Bye from Beijing

Good morning / evening, All! Well ... we have a big day ahead of us. As mentioned in our previous post, we will have a somewhat leisurely morning and will meet our group at Noon to head out for some more sightseeing ... which we will wrap up this evening. Then we will be delivered with all of our stuff to the airport to catch a 3-hour flight to Kunming, departing at approx. 8:10 pm. That will put us getting in pretty late, and we imagine we will have an early morning the next day ... The Day! So, perhaps this is the calm before the storm(?) :) God has prepared us ... we are ready.

So, in all likelihood this will be our last post before Anna is placed in our arms (chills as I just typed that!). It 's hard to believe the time has arrived ... we woke up this morning feeling rested and talking about how, in just a matter of hours, we will be on a plane to our little girl. Amazing what God has done.

We'll leave with a few pics. from our hotel room here...note that glass wall you are seeing on the other side of the bed is the bathroom, not a lot of privacy going on there!

p.s. We are able to read to read your comments now and they are keeping us going - thank you all so much!!

An Amazing Day

Ni Hao (hello)! Today we woke up 5:30am, feeling pretty rested and ready to start the day. The breakfast buffet was wonderful - best.coffee.ever! We met our guide and the other family we are here with in the lobby at 8am and hit the road for The Great Wall. It was about an hour drive from our hotel. On the way we, stopped at a Jade Gallery and did a little shopping. The Great Wall was awesome! The sky was clear and blue and while the temps were cold, the winds weren't too bad. We hiked to the 4th tower, which according to our guide Michael, made us heroes! Afterwards, we drove to the Friendship restaurant for lunch. We had a couple hours downtime in our room before heading to dinner with our travel mates...that was a pretty funny experience! Greg and I took them to the restaurant that Michael took us to last night because we figured we could just order the same thing as last night ... well, we did, but we had a little trouble when it came to ordering the hot tea to drink, none of us knew how to say tea and nobody at the restaurant could figure out what we were saying. It took about 10 minutes and a lot of laughing between all of us, but we finally got it figured out! After dinner we loaded up and headed for the Flying Acrobat show...it was amazing!

We're headed to bed now. Tomorrow we checkout at noon and head to Tienanmen Square, The Forbidden City, and The Temple of Heaven. Our 3 hour flight to Kunming is at 8:10 tomorrow night and at that time we will find out what time Monday morning we get to meet Anna! We can't believe it's time - we can't wait!!!!

Here are some pictures of our day (click to enlarge):








Our guide, Michael

We're here!

We made and are in our hotel in Beijing! Our flight got out of Chicago a little late, so we landed in Beijing about 5:05pm. The flight was long, we slept maybe 4 hours on and off...glad to be here! Once we got through immigration and got our luggage, we were greeted by our Chinese guide "Michael". He was waiting for us with an AAI (our agency) sign along with another couple from AAI that landed a couple hours before us. It took about 45 minutes for our driver to get to our hotel, we got checked in and then went to dinner. Michael took to a restaurant next door and ordered up 5 dishes for Greg and I to share...needless to say, it was way more than we needed. It was all great and only cost $10.25.

 

We're back in our room now, it's 9pm and we're ready to crash. Tomorrow we will eat the breakfast buffet in the hotel and then meet Michael and the other couple in the lobby at 8am and head to the Great Wall. We'll do a bit more touring after that, then we get a break for a couple hours before going to see the acrabat show tomorrow night!

 

That's all for now.  Thanks for all of your comments, now that we're here and blogger is blocked, I need to try to find a way to read the comments! Love you all!! Pictures to follow...

Beijing Bound!

(not our plane)

We made it to Chicago safe and sound. It's still snowing here, but our flight is on-time to depart to Beijing at 12:43. Thanks for all of your comments and so, so much for your prayers!

For you "foodies" out there, as we were sitting here typing this, we looked behind us and saw Anthony Bourdain looking at the departure board and then took off in a run to make his flight. He looked just like the same day-old self that you see on TV.

Still have a couple hours before we board, I think we're going to get a bite to eat and will be ready to sleep once we get on the plane. Next update should be from our hotel in Beijing!!

So far, so good

Went to bed about 1ish this morning and the alarm went off at 2:15. Our flight is on time to Chicago...hope to board in about 15 minutes or so. Now we just have to pray that Chicago isn't too delayed. We'll have a 5 hour layover there.

Quote of the day (so far): As we were eating a breakfast sandwich at the airport this morning, Greg very matter-of-factly says, "You know, this is a pretty big deal." I just about choked on my sandwich and laughed for about 5 minutes straight!

Anna's Room

Thought we'd leave you with a few pictures of Anna's room. It's pretty much complete, just need to hang a few more things once we get home.

We're all packed and heading to bed for a few hours sleep. The car to take us to the airport is supposed to be here at 3:34am (yikes). Please pray we get out of here and Chicago despite the snow!

Less than a week until our Forever Family Day!

Last night as we were making yet another (and hopefully last) trip to Target at 10pm, we realized that this time next week we would be waking up from our first night with Anna!

Thought I'd do another test post with the picture of Anna ... we just can hardly wait to scoop her up!!

Testing

Since blogger is typically blocked in China, I'm testing out the option to email our posts to blogger. If this one works, I'll try another later today with a picture.

 

Please pray that our flights all stay on schedule with this snowy, freezing cold weather we have happening right now ... not to mention the record breaking cold and snow that is happening in Beijing! Can't wait to get to the 60s in Kunming. Can't believe a week from now Anna will be with us!

Here is our itinerary!!

Well, we finally got our flights booked - our sweet China coordinator, Ming, ended up helping us get a good deal through another travel agency out of New York and saved us just over $350 on the flight we wanted!

Jan 7th we'll fly to Chicago at 6am and then go Chicago to Beijing and land in Beijing Friday at 4:25pm. Then on the way home, on Jan 22, we'll go Hong Kong to Chicago and Chicago to home, landing at 4:46pm Friday, Jan 22.

Here is what our in-country itinerary looks like:

January 8, 2010 - Arrive in Beijing.Your guide, Jean, will be there to meet your name

January 9-10, 2010 - Sightseeing in Beijing, which may include Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and the Great Wall.

January 10, 2010 - Flight to Province. Our guide will take you to the airport in Beijing to then fly to Kunming in the evening. Your local guide, Mary will meet you in the airport terminal with the AAI sign. On your way to the hotel, your guide will inform you as to when you will see your child. It may be that same evening or the following morning!!!

January 10-15, 2010 - Processing paperwork in Kunming. Our guide will arrange your daily itinerary while in this city. Simply follow their instructions regarding the civil affairs appointment, notary office and checking your adoption paperwork.

January 16, 2010 - Flight to Guangzhou. Our guide will take you to the airport to fly to Guangzhou. Your guide, Judy, will meet you there with your name.Your child will need to have her medical exam done in Guangzhou prior to the Embassy appointment. Your guide will arrange this for you.

January 18, 2010 - Medical exam today.

January 19, 2010 - Your appointment with the U.S. Embassy in Guangzhou is today at 10:00 am. You do not have to appear at this appointment. Our guide will carry in all your papers at the time of the appointment.

January 20, 2010 - Today is at leisure.

January 21, 2010 - You will visit the U.S. Embassy today for your ceremony and receipt of your child’s visa to enter the United States. It is a brief ceremony. You will likely be able to take pictures outside the building.

Evening train to Hong Kong.

January 22, 2010 - Flight home!!

We're heading to China next Thursday!

Our agency was able to get our consulate appt. on the 19th and they said we can leave for Beijing on the 7th! We're in the process of booking our tickets - we're sorting through our options and hope to have them purchased tonight or in the morning.

We're finding so fun to say "We're flying to China NEXT Thursday"!! After we book our tickets, our agency will take care of our in-country travel arrangements and should be able to give us an itinerary. Basically we'll arrive in Beijing on Friday, Jan 8th and do some sightseeing for a couple days, then Sunday we'll fly to Kunming and we should meet Anna on Monday - and she'll be with us from that point on! We'll stay in Kunming the rest of that week, then we'll spend our last week in Guangzhou.

We'll let you know when we get our exact itinerary nailed down. Just wanted to give you all the good news - that's all for now!!

WE GOT IT!!!!!

Our agency called at 1:15 and said "Merry Christmas, we have your TA"!!!! I went from squealing on the phone to a mess of tears in about .5 seconds!

Now what? Now our agency has to get us a consulate appointment (CA) and then we can book our tickets. The consulate appointment will happen at the end of our trip, so once we have that date, we work backwards to our departure day. There are only a certain amount of appointments allowed per day, our agency is going to request our CA for Jan 18 first (if we get it, we'll leave Jan 7th), then they'll try the 19 (and we'd leave on the 8th) - if we can't get either of these dates, they'll request the 25 (we'd leave on the 14th). Please pray we are able to get the earliest appointment possible!!

Normally we would know our CA probably tomorrow, but because the US Consulate in China is probably already closed for Christmas, we might not know anything until Monday.

We are in shock! So excited! Best Christmas present ever!!

Nope, nothing yet...

We are still hoping that just maybe we'll hear something today or tomorrow about our TA.

We've been working on shopping from our packing list the last week or so - I've never made so many trips to Wal-Mart and Target or spent so much money so fast in my life! Whew! The goal is to actually start putting things in our luggage this weekend. So exciting!!!!

We'll let you all know as soon as our agency calls with our TA!

2nd Shower

Our friends Stacy and Misty through us a shower this past Thursday. We had a great time celebrating with our friends and Anna received many more great gifts. Thanks to everyone for making this time so special. Thanks to Lindsey for making an awesome cake and cupcakes!!








These baby showers have helped make this all seem real! We are getting so excited to get on that plane to China and bring our little girl home. Our agency is still hopeful that they might be able to give us a great Christmas present next week ... our TA! Last week several people on the adoption boards I follow received their TA and their timeline is about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ahead of us. I think it's pretty realistic to think we'll be heading to China by the first week in January (please don't let me eat my words!). We'll keep you all posted!

And, last, but definitely not least ... Happy Birthday to my dear, sweet husband! I love you and I can't wait to see you be a daddy!!!!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl

Today is Anna's 1st birthday!! Yesterday, at church, there was a beautiful, single rose on the alter in celebration of Anna's birthday, along with a sweet note in the bulletin. We had a hard time keeping it together as we sat and stared up at that flower during church.


Tonight Greg and I are going out to dinner to celebrate and then we'll come home and decorate our tree (yeah, a little late, but we've been busy!). We ordered this adorable rocker for Anna's birthday, it should be arriving soon. Isn't it cute?!
Hope you all have a good week. We have an exciting week ahead ... our dear friends from Sunday school, Misty and Stacy, are throwing us a shower this Thursday and we are so looking forward to it!

First Baby Shower

Yesterday we had Anna's first baby shower! Aunt Julie (Happy Birthday, Julie!) hosted a wonderful shower in her home!! We had such a great time getting together and celebrating Anna. Thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts ... Anna really got some cute, fun things ... all much needed too!! (click on images to see larger)

Anna's crib arrived yesterday and our neighbor (thanks, Monty!) helped us haul it home. After church today, Greg is going to try to get it put together. I can't imagine what it's going to feel like to see her crib all set up! Her room is starting to come together - we'll get some pictures posted soon.