Day 2 photos

The Squirrel Fish:

Our Beijing guide - Nancy

Exploring Beijing

We had adventure this morning!  We left our hotel after breakfast, and walked to the subway!  It really wasn't difficult to purchase tickets or figure out where to go.  We rode Line 1 for just three stops, the walked to meet some friends of my parents.  We had a great time meeting new people, both American and Chinese.  After a visit, a dozen of us went out to lunch at a local restaurant.  We tried squirrel fish!  It was served with a very unique presentation!  As one person described it; "the fish is turned inside out, cut in squares while still attached to the skin, and cooked that way."  It is served with a special sauce, and is delicious!  I think we had enough food for 2 dozen people at least!  After eating we walked back to the subway, heading back to the hotel. 

We checked out of the hotel at 2pm, and met our guide for the trip to the airport.  Off to Nanjing, and closer to Emmett!  We checked in to a very fancy hotel!  We'll have to add some photos of the lobby.  Amazing!  It's now Monday am, and we meet Emmett later today!

No photos with this post due to technical difficulties!

First day in China

We began the day with everyone up before the alarm.  Everyone is still trying to adjust to being awake when we are supposed to be sleeping.  Breakfast was eggs, bacon, pancakes - just like home, almost!  There were plenty of other Chinese choices but we weren't feeling too brave yet.

We had a 2 1/2 hour orientation session which ended with getting the "red" book with an update on Emmett, some new photographs (similar to the ones we just posted) and our schedule for the remainder of the trip.

Lunch was the traditional Chinese meal although we were told it was "Americanized" a bit and we brushed up on our chopstick skills.

We walked off our lunch with a visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  The girls quickly remembered what they didn't like about their last visit to China - constantly being asked to have their picture taken with other children!

Dinner was at the local McDonald's as everyone was ready to crash!  Tomorrow we will meet some friends of my parents and then fly to Nanjing.  We are scheduled to meet Emmett on Monday at 3pm.

Arrived in Beijing

Just a quick post to let everyone know we are in Beijing.  We had an uneventful flight (the best kind!), and arrived just before midnight last night.  By the time we got to bed it was almost 2 am!  (that's 1pm the day before for you).  We are now starving and heading down to breakfast.  I'll post more tonight!

It is finally happening!!!

After almost a year of paperwork and waiting, the tine is here! We leave today. Emmett joins our family August 1st, and officially becomes a Lerwick August 2nd. We received a couple new pictures on Tuesday. 

Consulate Appointment

We received confirmation yesterday that our Consulate Appointment is August 9th.  We leave in less than 2 weeks!  Emmett joins our family on August 1st, and the official adoption is the 2nd.  After working for so long, it is finally going to happen!!!!  

TA!!!!

We received our Travel Authority today from China!!! That's our last piece of paper.  Now as soon as our agency schedules our consulate appointment, tomorrow or Friday, we can buy tickets and plan!!!  We hope to leave July 28th.  The TA's starting coming yesterday to the people on the China Adopt Talk website (14 of them!), and more came in today(at least 6)!  We were the last to be notified, of the 20 people who received them yesterday and today.  I was on pins and needles by the end, wondering if we had been skipped somehow.  Thankfully, about 5:00 today, the call came!! It was truely a record breaking week for the number of TA's issued in 2 days!!!   Emmett, here we come!