On a chilly-ish morning (August 30th) we woke very early ~ we had a long journey ahead ~ the time had finally come to leave our boys and meet our daughter! I remember having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, my mind racing: missing our boys, meeting Mia, a journey to China...CHINA! It wasn't hard to wake up on this morning. We rechecked our paperwork - this was very stressful! We had to bring along a ton of paperwork and we filed it in an accordian folder and placed it in hubby's backpack - never to leave our sights!!
I remember Anthony was up and gave us one of his world class hugs good-bye. We were SO excited and had my dad drop us at the local train station... we both fondly remember talking to one of the conductors and some passagners who were curious about all of our bags ~ we boasted about our journey to China to meet our daughter; and pulled out all of our precious pictures of Dan Dan. They were so happy for us and it made our ride extra special :)
We boarded our plane to China and I remember thinking it was HUGE! So many rows of seats and we were in the middle row. Ed remembered a 20-ish year old Chinese girl who sat beside him, she threw her bags down and made sure she was comfortable, banging into him over and over again...he said he was very weary about who we would be encountering once we were in China! (This was NOT our experience once in China, we were so impressed with the people, the smiles, the thumbs up signs, etc). To say the flight was loooong would be an understatment ~ wow! I know I blogged about a 2 year old boy, who drove his mom and all of us crazy - he was so active and loud, hmmm he reminds me of someone :)
Once we finally arrived at our destination, a day later - it was now August 31st!; we were very overwhelmed! Beijing was a huge airport and it was foreign ~ really foreign! We remember being nervous, would we find our guide, our travel group? It took us a few minutes, but there she was holding up a GWCA green flag with a huge smile on her face, ahhhh we felt "safe". I remember seeing some of our travel group, whom I regonized from pictures, we had been corresponding in our Yahoo group for months and it was time to join together and meet our daughters! Oh, the excitement and what fun!
~ With our guide ~
Our guide, Rui, took care of us like little ducks :) We just followed her everywhere! We boarded a small bus with a couple and headed for the Poly Plaza Hotel ~ it was fun meeting this couple and learning about them. I remember them having picked out two names for their daughter and not being sure what to name her; one of the names was Mia (and they did choose this name for their daughter too) !
We had a beautiful room and I remember we unpacked a bit and then layed down ~ exhaustion!! We were late meeting our guide and travel group in the lobby, we were to go to a local store to buy lots of water!! We were in the lobby like two lost puppies ~ we are rarely late for anything and this had to be a late-moment?! Nerves set in - we could not communicate with anyone and we could not read signs - it was a scarey feeling! All ended up working out and we had one of the hotel employees call our guides cell phone (after some sign language and begging!) - our guide took just the two of us on a walk down the streets of Beijing for our beloved water. We soaked in all of the sights and smells - it is just so different there - memories you just never forget and feelings that come back to you. . .
That evening we were on our own, said our guide...what?! already?! She said there were some restaurants in the hotel and pointed to one across from the lobby - easy enough! When we entered the restaurant I remember thinking how "quaint" it was. It was seperated into tiny rooms that were surrounded by bamboo, and each little "room" had a beaded door for privacy ~ adorable! We had a bit of trouble ordering and wished that someone (like our guide) was there to point out what we should order - the little ducks needed help! We did manage (well, hubby did ) - I made a bit of a spectacle out of ordering and eating dinner. I had practiced using chopsticks and thought I was pretty good at it; until a giggling waitress ran and got me a fork and then proceeded to mix my meal and show me how to eat it! All along Ed (my husband) was eating expertly with his chopsticks! Boy, did he show me up!
Big chopstick man !
I really don't remember much after eating our yummy dinner - we must have gone back to our room for some much needed sleep - knowing the next day was a big sightseeing day! Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and The Great Wall of China!! Was this a dream?!
We were all so excited (kind of like Christmas-excited) and we quickly gathered up all of our stuff and some food, including lunch and headed out to the marina to meet up with our friends, the "B family". We were all smiles as the 5 of us headed out on the boat. It was a gorgeous and sunny 80 degree day - perfect boating weather (listen to me, now I'm a boating pro!) and we were all changing seats and taking turns at the wheel :)
This was our view during lunch!
