1st Day in Beijing

Original Entry posted January 23, 2010

Today was a full day! This morning we attended Orientation hosted by our adoption agency.
This was very informative and gave us a bit of insight into Chinese culture. Interestingly
enough the Chinese don't believe in forming lines, waiting their turn, using ashtrays or tipping
wait staff. We also received our itinerary for the next weeks and what to expect, as well as updated information and hard copy photos of Madelyn. These were the same as we received the other day but it came in a beautiful Chinese bound memory book. The remainder of the day was spent sightseeing in Beijing. We toured the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. It was an amazing dose of Chinese history. Keith and I both commented that one day we will bring Madelyn and our other children back to China to see all of the wonderful sites. We were able to do a bit of shopping this afternoon at a Silk Factory. I purchased some beautiful white silk, in the hopes of having either her first communion dress or even her wedding dress made. I think I bought enough fabric for both.

Keith and I went out walking the streets in Beijing tonight before dinner. It was quite interesting to see all of the outdoor food vendors and all of the crazy things they are selling to eat, such as water beatles, fried starfish, crickets, etc. Needless to say I did not partake of that portion of the local culture. We found a quaint Chinese restaurant that had pictures of each dish along with the English description. It was delicious.

We are now preparing to leave first thing in the morning. We catch a early morning flight to Xi'an. We are traveling with a family from Kansas that is adopting a 4 year old little girl. The two of us will be the only families that are getting children in our province so it should be nice and orderly. Once we arrive we will check into our hotel and then off to meet Madelyn and pick her up. I am a nervous wreck at this moment and I doubt I get much sleep. However, Keith and I are very excited! To our surprise, the 15 or so families that are with us are all adopting an older child ( age 2 to 9) with one exception. There is one couple that is getting a 14 month old. I just figured we would be adopting the oldest child out of the group. Tomorrow my blog will include pictures and video of our "Gotcha" moment. Keep praying for us that this transition goes smoothly.