Hutong Village by Pedestrian Taxi

We got to see an old Chinese village by pedi-cab which is a large tricyle with space to sit on the back.

Hello, Room 119

Here is Elizabeth waving to all her friends from the Great Wall. Lots of steps!

At the Great Wall

Here we are at the Great Wall. The weather was terrific (much better than the 86 degrees we had the last time here). We rode the cable car to the top and hiked around a bit.

We are still recovering from jet lag, but are doing better this evening. Tomorrow we meet with our adoption agency, do a bit more touring, before taking an early morning flight on Monday to Gaungzhou. We are glad to have a couple days to recover from the trip over, but are anxious to get Sarah. We have already met a couple of families adopting 2-3 year olds and are encouraged by how well they are making the adjustment. Our next post should be of a family of four!

In Beijing

We made it to Beijing after the 5 hour flight to LA, a 15 hour flight to Guangzhou, then 3 more hours to Beijing. We have no clue what time it is! We were up at 2 AM this morning, ready to begin our day.

Hopefully, by the time we get Sarah on Monday, we will be on China time.

Now, off to see the Great Wall!

In LA with a midnight flight to China

We've got the first 5 hours of flying behind us and Elizabeth is already tired of airplanes! The LA hotel has a nice pool, so we will swim and perhaps visit an aquarium here before flying out tonight. Today's goal is to tire Elizabeth out so she sleeps most of the 13 hours across the ocean.

All packed and ready to go

We did a dry run of packing and miracle of miracle we have extra room. I guess this being our second trip allows for greater sense of selection and knowing what not to bring. I'll take the largest suitcase over to the Vets and use their scale to make sure its not too heavy but so far it looks like a go. I also know that many new clothes and other things will appear for the trip home to replace what we will be leaving. It feels strange to have everything ready and two days yet to wait. Elizabeth is jumping all around the house, hoping to pack yet one more stuff animal (she did manage to include another hand puppet). Other than needing some warm clothes and coats in Beijing we caught a break with the weather, should be just right for the bulk of the time.
Reese

Big Sister's Artwork

Last year as we were going through the paperchase and homestudy, Elizabeth started to integrate the idea of a little sister. On the right is her drawing from August 2006.

The one to the left is a version of her almost daily drawings depicting Elizabeth and Sarah at the playground. The detail of this one includes a big girl swing and a baby swing for little sister.

The one below is from this week. Elizabeth thinks about her new sister a lot.