Day 4, 5, and 6 Day 4 wasn't much, but got us a bit closer to Gracie.  We flew from Beijing to Taiyuan and checked into our new hotel, the Shanxi Grand. 

Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi Province.  It is the largest city in the province.  This was a pretty clear day, but much of the time it was hard to breath outside.  They have a large coal burning electrical plant that contributes to the nasty air.  The people were all very friendly, and always shocked when Tom would speak to them in Chinese.  This was our view across the street.

The best day yet came on December 12th.  We called it Gotcha Day, because it is the day we finally got our Gracie.  We headed to the Civil Affairs office around 2:30 pm.  We arrived before the children.  There were several couches around the room and we camped out on one.  We were getting our paper work in order (there was a lot of it) and then we heard that the children had arrived from their long trip from Datong.  That is the city where Gracie was born and where she had lived in the Datong Social Welfare Institute since birth.  

She came walking in with her green and yellow Hello Kitty jacket and the funniest ski cap with yarn braids attached to the sides.  This is our China coordinator Lisa, introducing us.

  It was obvious that Gracie was very scared.  We tried to make her feel more comfortable and gave her some snacks.  We soon learned that food is a great distraction for her.  Gracie loves to eat.

We stayed in this room for a while, waiting for our turn to do the paperwork with the officials.  Then we had her picture taken next door and were able to head back to the hotel.  She was a tired little girl, and we were still jet lagged, so we went to bed early.  Gracie did not want to sleep in the crib.  She was only happy if I was right next to her, so we used the crib as a bed side, to keep her from falling off the tiny twin sized bed, and we squished in.  It was odd that both in Taiyuan and Guangzhou we ended up with two twins instead of one larger bed.  It must be because we wanted the cheapest rooms.  She fit right into Daniel's old PJ's.  She didn't seem to mind wearing boy jamies.

Day 6 was pretty low key.  The big event was going back to the Civil Affairs office and signing the final paperwork to make the adoption official.  December 13, 2011 Gracie officially became our daughter.  Here we are with the orphanage workers who brought her from Datong and our adoption decree.

The rest of the day we spent wandering around the neighborhood.  Tom can't sit still for long, and the room was so small.  Too bad it was about 20 degrees outside.  We bundled up and checked out the deserted parks, that must be very busy in warmer weather.

We found a noodle shop to go in and warm up.  Gracie ate a bunch of noodles, meat, and her favorite and mine were the boudza, steamed dough balls filled with pork and cabbage.  Yum.  I wish I had taken a picture of her gobbling one up, and they were huge.  It was a good day.

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!