Day 4?- Three more hours

Good morning from Zhengzhou! I think today is day 4...I am losing track right now and am not able to log into blogger still to check our previous posts. We are able to read most of the comments though and love getting them.
Like the title says, three more hours until we get our girl. How is it even possible that we've come this far? On the bus ride from the airport to the hotel we got papers that have questions our agency asked about our children that were answered a week or so ago. We have not a ton of new information, but a few things stood out to me. She likes to take baths, gets along well with others, is lively and active, and can walk by herself now. "She likes the yellow duck from her mom very much. She is quite brave. We have not found what she is afraid of." Well, sweet girl, let us hope we are as brave as you are and will need to be today. See you soon!

The Jacksons in China, Day Four: Beijing to Zhengzhou

First things first!  I apologize for my last post, which upon later reading was really jumpy, almost as if there was a movie on at the same time and I was only paying half-attention to writing my post.  The reason for this is that there was a movie on and I was only paying half-attention to writing my post.

Big thanks again to our friend Nanette for posting all of our ramblings.  If any of you are ever in Pennsylvania, give her a hug as you're passing through.

Not a ton to report on today, as today was the day that all of the families we met in Beijing split up to head off to the various provinces where our children are.  The biggest chunk of the group by far came to Zhengzhou, a giant city of a few million people that seems to have sprung up out of the dirt road shanty towns into new (and half-constructed) buildings overnight.

We still seem to have some bad jet lag that is only gradually subsiding.  Every night since we've come, we'll go to bed exhausted, then find ourselves wide awake at 2:00 a.m.  Last night I made it as far as 4:00, and I'll take what I can get.  This morning we decided just to accept it and turned on the lights to get packing.

After a nice breakfrrrst (that's how you say it with a Beijing accent) we hopped on the bus, said our goodbyes to Cindy our Beijing guide, and took off for Zhengzhou.

Jen and I really miss Beijing.  Sometimes you'll visit a place and feel a strange connection or a bond to a city and start to wonder about a life there, about coming back, about all the facets you couldn't have the time to explore.  This is how we felt about the massive city with the ancient stone buildings smashed next to the giant glimmering office towers surrounding one of the oldest civilizations on earth.  Also, I could eat steam buns *every day*.

Some more snapshots of Beijing:

 - Jen and I were walking from one section of the Great Wall to another, and we run into none other than our German lady friends from the restaurant the other night.  This was apparently the highlight of their day and they made their other friends take pictures of us and said danke again for the help.  Glad we made their trip, and I hope you enjoyed that little beef wrap-thing you ordered.

 - There is a two-block massive shopping center south of our hotel where the streets are closed to cars, so it's a giant walking mall with every square inch of visible space crammed with jumbotron televisions playing ads, flashing signs, or ads for Estee Lauder, Hugo Boss, etc.  We found a kid's toy store and laughed at all of the knockoff toys from American favorites like "G.I. Soldier" and some probably less-than-authorized Disney character cartoons.  Also, I wanted to buy a remote-control flying robot.

 - Scam attempt no. 1: Leaving the mall, a young man came up to us and said "hello, my friends!"  We politely say hi but keep walking in the same direction. "Hello! Me and my friends are art students [red flag code phrase] and we would like to invite you to..." but we have already said no thanks and are halfway across the street.  C'mon, pal.  That's like the first scam that every American tourist reads about.  We'd rather not go to your "art show" in a dark back alley and get intimidated into buying your crappy "art" prints for ridiculous prices.

 - Dear Crowne Plaza: you are indeed a very fine five-star hotel, and your central atrium is beautiful with the little waterfall and large comfy chairs in which we can lounge and use your wifi to write these posts.  BUT, if you are going to have a woman sit at the piano and play soft, relaxing music (which is a nice touch, but the way) then PLEASE, oh please oh PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY SPEND THE FIFTY BUCKS AND TUNE THE FREAKIN' PIANO.

 - Scam attempt no. 2:  Jen is back at the hotel room, and I have been sent off to get steam buns from our steam bun shop and water from the 7-11.  As I am leaving the latter a woman walks up to me and starts saying "Hello, friend! Hello!  We are talking!  I see we are talking to you!  I am student [oh boy] and I am like to practice my English with you [big red flag code phrase]!  Maybe we are going to get a beer together!"  She keeps talking like this as I head for the hotel while being polite but not actually engaging her. She finally gives up and shouts at me "YOOUUUU STUPIIIIID!!!"  C'mon, lady, that only the second most popular scam in China.  The idea is that we would go to get a drink or go to a fancy tea ceremony or some other function down a dark alley in a small room and then I'd get stuck with a grossly inflated bill at the end.

 - Seriously, though, that stupid piano had two keys so out of tune it was like a cheese grater on my eardrums everytime she played the lower intro to "Paint with All the Colors of the Wind."

 - We never got the chance to eat at "WESTREN FOOD RESTAURANT."


But we have more important things going on!  The flight to Zhengzhou took all of an hour and change, and as we got closer to the ground I saw mostly isolated little villages on dirt roads.  Most of the way into town was the same.  On the bus, we met two more families that had been to China before and skipped the Beijing tour to meet us in our adoption towns.  We've already agreed that more hanging out needs to happen with many of our fellow adopting families, and we're becoming fast friends,and so a Utah-Montana-Minnesota-Pennsylvanina-Connecticut-Tennessee-Florida-Virginia-Maryland trip is in the works.

I'm pleased to add to Jen's general pleased-ness about having taken the time to learn some Mandarin before we came... after throwing our bags in our room, we headed our for lunch and on a good recommendation from a woman in our group who had adopted from here before, we sat down in a huge restaurant nearby, realized we were the only white people, and still managed to order the most amazing Chinese food meal I have ever eaten, bar none.  We had some peppered beef, some breaded chicken in a sweet glaze, and some really, really amazing rice.  We just had to look up a couple of words in our dictionaries to get the check paid.  Great food and a better experience all for about $17 U.S. (in case you were wondering, most of our meals are significantly cheaper).

Lunch eaten, the next order of busines in Zhengzhou was loading up a secret hidden wallet with a giant pile of U.S. dollars, walking terrified across the street to a bank, and exchanging that pile for an even giant-er pile of Chinese Yuan.  This of course made me totally freaked out about everyone I walked by, but somehow I still made it to the 7-11 for water and snacks and back to the hotel.  This cash will be used mostly for paperwork fees, adoption fees, and a blood test.  Apparently the U.S. consulate wants to know whether she has tuberculosis before bringing her into America.

We ate dinner with most of our group, and we all bonded further over enormous bowls of hand-pulled beef noodles with stories of why we were adopting, why China, and the weirdness of returning to our rooms after the bank and discovering that our cribs had been brought to our rooms and set up.

We are ready.  We have our diaper bags, snacks, and Nora's ducky ready to go.

It's late, and this turned out far longer than I planned, but in about ten hours from now my life will be completely different and I'm excited in ways I can't really piece together in my head but I want to remember every little thing.  None of this seems real right now.  For months we've been looking at her picture and telling her that we're coming... well, here we are.

We're here, Eleanor... we're really here. See you soon

Day 3- Great Wall, Jade Shop, and Acrobatic Show

Today was our last full day in Beijing, and it certainly didn't disappoint. We woke up bright and early (both around 2 a.m. due to the jetlag, but after an hour of laying there in the dark, usually fall back asleep) to hop on the bus one more time. Because it is rather cold in the morning (around 33 degrees) we've been doing indoor things until the afternoon. Today was a visit to a large jade shop. We got to learn about the different kinds, see it being carved, be able to tell true jade from a couple different fakes, and then be let loose in the large jade shop to help support the economy. All the usual things that families do in China prior to meeting their children.

When we went to the silk shop, I didn't really care about fancy things, just wanted a bit of white silk for Nora's temple dress (which I could have sworn i mentioned to Kevin before, but I guess he had forgotten. he was surprisingly touched by it). One of the only things I was willing to spend some money on was some good quality jade. I don't know why, but for many years I have loved jade more than any other jemstone. Frankly, I like it better than gemstones and when Cindy (our CCAI guide) tells us that while the US is all about diamonds, China is a country that prefers jade I have to agree. When we were first waiting for Nora, Kevin bought me a jade necklace and I wore it often and thought about how we would someday go to China and meet our daughter. I made sure to wear it to important family events, almost like a placeholder. I don't know if it makes sense, but it is what it is. So you can imagine how exciting it was to see so much beautiful jade and hear how important it is to the people of China. We bought a couple things that were perhaps more than we had originally planned on spending on any souvenir, but I am trilled with. A couple things will have to be described later since they are gifts for our parents that we want to tell them about in person, but they are super cool and I will post pictures and descriptions of them after we get home. Then we managed to score a bit of a deal on two other things. The first is a solid jade bangle for me. It is a lovely piece and actually small enough for my wrist, which is hard to find in the states. The second is a jade pendant carved with a traditional tiger, the animal of Nora's birthyear. His head is looking back, which is a lucky thing and "has good meaning". We will be hanging on to this so we can give it to her when she is older. Even thinking about her getting older and being with us is totally bizarre.

After compairing with the other families what we bought, we went to the Great Wall. How can I possibly begin to describe something that my brain can't even comprehend? I had read a bunch about it before we left and knew that we should expect it to be very steep, with uneven steps, and quite difficult to climb, and yes, that was all true, but it's so much more than that. I walked on stones that have been in place longer than the US has even been in existance. I wheezed along, putting my feet on stones worn down by hundreds of years and millions of steps until they quite literally curve on the top. Some steps were only a couple inches high, others over a foot. Even gripping tightly to the railing on the side i barely made it. We climbed 1 1/2 towers and my legs were screaming by the end. I wanted to quite after that, but how many times will I be able to walk on one of the 8 wonders of the world? Instead, I climbed a bit more on the "easy" section with kevin and we very nearly got left behind by our bus. our absence was immediately noticed by those who sat by us and everything worked out fine.

Following our climb, we went out to lunch and had another big group meal. As far as the food goes, we are having mostly traditional fare, but the very light stuff that westerners tend to like. Even so, many in our group find it to be a bit too much to handle. For us, we are stil enjoying the food and certainly not sick of it. Still two more weeks, and I'm sure at some point we will break down and order some pizza or something. For now I am thoroughly enjoying my steambuns and rice.

After lunch we went to where the 2008 Olympics were held and saw the birdsnest, a series of buildings caled the dragon, and the torch that makes Salt Lake's look like a toothpick. If there is one thing the Chinese have down it's the concept of grandiose.

The last thing for the day was seeing an acrobatics show that made my mouth literally drop open several times and even a few occasions to proclaim, "What?!?" The biggest crowdpleaser was the metal globe with the motercycle driving in circles inside. After a minute or so he was joined by another bike, and another, until there were a totaly of 5 motercycles in a structure be enough for them to have about a foot and a half of space between them. kevin recorded nearly the whole thing, so we'll post it eventually, but it really was crazy. The fact that they were so lasse fair about it as to teasingly honk at each other only made it more impressive. Chinese drivers love to honk.

We came back to the hotel and Kevin went out to buy our nightly dinner of steambuns. The good news was he remembered the words for menu. The bad news was that he didn't quite learn his lesson from last time and brought back a bag with about 18 buns (a whopping $3 total). This time there was no finishing them all. Mei ban fa.

And now we find ourselves at the end of the "tourist" portion of the trip. We've been so busy that it's been easy to forget that we are not getting on a plane to come home tomorrow with memories of a great vacation, but will be getting our daughter in a little over a day. I do want to remember many things about beijing, so this post will be a bit long and rambley...well it's already been that, but it will continue.

Jen's thoughts on Beijing. I love it here. The people have been warm and friendly, quick to laugh at our jokes and easy to love. our efforts to speak the language have been met with encouragement and praise, even though we know we are not very skilled. I was grinning ear to ear when 3 seperate people told me on different occasions that I speak "like a Chinese person." The language has helped so much to not feel so worried about getting around and it's so nice to be reminded how hard it is for those people who are not native speakers just doing the best that they can. We've been joking that we know enough Mandarin to get into trouble, but not enough to get back out. It's a fairly accurate statement. I already felt a connection to China before, but now I really feel like when I get on that plane home a little piece of my heart will always be in China. Often when we travel somewhere we play the game of "could you live here?" I am shocked to say that I feel like I could live in China. Beijing is very big and overwhelming, and I am not typically a fan of such large cities, but there is such an energy here, a feeling that anything can happen. Thousand year-old structures butting up against new skyscrapers. Where else could I possibly find that? Don't worry, we have no plans to do something so drastic, but I definitely plan on coming back.

Tomorrow morning we fly to Zhengzhou (where we should be able to access Facebook and blogger) and the day after that we will be parents. Until then, I will enjoy my last few hours in Beijing. I will smile thinking about my afternoon with the rickshaw drivers, look at pictures of places that I never dreamed I would see in person, and enjoy my morning breakfast of castor cream buns and dumplings while listening to the crazy Beijing traffic. Beijing, this will not be our last adventure together, of that I am quite sure.

The Jacksons in China: Day Two, Beijing

Posters note: Please forgive me everyone for posting all the pictures backwards. They are not in chronological order due to my overall lack of fancy blogging knowledge. I assure you, I will try harder tomorrow!

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Here are today's adventure snapshots:

We bought some chicken-and-seaweed flavored crackers.

- Jen, riding alongside me in a rickshaw around the Forbidden City, got two other rickshaw drivers to join in singing a children's friendship song.

- We hung out inside a traditional Chinese Hu Tong quadrangle house, that is more than five centuries old.

- Jen, trying to tell our rickshaw driver that he was very polite, instead told him that he is very pretty. This was the cause of much guffawing when he inevitably told the other rickshaw drivers.

- We bought some white silk for Jen to make Eleanor's temple dress.

- The Forbidden City is, like, really, really freakin' huge and old and stuff.

- I discovered that I know enough Mandarin to help some very frustrated German ladies order food in a restaurant.

- We discovered the magical wonders of Dim Sum for breakfast, and chocolate steam buns from the 7-11 where we buy our drinking water.

I have to start off this post by mentioning that I have the most amazing wife to go on adventures with. We were both talking today about how comfortable we are with being in a completely strange city, having but a tiny passing familiarity with the language, and just setting out from our hotel to try to find exciting things to see, do or eat. It's something I've come to love about Jen the more we find ourselves away from home.

Okay, that mushy bit out of the way, day two in Beijing was amazing!

One quick bit of preface: one thing we absolutely love about our adoption agency is that they firmly believe that everyone adopting from China should spend some time immersing themselves in the culture of China. Hence while our daughter is in Zhengzhou, we spend three days in Beijing to take in as much as we can of the China experience.

As it turns out, our hotel is about two blocks from the Forbidden City. Our first order of business was to pile into a bus which took us to a long row of two-seater rickshaws and cruise around one of the oldest neighborhoods in Beijing. We visited a man who is the latest in a line to own one of the traditional houses that have a central courtyard with rooms off to each point of the compass. The man spoke to us about the history of the house which is three times as old as my entire country.

Jen quickly became friendly with the rickshaw drivers. Ours was nice and impressed that Jen could read two of the three characters in his name. Jen got some of the drivers to sing along with a children's song about friendship, then slipped and told the driver he was pretty when she meant to tell him he was polite, which was utterly hilarious on all fronts.

Our next stop was at a silk house. Our guide explained that they don't want to turn us loose in the regular markets to buy a bunch of cheap crap that will fall apart in a year, so CCAI (our agency) meets once a year in China to find a couple of places to take us where we will find some quality goods to purchase. Our bus took us to Yuan Hou Silk where we watched them spin thread from raw silk and make quilts from the threads, which of course were for sale. There was a huge clothing store full of exquisitely detailed and traditional silk shirts, ties, dresses, and bolts of beautiful silk fabric. We picked up a couple of yards of the most exquisite white silk with traditional Chinese patterns in it... this will be the dress that Eleanor will wear when we are sealed together.

We had lunch at an apparently famous duck restaurant which was enormous and had pretty good food. We mostly got accosted by some extremely aggressive nick-knack souvenir sales people who would put flags into little girl's hands then demand money. We had some time to sit and chat with the other families in our group.

Our last bit of tour for the day was our tour through Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City. Cindy is extremely knowledgeable about nearly every aspect of the history of the place. Tiananmen square is absolutely immense and houses ancient towers, Chairman Mao's mausoleum, two fifty-foot long screens showing scenes from around China.

Across the street is the famous Forbidden City, with the giant picture of Chairman Mao at the outside. Forbidden City was ancient palaces within ancient palaces within ancient palaces, and is too giant to take in all at once with a history longer than my brain can process. It was a long walk from end to end and we were exhausted by the time we got back on the bus.

It's been an awesome day, one of my favorites, just getting the chance to spend some time with Jen and soak up some of the culture that will very soon bring our daughter to us.

Day 1- Beijing: We made it!

The mystical dragon that carried us to Beijing.

Our luggage at Hong Kong International Airport.

Jen looking longingly at yet another plane for the day.

Busy intersection near our hotel.

BAN PO WESTREN FOOD!

Shopping plaza near the hotel

An easy guide to traffic patterns

Most importantly, we have successfully made it to China. It still seems hilarious to me to be able to type that. Going to China is something that other families get to do, not us. Unfortunately, Beijing is pretty blocked, so I am not able to log onto Blogger or Facebook to post until we get to Zhengzhou. Extra thanks to nanette for being magical and posting for us :)

So how was the flight? Not as bad as I had feared, honestly. We were, unfortunately, made to sit by a man who seemed intent to vent his disapproval and anger at anyone who would listen, and even those who would not. It began by him swearing loudly at another gentleman who expressed concern with his treatment of the overhead luggage. He later told the flight attendant that they should be "ashamed" to serve the food they did. It was typical airline fare in that it provided us with needed calories and little else. Basically, when he wasn't sleeping he was expressing his disapproval with colorful language. I'm sure under other circumstances he has redeeming qualities, but being next to him for 14 hours was a bit exhausting.

After a brief layover in Hong Kong, where we were serenaded on the plane by Unbreak My Heart in traditional Chinese flute, we arrived in Beijing. Our guide met us at the airport and took us to the hotel (Crowne Royal, very nice) pointing out a 7-11, grocery store, and steam bun house on the way. We made her point out the steam bun house again to make sure we knew where it was since steam buns are made of delicious. After our luggage arrived, we exchanged some money and hit the steam bun shop. Our guide neglected to tell us that no one there spoke any English. "No problem!" I thought, "I've been practicing for a few years, surely I can order us some food. What I didn't take into account was that while I can do a respectable job of ordering a couple items, I have next to no idea what the other person is saying in response. The difficulty is made a bit worse by the fact that my saying "I don't speak Mandarin very well," is seen only as me being modest. Remember how proud I was of our good accents? Yeah, they are actually a bit of a problem right now. Oh well. Thankfully, while the 4 or so other people in the shop merely chuckled at the white girl trying to order food, one guy stepped up and acted as a brief translator. Honestly, how on earth would I have known that they were asking me if we wanted it to stay or to go? After ordering and paying, we took our ticket to the back, where two men were responsible for cooking the food. We sat and tried to ignore the stares and well-meaning chuckles until they called for us to get our food. That's when I realized why there seemed to be some confusion on numbers while I was ordering. I had thought I ordered 4 steam buns, a perfect size for a small lunch. Little did I know that each bun was not a separate item, but sold as a set. They handed us two plates filled with about 5 golf ball sized buns each. So I did what any self respecting person would do. I acted like it was exactly right, grabbed a set of chopsticks and dug in, only halfway sure of what was in each one. Anthony Bourdain would have been so proud. Honestly, I was pretty proud too. It was a perfect lunch and perfect welcome to this totally new adventure we just started. I'm not sure if they were more entertained by my embarassing lack of linguistic knowledge, how exhausted and gross we looked, or the fact that we ate such a large amount of buns in about 5 minutes flat, but I think it's safe to say that we were not the typical clientele.

Feeling a bit more human, we made our way to the 7-11 for bottled water and a few snacks. We made our way back to the room and showered, took a brief nap, and managed to drag ourselves out for an evening stroll around the heart of the city where Kevin decided to buy a hat and managed to do so entirely in Mandarin and without accidentally purchasing 5. It's now 7 pm here (4 am our time) and I am determined to stay awake for another couple hours to try to adjust to the time change.

We got some pictures, but not a ton. There is nothing I can say about Beijing that hasn't already been said by almost anyone who has come here before. The city is a strange mix of old traditional architecture and new modern buildings. There are bikes everywhere, though I am pretty sure most are older than I am. Crossing the street is a bit crazy, especially if you have no idea how to do it and no Chinese person to tag along with. I didn't even try the bigger streets, but I did a passable job of the smaller roads. It's only slightly colder than home since there is a bit more wind, but not too bad. Kevin wore shorts most of the day since he is made of fleshy Thinsulate, which caused a lot of pointing and smiles. He opted for pants tonight.

I just have to say one more thing about the Mandarin speaking. I am in no way even a passable speaker of the language after nearly 3 years of study. I am wishing I applied myself more, but it is what it is. That said, it is incredibly awesome to me to be able to order food at all, even if it's not exactly what I was planning. It is very handy to recognize enough characters to be able to tell that a shop down the street sells cell phones. It is wonderful to be able to not feel frozen with fear that we were on our own this evening. It is reassuring to me to know that when we finally have Nora we can tell her it will be ok and not to be scared in the language she has heard since birth. I will never be fluent and I will probably always have to ask people to speak more slowly, but even having this much of a bridge has been amazing.

That about covers today. It's been a bit of culture shock, and overwhelmingly amazing to finally be in the same country as our sweet girl. Tomorrow's plan: Forbidden City. I'm thinking we'll take a few pictures while we're there.

Onward to Places Distant

Posting from mobile, sorry for formatting. So we just landed in Hong Kong. It's been a really long couple of days. I sent this email to friend yesterday who lives in Asia and wrote to wish me a happy birthday... I still feel this way: I'm pretty freaked out right about now. I'm taking care of the last bits of stuff at work and then I get on a plane tonight at 8:15. SLC to LA, two hours, LA to Hong Kong, 15 hours, Hong Kong to Beijing, 3 hours. I get my daughter in a week. A WEEK. That's something, like seeing the Grand Canyon, that is so staggeringly vast that my brain can't perceive all of it but bits keep getting through for me to ponder over. Like last night, installing a baby gate at the top of our stairs at midnight because it was one of the last things on our list. I had to bolt two boards together to get the gate to swing from the metal railing side and install the mounting brackets to that. It was a routine bit of home improvement until my brain said "oh yeah, we just put this in TO KEEP YOUR KID FROM FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS." And then some more freaking out. I can't tell you how excited I am though... this is going to be an amazing trip and I think I'm ready to be a dad. We'll be sure to wave in your direction as we're landing in Hong Kong.

Itinerary, etc.

Two days.

We leave for China in two days.

In spite of me telling myself this over and over, my brain still refuses to believe it. Our tickets are on the desk, bags are being packed, there is a car seat in my car, and still I keep thinking it's not real.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll say that while I am very excited, I also have moments absolute fear and panic. What are we thinking? Everything is going to change! We have a very comfortable existence and can mostly do what we want when we want to, why change that? I am fully aware that these are normal thoughts and that all parents go through these worries. I'm ok with it. However, these thoughts till plague me, especially at night. I'm a worrier, what can I say?
I am also beside myself with excitement and can't wait to get on that plane. Exactly one week from today I will be holding my daughter. How can I possibly top that moment? What have I done to deserve such a wonderful blessing?
So, yes, I have a lot of emotions right now and rather than actually getting ready to leave, I decide to blog. Oh, and post our itinerary, since everyone wants to know the details (and I loved looking at people's travel plans while still waiting for our time to come). Here's the breakdown:

2/7 Leave U.S. for Beijing.

2/9 Arrive in Beijing. Go to hotel. Free time. Enjoy!

2/10 Tour Beijing. Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong Tour, and optional acrobatics show.

2/11 Great Wall.

2/12 Depart Beijing for Zhengzhou

2/13 Today you will receive your child! Congratulations!

2/14 Finalize adoption. Rest or optional group shopping trip to the Lotus Center (or Wal-Mart) in the afternoon.

2/15 Free time or rest.

2/16 Free time or rest.

2/17 Receive your child’s passport.

Leave Zhengzhou for Guangzhou

2/18 Take bus to Shamian Island to complete your child’s visa physical and visa photo taken this morning.

2/19 Free day in Guangzhou.

2/20 TB test

2/21 Free day in Guangzhou.

2/22 Free day in Guangzhou.

2/23 Consulate Appointment

2/24 Visa Pickup

2/25 Depart China for the USA.

Answers to other questions we have been getting:
-Our flight from LAX to Hong Kong is 15 hours, 3 more hours from HK to Beijing (it was a better itinerary for us, that is why the detour through HK)
-Yes we are excited
-Yes, we will have a guide with us the whole time in each province. Each guide speaks Mandarin, English and any local dialects. Different guides for different provinces
-We are traveling with a group of about 8 families that are also adopting through our agency. Each family is different, some adopting older kids, some have children already, etc.
-We will only be together as a group in Beijing and Guangzhou, to pick up the children each family goes to the capitol city of the province their child lives in. We got to Zhengzhou since Nora lives in Henan, others will go elsewhere.
-Yes, we are nervous
-Yes, we plan on bringing home cool souvenirs.
-We don't know if we are going to be able to visit the orphanage while we are there, we have to arrange that with our guide, but we are really hoping to. They will be bringing her to us rather than us picking her up.
-Our flight home will be 12 hours HK to LAX. Once we land on US soil Nora will be declared a US citizen. That is taken care of before our final flight.
- China is 15 hours ahead of us, so when it is Sunday noon for you, it will be Monday 3 am for us.
-Yes, we are excited and nervous and a whole lot of other things.
-Yes, we will be getting one of Nora's awesome sweaters when they bring her to us.

Not sure if I covered everything, but feel free to ask other questions that I missed.

Now, if I may be a little more personal since I want to remember how I felt so close to leaving. I feel like this is all a dream. I will wake up tomorrow and find out that we still have 3 more steps to get through, or that we've only just started our dossier. I know, logically, that is not the case, but it's still not real. It wont be for a very long time, I'm sure. It hasn't flown by, nor has being this close made all the waits disappear. Those waits were extremely difficult and the fact that they are over doesn't wash that all away. But time has passed. It has continued forward until the day that happens to everyone else is about to happen to me. After 3 years of waiting, we are getting our daughter. That little face I've dreamed about even before she was born will be next to mine and I don't have to wake up and say goodbye.

Nora, you are so loved. Thank you for letting us be your parents. Thank you for putting up with our weirdness and fumbled efforts to be what you need. We are far far less than you deserve and you are far far more than we could ever earn. Thank you for visiting me while I slept so I could hold onto hope while I waited to hold onto you. One more week, sweet girl.