We got her!

Sorry there was no post yesterday we were having trouble with our internet. Yesterday we spent the day at the civil affairs office getting Delilah. It was very interesting seeing all of the different families getting their children. We saw some very heart breaking moments of other children that didn't want to go with their new parents. We were very lucky, Delilah seemed very happy with us from the start. She appears to be very healthy but, is also very developmentally delayed most likely from lack of attention at the orphanage. She has the motor skills of a 4-6 month old baby. She definitely seems to be making improvements just in the 24 hours we have had her. We realize that we have a lot of work to do but we are very confident that she will catch up. Today we spent the day doing some shopping around town. We went to a Walmart here in Changsha and whoa was it different. The food section was completely different than in the US. They sold lots of live food there like frogs, turtles, crabs and giant fish that you net yourself. Needless to say we didn't purchase any live food. We left with a few items and then went to a children's store to buy some things for Delilah. We had heard about the really good baby shoe prices and had to see for ourselves. We are going to have to do some creative packing to find space for the 6 or 7 pairs Tracy found...but leather shoes at $8 a pair had to be bought! Tomorrow we are going to a park, hopefully we will be able to show you some pictures of it when we get back assuming our internet connection cooperates. Forrest

Our first day in Changsha.

Today started with a 4:30 am wake up call. We had to be ready to leave the hotel by 5:30 am. It was not a problem since we are still not completely adjusted to the time difference and we were awake around 2 am. :) We expected to miss out on breakfast since the hotel did not start serving until 6:30 am. We had no idea that our day consisted of not one but two breakfasts. Waiting for us at the front desk were packaged breakfasts for every person in our 10 family travel group of around 25 people. It contained a banana, a hard boiled egg and 2 of the best tasting sausages we have ever had. They looked a little odd but were really good! Once we were all accounted for, we boarded the bus and headed to the airport. Because we were all going to different provinces, our guide had to get some help. We had a total of 3 guides to assist the 10 families. We made it thru security with LOTS of scrutiny. They were very interested in the powdered baby formula that I was carrying in my backpack, but allowed me to go thru. The airport was HUGE. We walked for a long time and the group kept getting smaller and smaller as the guides were taking them to different gates. Eventually it was down to 3 families and 1 guide. Forrest and I were going to one gate and the guide and other 2 families had to go an opposite direction so the guide just said to "go that way". We went and hoped for the best. We followed the signs and went down 2 levels to the correct gate where we had to board a bus to be taken to the plane! It was standing room only on the bus, REALLY hot and Forrest and I were the only foreigners on board. When the bus stopped we got out and boarded the plane by climbing up some stairs. We sat in a row of 3 next to an older woman who of course only spoke Chinese. She was very nice and kept touching my arms and then showing me her 2 layers of long sleeves. I think she thought I needed to be warmer. :) The on board announcements were in Chinese and then in English, which I thought was nice since it was ONLY for Forrest and I. :) Right after take off we were served another breakfast. Our flight was less than 2 hours and we were given, scrambled eggs, hash browns, snow peas, sausage, a fruit cup and a croissant with jam. You all know what you would be served on a U.S flight that was less than 2 hours....maybe a snack-definitely not an entire meal. The flight was easy and when we arrived at the airport, we found our luggage quickly and didn't even have to look for our new guide, Amy. She spotted us. I would guess we were easy to find. :) Changsha is much different than Beijiing. The weather is cooler and today was very gray. I am not sure if that is normal weather or not. Hoping for some sunshine tomorrow for our big day. We are meeting Amy and one other family in the lobby at 10:30 am to go to the Office of Civil Affairs, which is where we will receive Delilah! From what Amy said, it will be very quick. We already completed the initial paperwork this afternoon along with the other family that is here with us. Ready for something unbelievable? The other family whom we just met today, lives in San Diego! Mira Mesa, actually. How crazy is that? They are adopting a 7 year old boy. It is unbelievable that we are only one day away from meeting our daughter. :) No pictures today since we haven't done anything except travel but there will definitely be some tomorrow. :) Tracy

More photos from our day..

Sightseeing Day

Today we had a full day of touring. We started off at Tian'an men Square and walked to the Forbidden City. The architecture was amazing with tiny details on everything. Next we went to lunch at a big resturant that also houses a Cloissonne factory. We took a short tour of the factory and were shown the 7 very intricate steps taken to make each piece of art. Then we went to the resturant. The food was delicious. We are with a group of 10 families and we all shared 3 big round tables. The dishes were on a big lazy susan in the center of each table. After lunch we boarded our bus and headed to the Great Wall. It was a beautiful clear blue sky day, which our guide, Grace said is very unusual for Beijiing. Forrest and I made our way up the STEEP steps of the wall. I was able to make it up to the first level, just barely, and Forrest went quite a bit higher. He was one of the few in our group that went that high. It was an amazing experience. After the wall, we were back on the bus for about an hour, we drove past the Birds Nest and the Water Cube, both drawing a big post olympics crowd. Our day ended with a trip to McDonalds that was just a little different from home. :) Tracy

We made it!

We are here in Beiijing! We apologize for not posting sooner, but we have 2 excuses. 1- Our blog log in page was all in Chinese and 2-We were awake for 26 hours and therefore had no patience for trying to figure out how to fix it!

Our day started out on Thursday with a 7 am flight to San Francisco. We left SF at 11 am and flew non stop to Beijjing. We were delayed an hour in the air and finally landed around 3pm China time on Friday. Our luggage was here (hooray!) and we somehow managed to find our guide in literally a sea of 100's of people all holding signs looking for foreigners.

We met up with 2 other familes that were all on our flight. I believe there are more familes here and we will meet up with them in a couple hours when we go sightseeing.

Last night we went to an acrobat show that was AMAZING. We only stayed for 1/2 of it though. We were so tired that Forrest and I left at intermission and walked back to our hotel to get some rest.

We will have more to share after we get back from our tour today. Here are some pictures of the view from our hotel room. :) Tracy

We are going to China!

Good news! We received official confirmation of our last scheduled appointment today. This was the only thing holding us back from being able to say that we ARE going on Thursday. In 2 days we will be on our way! Tracy

Travel Approval!

It is looking more and more like we will be leaving for China in 8 days! We received our Travel Approval on Monday and have confirmed all of the necessary appointments except for one last one that we hope to hear confirmation on by Monday or Tuesday. Assuming that happens, we will be headed for China on 10/9 and returning on 10/25. We will finally meet Delilah on 10/13! Cross your fingers this all works out! Tracy