June 3, 2007

So here is where things start to get a bit sketchy with our blogging last year. Some of the information and almost all of the photos will probably be new to everyone. Enjoy.

After our final Beijing post our laptop hard-drive crashed. UGH! Talk about frustrating. We carried a busted camcorder and a non-functioning lap top all over China for two weeks. Think about the weight we could have left at home. :) I was terrified that we'd lost all of our downloaded Beijing photos. Luckily Ron had also put them on the iPod so once we were home he was able to purchase a program to retrieve the photos from there. Everything on our computer was lost. We were so bitter. You may have heard me screaming "TECHNOLOGY SUCKS!!!" here in WI. :)

Well, we had to get over it. We were on our way to meet our little girl. Today was the day we flew from Beijing to Nanning, Guangxi. I think Lisa's comment last year said something like, "it isn't about the gadgets anyway...." She was (and is) so right. We had some pretty important things to take care of while we were in China, so no matter how disappointed we were we'd better get our priorities in order.

I remember being pretty upset about the inconvenient timing of our laptop's demise, but I don't remember deciding to finally get up at 3:30 because I couldn't sleep any more. According to my writing, I guess I had plenty of time to get our things packed for the trip. Tu joined our group that morning and I'm quite sure we were all thrilled to have her leading us. It was nice to have someone take control of everything since our emotional state was pretty anxious now. Our plane was delayed about a half hour that afternoon before our turbulent three hour flight to Nanning. Thank goodness for motion sickness patches.
At the Airport - Waiting
Hey! We're adoptive parents. We're pretty darn good at waiting. ;)


Boy were we in for a shock when we got off the plane that afternoon.

We thought it was hot in Beijing. I guess we didn't know what HOT was. Instant sweat. At least the AC was functioning on our waiting bus and our hotel was comfortable. YIKES! We knew we'd need to be careful though because that was the climate Hope was used to. We couldn't bring her into our frigid room and expect her to be happy about it. We were already expecting her to make some incredible sacrifices so if we could keep her temperature comfortable that would be important.

We arrived at about 6:00 to get checked in to the Wharton Hotel. We knew we'd feel comfortable there for the week. Everything was just beautiful in spite of the rock hard mattresses. As we opened our door, this was the most beautiful sight:

WE HAVE A CRIB IN OUR ROOM!!! - insert tears here. :)

Upcoming Schedule:
Dinner with the group tonight
10:00 tomorrow morning-group meeting (paperwork and baby updates)
Shopping
Meet our daughters at 3:30!!!!!

This is a photo of the soon-to-be big sisters trying out their chopsticks at dinner. They were such great travelers!

Here was the birthday cake Tu arranged to have ready for Betsy. Check out all that yummy fruit!


Here are a couple shots of the river from the boardwalk behind our hotel. At night, there are valves that open up on that bridge and it becomes a beautiful laser-lit waterfall.