The Night and Morning Before Annalise

We landed in Guangzhou today and met our guide Jason. We have had plenty of time to unpack and get everything ready for our big day tomorrow. After we arrived in the room in came her crib, We meet at 10:00 for a meeting and leave to get her at 2:00 and I should have her by 2:30. I am trembling just typing this. To think tonight she will sleep for the last time in her crib in a room with 37 other children. She will wake up with her crib mates for the last time. Annalise’s world will be completely turned around in a matter of hours and she is completely unaware what tomorrow will bring. Sleep well my baby girl.

Now it’s 5:30 in the morning and I can’t sleep. I hope Annalise is still asleep. Soon she will wake up and get dressed in a little outfit that she will have forever kept for her in a special place. She has just a few more hours before she is taken away from everything she as ever known and placed in a van that will travel over an hours drive to be brought to me. She will come with the Orphanage Director and one of her Nannies.

As for me I am doing well I did get some sleep last night but I am too excited to sleep now. I need to get a few more things together for Gotcha day the gifts for the Orphanage Director and her nannies. Her diaper bag and a few snacks and a bottle. My tummy is ok but I will be taking something soon to make sure it says calm and I can eat I need to keep my strength up. There is just so much I don’t know and will soon find out. I will do my best to get some pictures up today but please understand if my ability to post begins to taper. Will is going to try to step in and give you updates when he can.

Keep us in your prayers next post will be Annalise

Touring Beijing

Hi all it's Will:

Think big… that’s what the Chinese seem to do. Tian’an Men square is a huge open concrete expanse, around four football fields wide by eight football fields long (400 yds. X 800 yds.) In the center is a large “Monument to the People’s Heroes”. From this large expanse we traveled under Chang’an Jie, the main thoroughfare between the square and the Ming Dynasty gate, which is the entrance to the Forbidden City. Once you pass through the Ming Dynasty gate all you can think of is HUGE!…that’s all I can say about the Forbidden City, once considered the symbolic center of the Chinese universe. Passing through the Ming Dynasty gate you look out over a phenomenally large “Outer Court”. Beautiful 600-year-old architecture lines the four sides of this enormous plaza. Don’t have any dimensions on the size, but I’d guess around three times the size of Tian’an Men Square. But it doesn’t stop here. For the next hour or more we walked through one gate or hall after the other …the Meridian gate, the Gate of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Middle Harmony, the Hall of preserving Harmony, and on and on, with large expansive courtyards or plazas after each one.
We were dreading the walk back through this vast array of architecture, since my knee was bothering from all of the odd sized steps along the Great Wall the day before, until we finally passed through the Gate of Heavenly Purity to the outside world and our waiting tour vehicle.
Not done touring for the day though… off to the Temple of Heaven, the Empress’ also called the Dragon Ladies Summer Palace, a 716-acre expanse of beautiful gardens, temples, forest, and a man made lake. A truly beautiful area near downtown Beijing. One of the amazing features is a covered walkway that extends all the way around the lake, 2,388 ft. Each beam on the structure, cross beams and side beams, are decorated with beautiful scenic paintings, 14,000 of them. Everything they did in years past is truly amazing, both in detail and magnitude, and something we truly are glad to have experienced.

PS: From Paulette Will was a like a movie star at Tian’an Men square. The school kids kept running up to him and asking to take his picture.

The Great Wall of China

Our driver winded up the mountains outside of Beijing though lush green foliage. It felt so good to be back in the mountains again. We got on a gondola at the Mutianyu entrance of the Great Wall. I chose this entrance because it was the farthest out of town in hopes it would have less of a crowd. It was pouring down rain but it wasn’t cold at all. After a look around we decided to head out to the left. We could only see about 2 towers. Each tower is 2 arrow shots away from each other. They built them this far apart so they could get their enemy from either tower. Each tower has several archways that are very short so Will worked hard on minding his head. We continued out and went through 10 towers and by the time we made our way up to the farthest tower I was crawling up the last bit. The Wall is in ruins past this tower. The weather did cooperate and stopped raining and cleared up long enough for us to see into the valley and back 8 towers for a distance of 3 miles. If it were not overcast it would have been baking hot. This way we had the wall practically all to ourselves. We made our way back to the gondola to find it closed down. We could see another gondola in the distance but it too had stopped running. There were only 4 other people on the wall and we caught up with them and they showed us how to climb down. My feet did not fit on the steps as they are size 11 and most Chinese have very small feet. We made our way down the mountain and it was like climbing down Mt Tallac. At least my legs feel like they did. Climbing the wall was incredible, ominous and Will compared it to walking up to the edge of the Grand Canyon and looking down, you can't get the impact in pictures. I look forward to the day I get to climb it with Annalise.

Jade/cloisonne/Ming Tomb

We started bright and early by stopping at a jade factory. It was beautiful and incredible what they can make from Jade. When we left the rain started to come down and we took a detour to the Ming Tombs. Then we stopped for lunch at a cloisonne factory that had everything and anything a tourist may want to buy. I did very well at keeping my RMB’s in my pocket. The cloisonne is beautiful and a symbol of Beijing. Boy would I love to bring this vase home. Then it was off to the Great Wall of China rain and all.

Beijing

It feels like I’m dreaming. Could it be the jet lag? We hit the ground running. We had enough time to shower and change and then it was off to the old town Beijing. We took a tour around this little town and was taken in by a family and shown around their home. We then walked the streets and it sure does smell, lets say different here. We then were in search of a glasses store for Will. Our guide and driver took us across the street and let me tell you pedestrians do not have the right of way. I’m not sure who does. It must be the one that pushes the most. Our guide said that streetlights are just a suggestion in China not the law like in your country. They then took us to a famous Peking Duck restaurant for dinner. The duck was carved for us right at our table. We are definitely the different ones here. This little one could not take his eyes off me. I don’t think he has ever seen a blond hair blue eye woman and was so enamored he would not turn around and join his family for dinner. I am so in love with everything the people are just wonderful and all the children so beautiful. My dream is just about to come true.

We Made It!

We have landed in China and are in Beijing. The flight was not too bad, we slept for the first part of the trip. Will reached for his glasses to find them without a lens. He is blind as a bat and with the cabin lights off we were searching for his lens. Thanks goodness I found it and the screw was still in the frame. As you can imagine we had nothing to fix the glasses with and if you know Will he can fix anything so I was not too worried. With a toothpick he was able to get the glasses back together again. He is a true MacGyver. I did have a bit of duck tape with me. I read somewhere to bring some but I was not sure why. It was our fall back plan.


As we waited for our bags I struck up a conversation with another American couple. She asked me if we were adopting and so were they. Their daughter has just turned 2. I asked if she was on the SN list and they said yes and she asked me what our SN was and can you believe this, their daughter and Annalise have the same SN. Wow God really brings those people together that need to meet. They will be at the White Swan 2 days after we get Annalise so I look forward to running into them again.

I am so close to Annalise now 4 days to go!

This sign is for Will he is 6'2" and towers over everyone.

Reno To LAX

It's time to relax and enjoy all the hard preparation. The bags came to 43.5 lbs so hope the China Southern scale is calibrated the same. After the bags got loaded up in the truck and we were ready to go we couldn't find Lilly. She was under the steering wheel in the truck. She did not want to be left it was so sad. I miss her already. She will be with Jax and her 1 year old Lab Echo for the next 3 weeks. Gearing up for some peanuts on the quick hop to LAX.