Day 3 part 2

On our way to the Great Wall we stopped at a jade factory.  They had some beautiful things, including this amazing boat carved out of one piece of jade.

The Great Wall of China

The highlight of the day was visiting the Great Wall.  It was extremely cold with strong, freezing winds, but worth every minute.  Tom did finally give in and buy a hat and I bought a scarf.  Brrrrr!!  Certainly not Florida weather.  At least it wasn't snowy like the week before.



We only had two hours there, so our guide had us ride up on these sleds that hooked onto a track, and carried us up the hill to the wall.  It saved us lots of time.  We also got to ride it down when we were frozen.  That was nice.



Our last stop of the day was at the silk market in Beijing.  We were pretty tired out by then, but it was interesting to see how they make the silk thread from the silk worm cacoons and make it into such beautiful things.  It was nice to go back to our nice hotel and fall into bed at the end of the day.  Most of all we were excited to be heading to Gracie's province the next day.



Day 3 Beijing

We had a day in Beijing to get used to the time change before heading to Gracie's province.  We set up a tour online before we left home and it worked out great.  They picked us up at our hotel and we started at Tiananmen Square.  It is the largest city square in the world, with a lot of history.

This is one of the old gates to the old city wall of Beijing.  Very pretty.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but very cold.  People kept trying to get Tom to buy a ski cap, but he didn't want to. 

Here we saw the towering Monument to the People's Heroes at the center of the square.  Behind it is is the Great Hall of the People which was built in 1959 and is so called because the National People's Congress is held in this hall.

This is where they have the changing of the guard

and a large Chinese flad flying.

Here we are with the entrance to the Forbidden City

in the background.

The Forbidden City was very interesting. 

The Forbidden city of China is located right in the heart of Beijing and was the home of 24 emperors of the Qing and Ming Dynasties. The grand palace’s construction was started during the Ming Dynasty in 1406, ending 14 years later in 1420.  During ancient times, the emperor was claimed as the son of heaven, therefore having supreme power. Their home on Earth was a replica, built to resemble the Purple Palace in heaven where God lived. A place so divine as this was certainly forbidden to ordinary people, which is where the Forbidden City got its name. Its splendid architecture is a representation of the culmination and essence of the traditional architectural accomplishment of the Chinese.

 Here we are inside the Forbidden City, but it goes on and on through many different gates.  There are said to be 9,999 rooms in the palace. 











Here we went through another fancy gate. 

You could use the gates as climbing walls, with their

giant golden knobs all over them.

More pictures of the great architecture and statues

inside the city.

This one makes me think of the movie Mulan as the Emporer is talking to all of the people.

The roofs had very interesting architecture and

designs on them.

We're Back!!
We had a wonderful experience in China and are now back with our beautiful daughter Gracie.  I wasn't able to blog along the way, so I will do my best now to update everyone about our trip and how things are going now.

Let's start at the beginning. 
Day 1&2
Tom and I took off from Miami International Airport with a direct flight to Seattle, Washington.  It was the first time since I have had children (almost 16 years) that I have travelled without any of them.  It was tough leaving the little ones, but we knew it would all be worth it.  The best part was we had both Grandmas staying with the kids while we were gone.  We couldn't have asked for better replacements while we were away.  After a layover at SeaTac we took off for Beijing.  We left Miami early Thursday morning and when we arrived in Beijing it was 10:30pm Friday night.  Since there were no kids along, I was able to sleep and watch movies the whole flight.  Not bad.  Flying isn't nearly so bad when you aren't entertaining and caring for small ones. 

We had a driver waiting from our hotel with a sign to pick us up.  That was really nice, because it was late, we were exhausted, and the hotel would have been tough to find.  It was the best hotel ever.  We stayed at the Red Wall Garden Hotel Beijing Wangfujing.

 It was in Central Beijing, in the older part near the Forbidden City and shopping, but was on the back streets, so it was amazingly quiet.  We enjoyed both nights there very much.

The rooms were very comfortable and elegant.  There was gorgeous wooden beams, stairs, and furniture through out.  We were very impressed.  We were on the fourth (top) floor, and they only had stairs, but it was well worth it.

We are leaving for China in the morning.  We won't get there until Friday night, so it will be a long trip.  Luckily the kids are in great hands with both of their grandmas.  We should get Gracie on Monday, then stay in her province until we receive her passport on next Friday.  Then it is off to Guangzhou for our consulate appointment on the 19th and hopefully home on the 22nd.  I wish I could blog as I went, but we won't have a computer with us, so I will have to catch up on things when we get back.  I am so excited to finally get Gracie home with us.  Thanks for all of your support during our journey.

Finally Airline Tickets!

Finally we are making some progress!!  We received our TA (Travel Approval) from China on Friday.  We found out our CA (Consulate Appointment) today.  I have spent all afternoon figuring out travel plans and we now have our tickets.  Yeah!!  We will meet our daughter Gracie on December 12th.  We leave home on the 8th and return the 22nd, just before Christmas.  This is very exciting but overwhelming too.  I can't wait to get over there. :)

 I am so excited that we received some updated information on Gracie tonight.  Here are some current pictures and they also gave us some updated measurements.  This is what they said: 


Dang Guo Chan's height is 82cm, weight 11.5 kilo, head size 43cm, chest size 49 cm, foot length 13cm, 20 teeth.
 
She is getting so big.  I wish I could go get her right now or at least give her a big hug.  What a cutie pie.  It looks like she likes toys and her hair is growing back in.  This definitely made my week!

Retail Therapy?

One of the surprises of this referral is that Gracie is not an infant.  I feel sad that she has had to wait so long for a family.  We are thrilled with her, but I am realizing that all of the cute little outfits I bought through the years as "Retail Therapy" are not going to fit her.  We received her translated medical information yesterday.  It gave her measurements from last June when her first picture was taken.  It said she was 10.2 kg (about 22.4 lbs.) and 75 cm high.  That would have put her in 12 to 18 month size back then.  So by December she could easily be into size 2T or maybe some large 18 month sizes.  Unless she wants to be wearing big brother's hand me downs it looks like I need to find a few things.  Fun!

Here she is!!!

Introducing Grace Anne, her chinese name is Dang Guo Chan.  They put the last name first and then her given and middle names.  She is 1 3/4 years old.  Her birthdate is February 3, 2010.  She is in the Datong SWI in Shanxi province.  She and Daniel will be great playmates, as they are only 17 months apart. We couldn't be happier.  She looks like she has plenty of spirit.  What a cutie.  I can't wait to bring her home.

Waiting for Gracie

Many of you know that we have been working on adopting a baby from China for many years. We first started the process back in 2003, but we were blessed with the domestic adoption of our son Caleb in 2004. When Caleb was one year old we started the process with China again. It took us a while to get all of the paper work done, and little did we know that each month longer it took could make our wait with China up to a year longer. Our official LID (Log In Date) with China is August 2nd, 2006. That is when they received and accepted all of our paperwork, and we were officially "in line."

Now here we are in October of 2011. Our lives are very different then when we started this process, but we are still very excited to welcome Gracie into our family. Our oldest daughter Sierra is 15 and a sophomore in highschool. I think she gave up long ago that she would ever have a sister. Adam is 13 and in 8th grade. He has been the man of the house for a while, since his dad has been deployed to Iraq and gone since last January. Caleb is 7 and in 2nd grade. He is a busy, active guy as always, and excited for a little sister. Daniel (our blessing that came along to make the wait more bearable) is 3 years old and enjoying his time at home with Mommy. He says he is ready for Gracie to come, but little does he know how his life is about to change. :)

The great news is that our LID has finally been matched and the referrals are in the mail. That means our referral is somewhere between China and our agency in California. I am really hoping that they will get it tomorrow. Of course we are in South Florida so half our day will be gone before business is going in California. I think I will be a basket case all day long. When I get the information, the first thing I will do is email it to Tom, even though in Iraq he will probably be asleep and wont' see it until the next day. It doesn't matter. He gets to hear first. Then I will post it here and send the link around for everyone else. Let's just hope it comes tomorrow or I think I might go crazy!