Today's Post

Today was fun and interesting. We had another wonderful breakfast at the hotel. I don't know why but I had thought that I would not like the food that much but everything is so yummy! We headed off to the orientation which was so wonderful. There were two Holt staff there to give us tons of information about what to expect over the next two weeks. So many questions answered about culture and the adoption process. The Holt staff said that the Chinese are so pleased when the children go home to America because they know that they will have a wonderful life with endless opportunity. This made me feel better! We got to see a picture of our guide that we will spend the next week with also. Her name is Stephanie. Our guide here in Beijing is Emily. :) All of the Holt staff and travel guides are absolutely wonderful. I am so impressed with all of the behind the scenes work it takes to put all of this together. There are 6 families in our travel group and it is such a fun group. The best part of the meeting was that we got some updated information of our children and all of the families were so happy. We each got a beautiful folder with new pictures, information about our child, and other fun stuff. I was told that we might get some new pictures and info but I was not banking on it. Sure enough! Four new pictures of the little guy. He looks so big as you can see. He weighs about 28 pounds and eats by himself and uses the bathroom with help. It also said that he is nervous around new people in new environments. He is such a cutie. It was a fun moment for us.

Then, off to group lunch at the hotel. I snapped a pic this time. We all leave tomorrow for our children's province so we might not see each other again but hopefully we will in Guangzhou. All families adopting have to go through there. Next we boarded the bus for a tour of the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, and a silk factory. It was so cold! We tried to enjoy it but we were all just freezing. It is beautiful. Oh, and my first experience with a squattie pottie! I took a picture for Isaiah and Eva because they are so interested but I wont post it here. Its gross. The bathrooms are rated like hotels so this happened to be a 4 star bathroom. They had two western toilets so I held out for one of those. It looks like it takes a lot of skill to squat. One of the Holt staff caught me taking pictures in the bathroom and burst into laughter. Her name is Vivian and she is so sweet. She said to me "you look too young to adopt! Thank you for coming to save our babies." God knew I needed some comforting in that area today!

Tomorrow is a big day for travel as we will leave at 9am for the airport and travel to Hangzhou. It will be a long day. Hopefully when we get settled in I can make another post but I might not have any good pictures other than us in the airport. I'm sure that tomorrow night it will be hard to sleep. The night before the big day!