We’re posting a few photos here (they take a long time to download), then have dinner, and then go out walking along the shopping promenade, which is probably quite busy tonight, since it’s Friday night. We’re going to the Beijing 2008 store – they are all over the place, they’re government-sanctioned stores that sell merchandise for the Olympics, which will be held here in summer 2008.

Tomorrow morning we have our adoption orientation! This is where we get all last-minute info and get to ask all remaining questions. We’re very excited!

Love to you all,
Diana & Rodger

In China

Well we are here. Made it to Beijing yesterday afternoon, and were pretty wiped out after the flight. So we got to the hotel and just kind of sacked out. Went to McDonalds for dinner right around the corner from the hotel. The internet was "broken" last night so I couldn't post anything, then when I came down this morning to check, the internet is back up but I brought the wrong cable with me to post pictures, I have the right cable in the camera bag up in the room, so I'll have to do that later.
Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall so we expect to get a lot of pictures there as well.

First Leg

Good evening from Atlanta.

Well we made it to Atlanta, this afternoon. Had a pretty good rainstorm coming in but the weather is nice now and we are looking forward to a short night of sleep tonight. We have to make the 4:30 AM shuttle to the airport in the morning to check in for our flight.

Well check back later

R

Packing Up

Well tomorrow is the day we leave. Diana is busy packing up the various things we'll need. Removing excess packaging and putting things into ziplock bags that take up less space. We will be driving to Atlanta tomorrow afternoon, spending the night there then getting up early for our morning flight. Our flight leaves Atlanta at 8:00AM Tuesday, and we arrive in Beijing at 1:45PM Wednesday(12:45 AM EDT Wed). Going through Newwark NJ and then over the North Pole to our destination. We are both overcome with a mixture of joy, gratitude for the all people who've helped make this possible, and a little bit of terror, wondering what we're getting ourselves into.

Travel time is getting closer

Well we are getting down to the wire now. We leave Atlanta on Tuesday morning Jun 26, and are flying thru Newark NJ and on to Beijing, arriving there on Wednesday afternoon. We are going on a Great wall tour with several of the other families traveling with us, on Friday morning. Then on Sunday July 1st we all fly down to the Jiangxi Province to get the children.

Travel Date

We got our travel date yesterday. We need to be in Beijing on June 29, so we have our work cut out for us over the next couple of weeks. What with making sure we have everything we need and then making sure we can actually pack and take with us everything we need. We have been in communication with several of the other families that will be traveling with us and it looks like several of them will be doing a Great Wall tour with us on the 29th. Our plan is to get there a couple of days early so we can do some sightseeing.