Let the Good Times Begin!

Hi Everyone

Today is our last day in Beijing. Tomorrow morning we fly down to Jiangxi, Nanching to meet our baby girl. This is way too exciting!

Today we got up early to go to the Summer Palace. This palace is where the Emperor summers. Kind of like New Yorkers go to the Hamptons during the summer months but only the Emperor's residence is ten times bigger. It's sits by a man made lake and let's see...that's about it really....nothing too spectacular to report about it. It was soo cold that we were just anxious to get on the bus to head over to lunch. For lunch (and dinner as well) they usually sit about 8-10 people at a table (kind of like a wedding) and there is a big lazy susan in the middle. That is where they put at least 8 different dishes for everone to taste. The food has been really good so far. Hopefully it will be just as good at our other destinations. When we got back to the hotel, we went for a walk to check out some local stores. I really needed a nail file and we walked into this one place which happened to be a somewhat of a department store. So, here we are trying to find a nail file (you think no big deal) and all of a sudden, we're are surrounded by about 4 people trying to help us - and they know no such thing as "evading one's space" they get up real close and try to communicate with us by sign language of some sort. It is quite an experience shopping here with all the people trying to help out. We went to a pharmacy and there was at least two employees per isle to help out. Back home, you can wander around for hours and see not one sales person in sight when you need help. If our two countries can get together, there could be a happy medium. Okay, enough about the shopping.

Before dinner we took a bus tour of Tian'anmen Square. This is equivalent to the Washington DC Mall. All the government agencies are located here and there is a huge portriat of Chairman Mao. This part of Beijing is very important to Chinese people throughout the country and they try to make it here at least once in their lives. We were unable to get off the bus and walk around because it was too busy for the bus to park but we were able to see everything. It was really nice with all the buildings being lit up. Dinner, as usual was delicious.

We came back to the hotel and our guides held a quick meeting as to what is going to happen tomorrow (Monday 29th) and what to expect. We will arrive in Nanchang around 2:oopm. We'll have just enough time to check in our hotel room and pack a small bag (diaper bag that is) with everything from baby bottles to rattles and some other necessities. We'll then go to the CAA offices where we will meet our babies around 4:00pm!! (This will be 3:00 in the morning for you - when you're sound asleep). Oh my God...Can you believe it?! It's so surreal..and alot of the other couples are in agreement with us...just surreal. We were told that they will give us our babies and then to make our way to a private corner part of the room to get to know her and wait for the next step which is to take our first family photo. After that, we'll go up to our room and then James and I will officially "freak out"!! We have our baby!!! Just kidding, I really think we'll do fine. We've been waiting forever and we're definately ready for this and whatever may come our way with a child - it's going to be awesome :O)

So this is the last blog until tomorrow night...maybe once she goes down to sleep, I'll be able to type up another one to let you know how our day went. Isn't this exciting?!

Stay tuned!