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From Doug: Saturday was as hot and smoggy as Friday, but we enjoyed our travels around Beijing. We are getting to know the other five families here to adopt special needs children from Henan Province. Two of the families have boys traveling with us who will be big brothers to their new adoptive family members, a five-year-old and eleven-year-old. They add a child's perspective to the journey.
Saturday morning we visited a jade factory, which was pretty amazing (if you're into jade). Then we drove to the Great Wall, about 2 hours from our hotel. We had 1½ hours to hike up that section of the wall (Trev made it to the top). After lunch we toured the 2008 Beijing Olympic Village - saw the birds' nest and water cube. Then we attended an acrobatic show that was AMAZING. The Chinese acrobats are world-famous and tour constantly - incredible athleticism. It reminded me of myself in my youth…
The CCAI staff both in Beijing and now on our arrival in Zhengzhou has been wonderfully attentive and organized. In addition, I have been tremendously enlightened on all things Chinese by Trev. He has been reading books on Chinese history and culture, and really knows a lot. I have been able to hold my own with him however. Before coming on this trip I had my own Chinese cultural immersion. I rented Kung Fu Panda.
From Candy: Doug forgot to mention that we also went to a tea ceremony. Really cool cups, strainers, and utensils; all of a sudden, tea seems so much more civilized than coffee. Doug made some comments during the ceremony, and once again he got a nod from the lady leading us: "You're clever," she said (ugh). Trev & Teri bought some tea - you'll have to ask them about the bonus surprise that came with the purchase!
FYI: (1) We are nowhere near the riots in Northwest China. Teri figured that it would be like us being in Virginia and the riots being in Alaska. Oddly enough, I saw about 2 minutes of the news reports on the riots this AM when I was watching the BBC, and then the screen went blank. When the news came back on there was a different story being reported. (2) Ditto on the flooding - don't worry about us. We did have some rain last night, but it wasn't a big deal. (3) We cannot do Facebook, much to my chagrin. I guess the Chinese government does not allow a lot of the social networking sites - too much freedom or something. One of the moms here couldn't access her blog, but we don't seem to be having problems (yet).
It's been fun to hear the stories of how each of the five other couples came to the place of adopting with CCAI. The pictures of their children are just as heart-warming as Ahn's. One family was able to go to their son's foster home in Beijing (on the sly), and the foster mother gave them a book that she had kept for their little guy from the beginning. It was filled with pictures and journaling about his growth and development from the beginning (sniff).
Tomorrow is the big day! I guess the government is filming the whole event because this is the first adoption that will take place in their new office - the guys were told to wear long pants (good thing Trev brought a pair). We may be a bit choked up after the whole thing, but it would surprise me if T&T don't blog. Btw, we love reading all your comments!
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