Nanchang! and a recap of yesterday's events

Well, my VPN failed and we didn't have access until today when we landed in Nanchang.  We are safely ensconsed in at the Jen Feng Hotel, with adjoining rooms down the hall from the children's play room.  It is raining, but that doesn't matter one bit to us.  Tomorrow will be a beautiful day, no matter the weather.

We found out today that Keira is healthy and has been in foster care, and we actually get to meet the foster mother tomorrow!!  I am so relieved and can rest a little easier knowing she has at least known family life and has been nurtured by someone who cares about her.

Yesterday we exprienced Bejing-a-palooza...the trifecta of Chinese tourism.  We started at Tiennamen Square - which was closed.  Of course.  We travel around the globe for a (probably) once in a lifetime trip, and the darn thing is closed? Our guide was super organized and had us all on a tight schedule, so we breezed by it for a quick picture-taking opportunity and quickly moved on to the Forbidden City - which was massive.

The challenge was getting through the Forbidden City with a stroller.  There are mountains of steps and doorways and bad pavement.  Clearly the designers did not anticipate Princess Kenna.  Actually, she would have been just fine had we let her roam around the whole place, but then there's that pesky fear of losing her in a crowd of thousands of people who don't speak the same language.   Brian carried that stroller up and down every step in that place, with Kenna in it!  We usually get plenty of stares from people just trying to figure out our family in general, but I'm sure it was quite unusal to see the large white man carrying the tiny Asian girl in a bright pink stroller up and down the stairs of this ancient Chinese palace!

And then there is the Great Wall.  There is no way to do it justice in words or pictures.  It is truly amazing, and that is a huge understatement.  I wanted to go for a while, but didn't think the kids would hold up for long. Boy was I wrong -- Connor practically sprinted up the Wall, leaving all of us in his dust.  Kenna climbed every bit of it herself, and got lots of  'thumbs ups' from everyone she passed.  They wanted to keep going, but the grownups had had enough! 

The day before, we had a free day, so we went to the Bird's Nest and Water Cube at the site of the Beijing Olympics.  It was a beautiful day, and Olympic Park filled up with tourists and vendors selling everything from olympic memorabilia to sausage on a stick.  We bought both! I think we were in Hanoi during the 2008 Olympic Games -- we've kind of come full-circle now :)

We are settling in to our hotel and are anticipating the ways our lives will change tomorrow when we meet Keira.  It's starting to become real now.  The crib in the room was really the jolt I think I needed! 

Next post, we'll be a family of FIVE!!
Program note - it is a lot easier to post pics to Facebook, so check my page there for more pictures!