Some great links!

Here's a web site from one of the families who has done a better job with photos and stuff;
http://web.mac.com/raybeltran/Beltran_Family/%22East_to_Eden%22/%22East_to_Eden%22.html
They are one of the seven families here and they can't wait to pick up thier daughter, Eden. Their daughter Olivia has a great site too:
http://web.mac.com/raybeltran/Beltran_Family/Olivias_Blog/Olivias_Blog.html
We will be in a different Province than us but we will be together again at the last part of our trip in Guangzhou (pronounced "won jo".)
We have so appreciated getting to know these other families in our group. I can't image doing this without their part in our story to bring Bennett home. It has made our time here so much richer as we have been encouraged by thier own life stories. A bunch of us decided that while the touring has been great, we are all ready to move to the next stage of picking up our children!

P.S. We can't see the blog after we post or read comments until we are home.

Weekend photos

Chop sticks really do work when you don't have any other option!

Luggage by the pile. I wonder what percentage of the stuff we
brought along came from China in the first place!

Interesting street scene

Meet Joi, our Bethany guide in Beijing

Wonder of the World

The sun shone and warmed our visit to the Great Wall today. We took a gondola up the mountain and walked on a section of it. I pictured in my head a more flat surface along the top that was not based on reality. It had very steep ups and downs; some parts with high steps and other sections were just a steep slope. There were some women in heels climbing!
We had dinner at McDonald's and saw many Chinese families who all had one child. The menu was somewhat different. Instead of fries, I had corn for a side and a taro pie for dessert. Corn seems to be a favorite here – it was in the spaghetti sauce yesterday! Taro comes in different things also. The fish sandwich and fries were identical to U.S. McDonalds.
The last family to join our group includes parents, four children aged 12 – 17 and two grandmothers. The parents are both doctors, which is a comforting thought.

Sorry - photos later!

Bicycles and More Bicycles

Got out to the grocery store for bottled water and snacks, we got to check out the neighborhood here in this part of Beijing. LOTS of construction going on. Traffic is busy, darting everywhere with horns tooting. The most interesting part of street life was along the edge of the road: all the bicycles, mopeds, rickshaws, scooters and other contraptions.
Our group of seven families is about 30 people. We have a tour bus that shuttles us around. We went to an acrobatic show this afternoon. Incredible show of talent!
There is another group of families here at the hotel who are from Sweden who are in the adoption process. They have their children already, so we are enjoying seeing them around!

Dinner and a Movie

Well, actually it was three dinners and three movies - it's called surviving a 12 hour flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo! Northwest Airlines did a great job serving us and We felt pretty good through it all. We crossed the international dateline on leap year, February 29. Is there a wrinkle in time here? We got to our Beijing Days Inn at midnight Friday, spent some time figuring out how to turn the lights on and crashed into bed! We have an Americanized breakfast buffet at each of our hotels throughout our stay. I don't feel as much like I'm in a foreign country as I thought I would by this time in our trip. We head out into the street next. That should help change things!

Are we there yet?

It's finally time to go! We only have six days until we meet Bennett. We are so excited!
Our mountain of stuff succumbed with a little pressure on the top of the suitcases and we are packed. Our lists were hashed and rehashed. What ARE we going to need, anyways? We got more in than Brad thought we would! Our four suitcases and two bags hold Papa bear's, Mama bear's and Baby bear's stuff.
Our first stop in Beijing has weather similar to here so we will need warm things for those days. Our last week will be at a latitude lower than Florida and I always find it difficult to think "warm" when it's cold.
Two years of waiting is almost up!!

We got our travel dates!

We were delighted by a call telling us our travel dates of February 28 to March 15. We'll be home in time for Easter! Everyone started asking if I was excited. It took awhile to get to that stage! First it was relief that we now knew how to plan. Our tickets came in at really great prices! Less than $900 for us and a little over $900 for Bennett's one way ticket. (go figure that!) The suitcases are out!