some of the lady's who did the massages

foot massage
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

Acrobatics Show

Acrobatics Show
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

Lunch

Lunch today included Chinese Vodka, which tasted like gasoline to me.

Lunch
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

mike barb great wall
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

Behind us are the gates to enter The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall

The Great Wall
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

The Great Wall of China

Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

Here are some pictures from our group dinner last night. Most of the restaurants here have the red lanterns hanging outside. The fish tanks were in the foyer of our restaurant where we had dinner last night, it had different species of fish and crabs. We had lunch at a restaurant that served many different dishes, however; crispy duck is their specialty. I enclosed a picture of the chef carving it tableside. Our guide is very nice we have learned a lot about the history of China and its Emporers. The Forbidden City is where the Emporers lived during their dynasty. We went to the Temple of Heaven where we saw many locals singing and playing cards. We visited a pearl factory and did a little shopping. I am going to attach some more pictures, it is a little slow and sometimes doesn't cooperate.

China Military Training

China Military Training
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

Just outside the gates leaving the Forbidden City, the military was conducting a training session. Just after this they marched away chanting.

Squatty Potty

Squatty Potty
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

This is the famous squatty potty. Yes its on the floor. The locals were laughing at me because I whipped out my camera in the bathroom. Fortunately, not many places have this type of toilet, but today I had to use one. It was very tricky, but successful.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

A lot of Beijing is being restored to prepare for the Olympics in 2008

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven
Originally uploaded by cygnal20.

Hello from the Far East. . .

Hi everyone, we finally made it! Believe it or not, we fared very well. The flight from LA to China was good, although the flight was 15 1/2 hours long, upgrading to business class definately made the difference. I slept about 6-8 hours and thats all I need. Mike slept on and off and we are doing great. Our day started at 4:15am, when my dad picked us up to take us to Orlando for our 7:30 flight. We arrived in LA at 9:30am and left for China at 11:50pm straight to Guangzhou and landed at 6:15am, caught a 8:30 am flight to Beijing and arrived in Beijing at 10am. We got a hotel room for the day in LA to hang out and have lunch. We were NOT about to stay in LAX the entire time. The air traffic controller in LAx had some problems we heard, but we were not affected, we had landed by then.


Our hotel is awesome, I posted some pics of our room. Today we have the day to ourselves to relax and unwind. We meet tonight around 7pm for dinner. I think there is about 8 people in our tour group. Only 4 of us from our adoption agency. We arrived about 11:30am China time. We crossed the international date line, so Tuesday the 8th did not even exist for us! Tommorow we are off to Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and an evening dinner Chinese Acrobatics show.

Mike and I just got back from a short walk outside around the hotel. Lots of shops and some grocery stores. We just got back with some water and it is really neat to see the grocery items they have. For instance, they have Lay's potato chips, but Barb-q meat and fish flavor. Needless to say we opted for the plain flavor.

Enjoy the pictures, only a couple days left til we have Mia. I am not sure if we get her the 14th or 15th. Once I know, I will let you guys know.

Last minute check list

Luggage..CHECK
Car seat installed....CHECK
Room ready for her arrival....CHECK

Now all we need is our little girl. She turns 10 months tommorow. . .

We are leaving tomorrow!

YES, Can you believe it? We leave in the early AM and arrive in LA, then catch the red eye to China. We actually miss Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday the 9th. We will spend a couple days touring Beijing before meeting up with the rest of our group on the 13th. I believe we will get Mia on the 14th or 15th.

Before we leave, there are some people we would like like to thank. . .

Our familes, who have been so generous, supportive and enthusiastic of our decision, and who will also be helping us out while we are out of town.

To our wonderful friends, who have spoiled us with gifts and have helped us thru this long wait!

To China, for allowing us the privilege of being parents to our Mia.

Please follow our journey, we wish you ALL could come along to experience it with us. We are so excited and can't wait for you to meet her.

Before we leave we wanted to post some pictures of Mike's retirement party, which was a blast. Mike and I haven't gotten home at 4am in a very long time. The city put together a wonderful party and it was great to see everyone. Thanks to Larry and Jimmy for making the trip, Molly and Makenzie for giving us their home to stay in while they were out of town and to Tami, who took care of our home and our pets.

Bon Voyage . . . .

We just received our travel approval call. We leave August 7th and return August 26th. Our stay is slightly longer because we are heading to Beijing first to do some sightseeing. I am pretty much ready and have to get our clothes and such ready but I think we are good to go!

I can't wait til I have her in my arms. We will be in China for my birthday. What a birthday to remember!

We are now awaiting our travel approval to go get Mia. Mike and I are pretty much ready to go, we have purchased all the medications that are recommended to take with us. I have bought most of our baby gear. The nursery is ready, we will install the carseat just before we leave so when my parents and Mike's dad pick us up at the airport we are set. I am ordering the "new" bills from the bank tomorrow. For those of you who do not know, when we arrive in China, a donation to the orphanage is made and payment for travel, tours, meals is made in American bills. The Chinese are very peticular about the bills being new. I have already informed the bank manager at our branch and they said no problem, just give them a couple of days to get the "new" bills in. There are people who are unable to get all new bills and ironed their money!

We received our itinerary for the Beijing pre-trip that Mike and I are taking before meeting up with the rest of our group. I think there will be 3 families doing the pre-trip. It will be nice to spend some time with them before the baby mayhem starts!

My next post will be our travel dates, we hope to hear something today or tomorrow. Mike's retirement party, which is being hosted by the police department is next Friday. We are excited to see everyone, however; we may not be able to attend if we have to leave to China.
The unknown, you gotta love it!

Update on Mia!

We just received some updated information on Mia. Based on her report, she was abandoned by the Xisha Bridge on October 9, 2005 (2 days old) wearing old clothes and no other information was found. She was taken to the Qianjiang Police Station and then was taken to the Qianjiang Social Welfare Institute (orphanage). She was named by the doctor who examined her and diagnosed as a healthy newborn baby. They estimate that she was only 2 days old. She weighed 6.8 lbs. and was 19.29 inches long. She is currently in foster care, is eating rice porridge 2 times a day and eating mashed fruits. She wakes up at 6am,naps from 11:30-1:30 and goes to bed at 8:30pm. We will try to go visit the area that she was found, as it will be a very sacred place to all of us. I thank her birthmother for placing her in an area where she knew she would be found and taken to the proper authorities. I always wondered if she would be found by some sort of body of water, as Mike and I are definitely water people. I sent her care package out today which had pictures of her new home and pictures of mommy and daddy as well as her grandma's and grandpa's. We included a thank you gift to her nanny and some postcards from Florida. I was told that Chinese people love American music, so I also included an American Idol CD along with clothes for Mia. I sent quite a few outfits so whatever they do not use will be donated to the orphanage. We have sent in all our paperwork for our visas and are awaiting our travel arrangements. In the meantime, SHOP, SHOP, and SHOP!

What an emotional week Mike and I have had. I did not expect the call when it came. Norman (our agencies director) called Monday evening, I was home already and was getting dinner ready. I was on pins and needles all day and saw that others were getting their calls and when the call didn't come I said "Oh well, we'll get the call tomorrow". He totally caught me off guard and I was on my cell phone with my friend Grace when my phone rang and I saw the caller ID. Poor Grace, I dropped the phone and started screaming, "Grace its THE call" I think I just put my cell phone down and everything else is a big blur. Mike was not home, so as soon as I hung up with Norman I called his cell. What a wave of emotions from a phone call. The next day Mia's paperwork arrived at my work and believe it or not, I did not open it and drove home to open it with Mike and my parents. She is so beautiful and looks very healthy. Our agency has several children from the same orphanage and it will be so nice to travel together to get our girls.

We had some family and friends come to visit this weekend. It was wonderful and we even got to see the shuttle launch on Tuesday from the beach. We have to say that we are so fortunate to have such great family and awesome friends. The calls and emails that we have received has been overwhelming. You really get to know who in your life is important!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!

Friends Family and Fun!!!!