Paperwork Pregnant Delivers!

2006-09-27T08:24:00.000-04:00

Around Guangzhou - Shamian Island is an island in Guangzhou city. This was our final stop as the US Consulate is located here. We stayed at the White Swan Hotel which is used by many of the adoption agencies. We were no longer a spectacle but part of a majority now. Shamian island covers an area of 24,000 sq meters and is a gazetted historical area that serves as a tranquil reminder of the colonial European period, with quiet pedestrian avenues flanked by trees and lined by historical buildings in various states of upkeep. (Yep... I totally copied that verbiage from the website referenced above!!)

Various bronze statues are scattered around the island which depict life as it was during earlier periods on the island, as well as from more recent times. The one right below references China adoptive parents.

Every side street was picturesque....

Here is a shop we visited twice... they gave Gracie the cutest tambourine/rattle... she loves it! Josh bought a finger painting of the Great Wall from this shop. When I say fingerpainting... it isn't in the sense we are all familiar with. Rather, the fingers are imprinted on to a page to create a beautiful scene. There is an art to it and the work is beautiful!

We met this newlywed couple on the walk back to our hotel after Gracie's physical exam. They gave me permission to photograph them!

This was a common site... dinner hanging in the window...

Many of the shop owners lived behind their stores... this is behind one such storefront...

The parks are not only for children... here is a section built just for adults. All equipment is actually exercise oriented. This woman was working on a machine equivalent to a ski machine. There were stair climbers, rowing machines, step machines.... and they all looked like children's playground equipment!

Shamian Park is right next door to our hotel. We watched many people ballroom dancing (there were lights and speakers up in all the trees)... it was quite a pretty site. This park is also on the waterfront so that really added to the ambiance. We also watched fan dancing and hackey-sack playing.

2006-09-24T17:56:00.000-04:00

WE.ARE.HOME!

Phew.... Saturday the 23rd was the longest day EVER! We started the day at 4:30am Saturday morning (4:30pm Friday the 22nd FL time) and landed in Orlando at about 6pm Saturday evening (6am Sunday morning China time!!)

Gracie had a bit of a rough time on the longer of the three flights but I'll get in to that in another post.... too pooped to type all that.

We came home to an awesome sight.... some of our closest friends met us at the airport holding banners and hand made signs welcoming us and specifically Gracie home. Of course I cried! Hellloooo.... that's all I've been doing for the past couple of months but I think I'm good now. Yep... I'm all cried out... I think... lol. Nothing like meeting your friends smelling like baby vomit and only God knows what other scents and stains on my shirt... I'll give you a hint... Gracie went through 4 outfits and only wanted me holding her and had two major blowouts! LOL!!

On the homefront...My car was decorated.... it resembled a "just married" car with pink ribbons and window writing...

there was an "it's a girl" sign in the yard and a bunch of balloon bouquets too.... a huge ladybug bouquet at the front door, another one on the mailbox, several in the house with pink balloons and streamers everywhere!! There were quite a few leftover pink balloons that were blown up and placed in Ed's truck! There was also a big bouquet of flowers in Gracie's room ... another bouquet on the kitchen table, a stocked refrigerator with the essentials. Then there was an awesome handmade banner using scrapbook paper that said welcome home Gracie.... I could go on and on. We have the most awesome friends in the world!!!

Our luggage finally arrived on Sunday... oh yeah... didn't mention that 4 of our bags decided to make the trip to Orlando separately.... and lucky us... we didn't know about the TSA locks so one of our bags was broken in to and a "courtesy card was placed inside the bag with the broken lock.... and after carefully packing hair gel, lotions, soaps etc.... they were left loose in another bag and well... you just can't imagine the mess it made, not sure the bag is salvageable...that would be a small part of the wonderful (insert sarcasm here) flying experience we had... more on that later. One thing for sure...we won't be flying anywhere anytime soon.

Two of our flights were actually affected by a super typhoon (by US standards it was a cat 5) that was headed towards Japan... the pilot had us all buckled up for a good part of the first flight and part of the second flight.. who knew, it was pretty far off but man it was scary! When we landed at Narita Airport (Tokyo) we were fishtailing down the runway.... Gracie slept well her first night and not so much last night... was in bed by 10:30 pm the first night and slept until 4:30 am... not bad considering her body clock was thinking it was the afternoon. She loves her room and has had a blast with the toys. She is constantly smiling and giggling... such a different baby from a week ago!!

That's all for now... still have more pictures to post from China but currently having trouble doing so.... will update soon.

Thanks again to those of you who left comments on our blogs or e-mailed us personally... it was so awesome to hear from everyone!

2006-09-22T11:08:00.000-04:00

Day 11 - Guangzhou - AKA Last day in China

Our girls posed for the traditional "Red Couch" photo and as you can see, our little Chongqing princess is pitching a royal fit! She is the one in red on the front row. She looked sooo cute in her traditional silk outfit. The skirt is like a crenlin. Absolutely gorgeous our spicy girl is!! (Chongqing girls are called spicy girls for their feisty attitudes and the fact that it's one of 4 provinces known throughout China for it's spicy food!.... Ask Ed, he numbed his tongue when we did traditional hot pot while in Chongqing!!).

It's been a wonderful trip and Gracie is a joy! We are learning more and more about her every day. Tonight one of the shop clerks took time to translate over 20 pages of information that the orphanage provided to us on the scrapbook pages I mentioned in the post regarding the day we received Gracie. This in itself is a priceless gift!!!

This is our last post from China... we have a 4:30 am wake-up call (that's 4:30pm Friday for you East Coast folks) and we are in the air by 9am! We will be in Orlando late tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. Gracie will become a US citizen once we land in MN.

I will post more pictures and info about today once we are back home. Right now we need to pack up the laptop!

Thanks to everyone who sent encouraging e-mails and comments. They mean more than you can imagine! See you in the states!!

With love,
Ed, Lisa, Josh and Gracie

2006-09-21T09:52:00.000-04:00

Gracie had a great day!!! She was in such a great mood. She laughed, played and moved around alot. When she came to us five days ago she would just sit there and check things out. The orphange had told us that she could walk with help. Well, we could not get her to even stand up with help, crawl or anything, she would just sit there.

Today as you see we had a major break through. She is not only standing with our help but she it also walking with our help. She has also been picking up her toys and throwing them or hitting us with them. Then she laughs so loud. I would say that she is getting use to us.

One more day and then we will be on our way home. Good night from China. Ed, Lisa, Josh and Gracie.

2006-09-21T09:32:00.000-04:00

Use Asian accent when reading this...... "Mom, I have a present for you, I give you hint.....it's in my diaper and it is not a toaster!!!!"

2006-09-21T08:39:00.000-04:00

Day 11 - Guangzhou

Here we are at the White Swan... how awesome is this lobby?? This was the backdrop to this morning's breakfast buffet!

Josh adores Gracie!

Today was a "free" day (ie; shopping day!) After breakfast we took a walk in the park next door. It's so cool how people really enjoy the parks and local amenities. In every city we have been in, it wasn't unusual to see people, especially the seniors, enjoy the parks and congregate there to socialize with each other in numerous activities. As we strolled through the park, we came upon group after group ballroom dancing! There were speakers in the trees along with lights. For those who didn't have a partner to dance with, they danced alone with their arms outstretched as if they were holding someone. We also watched a lady give instruction to a couple of others learning to fan dance. We also happened upon what we thought was "hackey-sack"! But instead what we found was a disc looking thing with a feather attached. It was tossed to the others in the group with your foot... like hackey sack. Ed was asked to join in and had a pretty good time....

After some morning shopping, we came back to the room so Gracie could nap and look what arrived! It's the "Going Home" Barbie by Mattel. It's a Caucasian Barbie with an Asian baby! It really choked me up... and here I thought the tears were over!

After nap time we went to have lunch at "Lucy's Bar and Grill"... it's very western and such a fun place to eat. Nothing like hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" playing while eating in China! Each room at Lucy's is decorated with movie posters and memorabilia from the States.

Gracie had her very first french fry today although by the look on her face she clearly looked confused.

"Ummmmm.... Yeah..... this isn't a Chinese noodle guys... you want me to do what?"

We ended the day with a group dinner at a local dining establishment... it was very nice and served Cantonese food. It was served family style and we successfully ate it all with Chopsticks. Most unusual thing we ate tonight? Goose! And it was good. We found out after we had eaten it. LOL

2006-09-21T00:30:00.000-04:00

Day 9 - Continued

By the way.... Gracie did really well on her first plane ride. Although she had a rough night and we did have to get up at 4:45.... both Ed and I were up with her at different times for about three hours in the night... we gave her a new nickname that suited her to a "t".... and let's just say that the entire group agreed.... "little miss sunshine"... she was a big old grouch and for the first time only wanted mommy. But the day ended well.

After visiting the clinic, we decided to check out a few of the vendors. We walked in to one store where the owner offered to write Gracie's name in Chinese calligraphy for free. It came out so beautiful I want to frame it when we get home. But I digress.... when I started spelling out her name, I just gave him Grace, he stopped me and asked "like the Bible"? I said yes. His eyes lit up and and he said "I know! I'm a Christian!" I said we were too and he was sooo excited to meet us. I wanted to say... "are you allowed to even profess that?" but I figure he knew what he was doing. : ) Anyway... it was really neat.

We found a place that will develop the disposable cameras for us... couldn't do that in Chongqing for some reason..... Anyway, we dropped off the cameras that were returned to us by Gracie's orphanage and ordered a stone etching. They are rushing it for us since we will only be here a few days... so that was pretty cool! I have also found a chop for both Josh and Gracie... most of them have the zodiac animal and other symbolic dealies on them but the one I found for Gracie is for adoption and has a ladybug on one side and a butterfly on the other.... ladybug is an adoption thing here and the butterfly symbolizes new life. Oh... FYI.... a chop is a rubber stamp that is carved out of wood with your name in English and Chinese. :)

Josh found a Calabash Flute that sounded awesome when the guy demonstrated for us. The music he made was amazing and there are two very distinct sounds that come from it. One of the sounds was like bag pipes! It's handmade out of bamboo. He bought that and they even gave him sample music and instructions... funny.... it doesn't sound like it did when the guy played it! LOL.... Josh has actually gotten it to sound okay a few times.... : )

2006-09-20T08:14:00.000-04:00

Day 9 - Guangzhou
One of the final stages of our adoption is to have Gracie "officially" examined.

The medical office was about a 10 minute walk form the hotel. It was extremely peaceful as we are on an island right now... not a big one mind you but one none the less. We walked through a beautiful park and by a school... it was very pretty. As you can see, Gracie was all set for her exam....

The "examine" consists of three stations:

1. The medical/surgery station where we are asked general questions about her health since with us. I was a bit hesitant to share her congestion as they are really on the look out for SARS. But with the help of Shiyan, we were able to get through this station and come out with a prescription for her. Also at this station, they took measurements of her head, took her temp, listened to her heart and checked her diaper. Here is what Gracie thought about this station...

2. Here you see me preparing my daughter for the awful task of getting weighed and measured..... by the way... she is now 22.7 lbs..... this explains why she is fitting comfortably in to the 12mos outfits we brought.... 18 mos hangs a tad bit but very nice to be able to wear some of the cute 12 mos ones!

3. Here is the ENT station. I honestly don't remember what took place here other than the doc looking in Gracie's ears and down her throat...

Once we returned to our room.... it was play time and all was right with the world!

2006-09-20T06:09:00.000-04:00

Around Chongqing:

2006-09-19T04:03:00.000-04:00

Day 8 - Chongqing

This is our last full day in Chongqing. We have a wake up call at 5am tomorrow morning where we will travel to Guangzhou for the third and final leg of this amazing journey! It should be interesting to see how Gracie and the other babies do on the plane. But enough about tomorrow.... here's what we did today!

We started the day out with two blow-out diapers! Yep.... didn't think you'd be reading about poopy diapers now did you? LOL! Looks like we have things under control thanks to banannas, rice congee and pedialite!

We visited the Chongqing Zoo today to see the pandas! Did you know that nearly 80% of the pandas come from the Chongqing Province? It was very cool to see these guys up close. We caught them at feeding time. These guys were tearing up the bamboo! We saw one panda mama that had borne six cubs over her life and is the worlds oldest mama panda bear. The zoo was really quite pretty... the gardens and the swan pond were gorgeous.

Gracie enjoyed riding around in her stroller... but I think she was on sensory overload and was a bit quiet. Funny note... Gracie christened Ed today! So much for Huggies (China brand)... they leaked! I turned around and it was just pouring out her diaper on to Ed's shirt. I'm not upset... Josh christened me while still in the hospital...turnabout is fair play...right? Heee-heee

We ended the afternoon with Chongqing "hot pot". It's kind of like going to the Melting Pot and there in the center of your table is the pot to cook your food. It's in two layers with the center being the "hot" pot. Hot does not even begin to describe the spices! Ed ate a piece of meat that was cooked and it numbed his tongue! We think one of the little peppers may have been hidden in it. But yep... about a half hour his tongue was messed up! They brought us all kinds of food to cook.... chicken, fish, pork, beef, sausage, mini-weiners, water chestnuts, noodles, crab rolls, and other things I just didn't recognize! : )

This is our last post from Chongqing and I am not sure of the connections at the White Swan so if I don't post for a bit you'll know that it was due to a bad connection. We are hoping for blue skies and warm weather.... we haven't seen a blue sky (seriously) since leaving FL. Beijing was very smoggy and Chongqing was no different. It's like fog all day long! : (

2006-09-18T08:04:00.000-04:00

'Nuff Said.....

2006-09-18T01:44:00.000-04:00

Day 7 - Chongqing

It's raining here in Chongqing. Today is a free day so we used it to get to know our new daughter. We did run across the street to a huge department store to get some items. Seems I can't find things I packed and have already run out of baby wipes and on the last of the diapers... how many Chongqing locals does it take to help an American buy diapers? Answer at bottom of post!

We had a break through with Gracie today... yesterday she would just sit wherever we put her and not move or do much. When she did reach for a toy it was with very small, slow precise movements. She was a huge daddy's girl and preferred Ed to Me and Josh....don't get me wrong...We do great when Ed isn't around! LOL! Today she has turned a corner and enjoys me holding her and has reached her arms up to me quite a bit and has allowed me to console her when not happy. Starting to feel like a normal mom again!! : ) We brought her down for breakfast with us and I fed her congee and steamed egg. She really likes steamed egg... note to self... find out how to steam an egg!

While Ed was at the bank, Josh and I were able to witness her first smile with us!! We even got some giggles out of her! And she no longer sits still, she turns herself around and follows what's going on and moves around to get to toys. As an added bonus, she throws the toys she doesn't want! : ) When Ed returned, he introduced her to the "raspberry"... it was sooo funny! She has been a happy baby all day!

Ed was pretty happy too when he found he could pick up the Sunday night game between the Cowboys and the Redskins on the hotel's ESPN channel. It was all narrated in Chinese, but hey.... it was football!!!

We went to the dept store to buy Miss Gracie some shoes (sooo cute and sooo cheap!!) and we were told (in Chinese) that we needed to put long sleeves on Gracie. I had already planned on buying her a cardigan or lightweight jacket so that was fine. Ended up with an adorable pink hoodie style jacket and an adorable pink cardigan!! (I love that I can buy pink!!) Then the sales clerks told me I needed to cover up her legs and brought over sweat suits....okay... the store was like 185 degrees and we were all sweating....even Gracie was breaking out in a heat rash. I had to say no to the pants. We also found a nice lightweight stroller for the rest of our time here and for the airports. *Note to Shauna - You won't be able to miss us next Saturday... we'll be the ones with the neon orange Mickey Mouse stroller!! We didn't bring a hip hammock and really needed something for the airports and tomorrow's trip to see the pandas. When we put Gracie in the stroller she got really upset. The sales lady came back with a cute little rattle and then gave me the box...I guess that's one way to sell your goods! lol

So how many Chongqing locals does it take to help an American buy diapers? The answer is six! Five to help us figure out the size by checking out Gracie, using an American one from our diaper bag and one to translate what everyone was saying! Everything was in KG instead of pounds...guess I should have paid better attention to the metric system when I was in school..... we ended up with the correct size and then spent the next 5 minutes trying to explain what "baby wipes" were and why I needed them! Good thing I have good Charades skills (thanks to Linda A's games!)... you should have seen me try to ask for a piece of chicken breast at KFC at the Beijing Airport yesterday..... nothing like pointing to your chest and making a sign of a chicken! LOL Apparently they don't sell chicken breast but the 'keel' like we used to have in the states years ago.

I leave you with Daddy's Girl!

2006-09-17T07:20:00.000-04:00

More thoughts on Gracie Day

Visiting the orphanage really was an opportunity that will not soon be forgotten. This was a rare opportunity in deed. The children were well cared for. It was obvious that the nannies really enjoyed the children. We were all presented with a "care" package of our own. It contained the powdered milk that Gracie currently drinks, the two cameras we sent over to the orphanage (which we will get developed while we are here) and photos!!! Tons of them! Each photo mounted to a sheet of paper with writing and drawing... kind of like scrapbook pages put together by the nannies. We now have pictures of Gracie from 1 month on!! Again, very rare indeed! We were also given a professional photograph of Gracie that was mounted in a nice frame.

Here is Gracie back at the hotel... she wasn't keen on me removing her outfit so I decided to accessorize instead! Note the yellow socks and wideband.

We all headed over to the Civil Affairs office to officially adopt Gracie. We also had the VISA photo made. They gave us an official plate from the city in a nice wooden box to commemorate the adoption. This will be nice to hand down to Gracie.

While Ed went to scrounge up dinner (Pizza Hut... woohoooo!) I gave Gracie her first bath! She really enjoyed the water and didn't fuss at all. She did fuss when I put her in footie pjs! Conway, Anne and I got some congee and steamed egg custard for the babies and they feasted for a while... Gracie can eat!! She ate a bowl and a half!

Gracie pooped out about 7:20pm.... she was exhausted. By day end she was still a bit unsure of things and very cautious. We haven't had a smile yet but she is a bit more relaxed. We are hoping she will begin to open up soon. Tomorrow is a free day and we plan on getting to know our daughter and doing a bit of shopping. The shoes we brought with us are too big... and would like to find her some outfits too. We love our new baby daughter/sister... Josh held her for the first time and she just stared at him! It was cute really... he gave her the sweetest little kiss and she just kept looking at him... melted my heart! Josh has been an awesome help to us since Gracie arrived and a day doesn't go by that we don't hear him complimented by another family. We are so blessed to have two great kids!

2006-09-17T01:49:00.000-04:00

So we are now a family of four. Gracie was a bit upset at first but fell asleep in my arms on the bus ride back to the hotel. Ed and Josh went to the grocery store with our Bethany leader Cheyenne and brought back some baby essentials...like Ramen Noodles. Yep... apparently that's a must! : ) Boy did she love them! It was really fun to watch her slurp them up.

She presented me with her first poopy diaper and I think she is working on number two from the noises that are coming from her. We are about to head over to the civil affairs office to make her officially ours in the eyse of China. They are coming to do this for us today on their day off as a favor. Our trip was shortened based on a holiday that's coming up... so it's really great that they are working with us on this.

All the babies seem to be doing really well and they are all soooo cute. Gracie seems to really just be checking us all out. Not really sure what to make of us all really. We have been able to get her to play with her stacking cups and has been hodling on to the same Cheerio for the past hour! LOL

Have to run will add more info later. What an amazing day and all thanks to our amazing God!!

2006-09-16T23:54:00.000-04:00

Day 6 - Gracie Day!

Waiting our turn at the orphanage

Here she is with one of her nannies

The moment we have been waiting a very long time for

We are now a family of four!

She started getting a bit upset

Daddy walked her up and down the hallway whispering "don't cry" in Chinese

Gracie was one of the babies without any illness but she has a bit of a cough. She's just kind of checking us out for now...

Will try to post more later... We have an appointment to have the adoption finalized with the government later this afternoon and we'll see what Miss Gracie thinks we should do... : ) We are thrilled beyond words and we love reading all the e-mails... you make our day!!!

2006-09-16T11:14:00.000-04:00

Day 5 - Chongqing

We are in Gracie's hometown! Weird saying "town" because Chongqing is anything but a town. We drove in at night and WOW! There are so many unique sky-scrapers....all of them are lit up and it just looks amazing! The plane ride was very nice... only 2.5 hours and we were given a movie, a full meal and the beverage cart came by 3 times! Now, on our domestic flight which was 3 hours we did not get a movie, beverage cart came by only one time and we got a mini bag of pretzels... what's wrong with this picture? LOL

We arrived at our hotel and WOW! Yeah... I'm using that word a lot! But we are in a brand new hotel that has been open for only 2 weeks. It's a five star (thank you Bethany!!) and we have a marble foyer (and a doorbell)

and a huge, I mean HUGE bathroom with marble floors and counters.

There is a separate shower (the water comes form the ceiling) and a huge garden tub! Honestly, we could probably fit 10 people in that bathroom!

We were welcomed with cute stuffed pandas on the beds and have a great desk/work area. We are on the 25th floor and have a pretty nice view of the city!

But by far the best thing about the room is this:

We were given updated pictures of the babies on the way to the hotel and well..... we have a little baldie! : ) Because the weather has been unbelievabley hot this summer, the staff shaved the girl's heads to help keep them cool. Apparently the orphanage does not have AC. She looks soooo big! And soooo cute! But they have her in a shirt that was meant for a boy... glad I also brought hats and headbands.... She is still taking a bottle as well.... I packed up her diaper bag... by far one of the best things I have done today : ). I can't believe it's finally time.....

COUNTDOWN TO GRACIE DAY HAS BEGUN!! In about 8 hours we will finally hold the little girl we have been praying our hearts out for! We will try to update the blog as soon as we can but that all depends on Miss Gracie! We will spend the morning with her and then head back out to complete the adoption on the China side of things... more paperwork..... ugh!

G'night and sweet dreams from Chongqing (pronounced Chong-Ching)! : )

2006-09-16T10:50:00.000-04:00

Day 5 - Beijing

I climbed the Great Wall and used a squatty potty! Just when I thought things couldn't get more interesting!!

The Great Wall is absolutely amazing. Unfortunately the smog/fog/haze or whatever you want to call this stuff, followed us from Beijing and almost all of the pictures had that fuzzy kind of look to them.

This wall is sooooo steep! It was funny watching everyone climb up because it was so steep everyone was hunched over!

When we got to the top we had our picture taken and placed on a laminated certificate. What a cool way to remember the trip. I think the thing that amazed me the most was how the mountains looked. I knew there would be mountains but I wasn't prepared for the beauty and how similar they are to the Rocky Mountains.

Josh was also in awe of the wall.... It's truly an amazing site to see!

On our way to the airport guess what we passed? Yep... the Olympic Village and the stadium that is being built for the 2008 Olympics! It's massive and very modern looking. The majority of the site is covered up with massive billboards but we found this hole and got this shot!!

2006-09-15T09:22:00.000-04:00

We will be in Chongqing tomorrow evening. Because we don't know what the Internet access will be like at our hotel, we may not be able to post as often. We will get pictures of Gracie out here though. I am fairly certain that the Internet will be available but wanted to put this out there just in case you do not hear from us in the next day or so.

God Bless and please continue to keep all of us in your prayers! A Big Thank You to all of you who have sent notes!! We love them!!!

2006-09-15T08:25:00.000-04:00

We went to a local resteraunt for dinner tonight. We ordered 1 entree per family and shared family style. What a great assortment of food. We were very adventurous and tried a number of items.

Josh and I both learned how to eat using chopsticks. We had no silverware and didn't leave hungry!

The tea was brewed in drinking glasses... each glass came to us with the tea leaves we ordered and hot water was added.

No one spoke English so it was a bit of a challenge ordering. We got everything we had thought we ordered however we did get tripped up on the "fried noodles"... they brought us a bowl of ramen noodle soup! LOL

We celebrated the sucess of our authentic Chinese meal with Baskin Robbins!

Tarita and Lisa

Conway and Anne

2006-09-15T04:42:00.000-04:00

Around Beijing:

2006-09-15T04:25:00.000-04:00

Day 4 - Beijing

Well today is our last full day in Beijing. I can't believe we leave for Chongqing tomorrow afternoon!! We will start the day out by visiting the Great Wall and head to the afternoon for a late afternoon flight! We will be in Gracie's hometown tomorrow evening! We will welcome Gracie in to our family first thing the next morning!

But back to today....
Our group visited the Forbidden City and Tianenman Square. We had already visited both of these sites two days ago and frankly I wasn't to thrilled to go again. But wow... we saw so much more today! I think it had a lot to do with our Bethany guide Joy. She really explained a lot and gave us some free time to explore. We saw so much more and really enjoyed ourselves. I am amazed that thousands of locals flock to these sites every day. And there are no rides! I guess living in Orlando has jaded me a bit when it comes to attractions. It seems like you just don't go someplace unless the rides are good. LOL!

At Forbidden City - Imperial Garden

Imperial Garden - Forbidden City

Ed and Josh at Forbidden City

Our Bethany Group

The Olympic Countdown is On!

Scott and Anne, Ed and Josh

We also toured a Hutong. We all took rickshaw rides in to a neighborhood called a Hutong. A hutong is an ancient city alley or lane typical in Beijing, where hutongs run into the several thousand. What an eye opener. Some of the homes were really quaint while others represented poverty we just don't see back home. Residents rent these homes for very modest fees (kind of like rent control)and while they cannot change the outside they can do whatever they want to the inside. The one we visited had crown molding and wood floors. Very nice. But from the outside? It looked war torn. Our guide explained that the government is currently doing work to restore the outsides as well. This was evident as we drove by some of the other Hutongs.

Ed's Ride

Lisa and Josh in Ricksaw

We are about to head out for dinner with some of the group... and then it's creative packing time. We need to have our bags outside our doors by 7:30 am where they will be picked up and deliverd to the airport. We head to the Great Wall at 8am... we are very excited abou this trip! Who knew we would one day see the Great Wall? Who knew we would one day adopt a baby from China! What a trip this has been so far!

Enjoy today's pictures!

2006-09-14T09:52:00.000-04:00

Day 3 - Beijing

Today we decided to lay low after the big day yesterday. We started off with breakfast in the hotel...ahhhhh the western buffet is turning out to be our biggest meal each day! We met up with the rest of the families. I can't tell you how fun it is to finally put a face to the folks we have been chatting on line with for the past year or so! They are a great bunch and we are having so much fun with them all!

Ed and I got massages today... holy cow! We got to get them together so that was fun... and the total cost was less than what one of us would have paid back home!

Josh worked on homework, we both did some reading and just enjoyed the day. We finished out the day by attending an acrobatic show. It was really cool! Including pictures below.

Tomorrow we get off to an early start and head out with the goup for the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and a Hutong Tour. Gotta go to bed.... still trying to adjust to the time.... Josh was out like a light and Ed wasn't too far behind. I nodded off during dinner last night (not cool) and fell asleep on the way back from tonight's show! LOL.

We get Gracie in just under 2 days now.... can't believe it!!! Stay tuned. Thanks for checking in and a special thanks to those who are leaving comments and/or sending e-mail! It's great to hear from everyone... what a pick me up!!

Stacey - No more spending on things I can get in GZ...thanks for the heads up... I have spread the word....we all thought we were doing so well too! : )

2006-09-14T09:32:00.000-04:00

Sign 'o the Day:

Day 1 -

Day 2 -

Day 3 -

2006-09-14T09:21:00.000-04:00

Day 2 – Beijing

We decided to take a tour of some of the places we wouldn’t be visiting when the rest of the group arrived. On the agenda:

Summer Palace
Temple of Heaven
Tiananmen Square
Forbidden City

We were surprised with a few extra stops along the way as well. It was a loooooong day! We started at 8 am and didn’t return to our hotel until 5:30 pm. When we weren’t on the bus we were walking and walking and walking and walking. I think I shall rename this trip the “China Diet” since I am not eating much and walking a ton! LOL

Because we have a lot of photos to post, I am going to give each stop it’s own entry. Enjoy!

2006-09-14T09:19:00.000-04:00

Day 2 - Beijing - Summer Palace

We started out our tour by visiting Summer Palace. This palace was built for the royal family to relax and enjoy time away during... you guessed it, the summer! There is a beautiful man made lake that sits in the middle of it all and to say the entire place was breath taking would be an absolute understatement. There is so much history here. Our tour guide shared many stories about the royal family that built these grounds. The large rock formations were brought in from all over China for the emporor since he liked rocks when he was a child. I think all little boys love to collect rocks but holy moly! : ) We ended our visit to this site by taking a boat across the lake... just beautiful.

After the Summer Palace we went to a pearl market and then to cute little resteraunt which I am sad to say we didn't eat much from. We have been pretty good at trying out new foods but let's just say the food was a little bit too authentic at this place. Although, they did have a tray of "American" hot dogs available to us... they were sliced and placed on sesame seed loaves with lettuce and tomato... okay. : )

2006-09-14T09:18:00.000-04:00

Day 2 – Temple of Heaven

This is also known as Qigu Hall and it was the spot where the emperor of the Ming and Qing dynasties prayed for good harvest in Spring. While there are many temples scattered throughout Beijing, this is one of the best known. There were two other halls but both were being renovated for the ’08 Olympics so we didn’t have access to either. Temple of Heaven grounds include beautiful landscaping and parks where we watched locals enjoying the weather and each other. We climbed to the top and the view of Beijing was amazing! We could even see a ferris wheel in the distance… one of those really big ones like the one on the River Thames in London. The grounds surrounding this temple we could hear traditional instruments being played, people singing and playing. People of all ages were enjoying the day. I was taking pictures of a couple playing a paddle type ball game. They each had two paddles and bounced/balanced an odd shaped ball. They asked if I wanted to join in and let me tell you… I did but our tour guide was moving on and I had to decline.

2006-09-14T09:06:00.000-04:00

Day 2 – Tiananmen Square

This was built in 1417 during the Ming Dynasty and is the gateway to the Forbidden City. Initially it was used to declare in ceremony to the common people who became the emperor and who became the empress. Today Tiananmen Square covers 440,000 square meters and is now a relaxing place for the common people to fly kites and socialize. On holidays, the entire square is covered with fresh flowers… They were getting it ready for the national 7-day holiday that begins on October 1st so there was a lot of activity.

2006-09-14T02:52:00.000-04:00

Day 2 – Forbidden City

Forbidden City was forbidden territory for common people during the rule of the royal family. The grounds are made of thousands of rooms…. 9,999 rooms to be exact. The number 9 in China is a very lucky number that is why they never went for the 10,000th room. They also felt that the 10,000th room was occupied by a god. Once again, tons of the buildings were being renovated so we weren’t afforded a great view at times. Our guide took us straight up the center of the city so we weren’t able to explore the side halls. I don’t think a single day dedicated to touring this site would allow one to truly enjoy themselves. There is just too much to see.

At the end of the grounds was the Imperial Garden. BEAUTIFUL!!!! I am including pictures from there as well. We go back to this site on Friday with the Bethany group so we will have the opportunity to visit the other gardens and buildings we missed.

We then went to visit Jingshan Park which was across the street. BEAUTIFUL!! I wish I could post more pictures but it takes several minutes to load just one so I'll have to end this post with this one from the park.

We ended the afternoon having tea in the park at a Tea House.

For those of you who know us, you know we are quite the tea aficionadoes! This was MY temple of heaven!! We participated in a traditional tea ceremony and we're bringing some home! We drank jasmine tea with real flowers in it! It was like drinking a flower... none of the tea was what we are used to... the tea is actually hand rolled balls, pellets, leaves, flowers.... amazing stuff!

Josh really was having a good time... I thought this photo was pretty funny though!

A common scene in local parks...

2006-09-12T16:43:00.000-04:00

It's 4:30 in the morning... do you know where your family is?

Josh is reading a book.
Ed is eating Jelly-Belly's.
I am Blogging.

Me: I can't believe you are eating Jelly Bellys at 4:30 in the morning.
Ed: I can't believe you are Blogging at 4:30 in the morning.

Enough said... end of that conversation! LOL

2006-09-12T05:20:00.000-04:00

I.CAN’T.SLEEP.

Day 1 (con’t)

We found the Silk Market! What an experience that was. But not before the taxi ride from hell! I cannot even begin to describe what that was like! We came within a hairs breath of hitting pedestrian after pedestrian.... people on bicycles rode around with big targets on them as they were especially in danger! It is nothing for a car to cross over 3 lanes and swing in to a turn only lane without batting an eyelash! Paris cabbies have nothing on these guys! LOL! But anyway, we found out we were pretty close to the Silk Market and decided to head over there “just to look around”. FAMOUS.LAST.WORDS.

The atmosphere was incredible. Five floors packed with vendors who were selling everything from silk pajamas to pearls to iPods. The only bad thing was that if you even glanced at an item, the salesclerk started wheeling and dealing with you. This may be a good thing as it probably kept me from buying too much on this, our first full day in Beijing! At one point I had three different sales clerks holding my arms trying to get me into their store... they were from different stores. This happened to Ed to but all he could think about was that he should have asked me to take his picture so that he could share with everyone how he had three women fighting over him! LOL We happened to stop by a store selling ski clothes. I explained we had no use for them so the clerk asked us where we lived. We said Florida and she knew exactly where that was and proceeded to tell us that what we should do is outfit ourselves with her ski clothes and move north so that we can use them! She was serious.

Price Haggling 101
The prices that you are presented with are typically a bit high… but that’s all part of the game. I had been told that when you are presented with a price, no matter the amount, show a bit of concern or disinterest and they will start giving you a lower price. Now, one of the things we wanted to buy for Gracie was some silk pajamas. Note that they are not really pajamas but traditional wear. I have seen children’s silks at EPCOT for about $40… not surprising as Disney tends to mark everything up 500% anyway. I knew that I could get them for less than ½ of that price. I thought I would put my “haggling” lessons to work and see what would happened next. I present you with what happened next... (for the purposes of today's deomonstration, SM=Silk Market):

Me: How much for these pink silk pajamas?
SM: I can give to you at 400RMB (about $50)
Me: 400 RMB? That’s pretty high” at this point I gave her a look of concern and told her “no, that’s a lot”. That's what a good little haggler does...right?

CRITITCAL ERROR

I turned to Ed and do you know what this un-schooled on haggling man did? He said “That’s fine, I like them… and proceeded to count out the money”. First of all, hello, I wasn't looking for permission here! What happened to my husband? The man who hates when I spend too much? The man who can’t even stand shopping or crowds let alone the two combined? HELLOOOOOOOOO? So I gave him the look (ever see Everyone Loves Raymond? They did a whole episode on the look)... okay time to start re-tooling my strategy. I put them back on the rack and said I didn't think I liked them as much as I thought. Immediately the price dropped by 100RMB (now we are down to about $40…still some work to do because I really did like them!).

Me: I don’t think I’ll take these, maybe they aren’t exactly what I was looking for.
SM: I give you good price, you be my friend, 200RMB.
I decide to give Ed a second chance so I turned back to Ed again and what did this man who is not my husband say? THAT’S FINE. What is wrong with this guy…. Didn’t I just give him the look???? LOL

Long story short, I ended up paying 150RMB (about $18) and Gracie has now scored her first set of pink pjs! I had a long talk with my otherwise awesome husband and I think he gets the drift now and has decided to not be an active participant in the haggling game... that will now be one of my jobs on this trip. We left the Silk Market with a few other items and another set of silk pjs for Gracie…. Which I might add are way too cute!!

We ended the day having dinner with Anne and Scott, our Bethany travel mates. What a cool couple! We have been talking with them for over a year on the Bethany Boards and other online forums. The Internet is such an awesome thing… later today we will meet up with more of the Bethany families including Conway, Juleen, Rossette and Tarita who we have also been talking to for a while. We can’t wait!

Today we are off on a tour to see the Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace and the Forbidden City!

2006-09-12T05:07:00.000-04:00

Day 1 - Beijing
We started our day off with a great breakfast buffet! They had traditional Chinese foods along with western style foods such as cheerios and frootloops! I decided to try a couple of new food items and had an egg custard... it kind of looked like flan but it tasted like soft boiled eggs. I liked it. Also tried fried noodles and they were really good! Ed and Josh had those as well as eggs, bacon, sausage, etc... The hot tea was delish!

Our Hotel

We went exploring near the hotel and ended up in a mall!

We were really looking for a place to buy water and a few odds and ends and there we were. Very nice and super clean. The sales people follow you everywhere and there is tons of security. They had a car show in the middle of the mall (did I mention it was 5 stories) and they had beautiful women in evening gowns next to each of the cars...

Well afer returning to the room and doing a bit of research, we have discovered that we are mere blocks away from Forbidden City, the Pearl Market, the Silk Market and the Friendship Store. So it looks like we are going to head out and so some real exploring and maybe get a jumpstart on some shopping.

2006-09-11T13:57:00.000-04:00

We are here!! We got to Beijing at around 9:30 this evening... that would be 9:30am Monday morning to those back home!

What a loooooooooooooong trip! I have never been on a plane that long...EVER! We were given 3 movies to watch so that was cool.... but otherwise...yeeeesh! lol But how awesome it is to be in the same country as Gracie.... soooo close!!

Interesting stuff in no particular order... hellloooo... random girl here!

1. By the time we got to the hotel, it was 11pm and we were very hungry.... we learned that the McDonalds across the street is open 24 hours... but we didn't want to have to cross the 6 lane highway via underground tunnel at midnight... so being the "spoiled" Americans we are (LOL), we ordered room service. We ordered a very fancy spread indeed.... hot dogs! So I asked for 2 hot dogs each with a side of fries. That's it. Behold... this is what was brought to our room... table and all!

Yep... we were served 6 meals, with six orders of fries, six hot dogs, six silverware settings, and all on a big table for... you guessed it... six! So I'm thinking we need to work on our communication skills! lol

2. We got to watch an episode of Friends in English with Chinese sub-titles.
3. Japan has the funniest commercials, while we waited to board our connecting flight, they had a huge tv in the waiting area and it seemed like the commercials
WERE the shows... very entertaining!
4. The airport in Tokyo was very busy and very quiet. Weird.... just a very hushed atmosphere... they had plenty of stores and kiosks but it was still very quiet.
5. The Detroit Airport was pretty cool... they had an awesome water fountain that danced (mini version of what we see at Epcot)...you can see Ed and I in front of it and our huge plane behind us! We took a picture of Josh in front of it too.. just before he got sprayed by it... it will be posted to his blog in the morning.
6. The first thing we noticed when we deplaned were the smells of Beijing... lots of factories... not sure if it was smog or what but wow... this City is pretty cool and there is so much going on to prepare for the Olympics... we saw consruction workers working on projects as we drove to our hotel at 11pm!!
7. We have Internet.... Ed was able to determine that he and Josh were doing well in this week's fantasy football league.

2006-09-11T13:25:00.000-04:00

This is us in front of the fountain and our plane....

For Dan... by the way you were only off 1/4 lb on Lisa's suitcase weight! Your good!

2006-06-04T21:26:00.001-04:00

We're gone one day and look what happens... what's up with this??
Earthquake???