Good Morning China!!

Well, we made it to Nanning China in good shape. We met our guide, Jane, at the airport and then she took us to our hotel, the Majestic, also know as the Mingyuan Xindu Hotel. Their claim to fame is it is the only 5 star Hotel in Nanning. It is an ok hotel, definitely not even close to the 4 star hotel we had in Hong Kong, but definately cheaper per night.

We get our daughter this afternoon, about 3:30 - 4:30pm (1:30-2:30am in the states). This morning we are meeting with a Representative from the foundation that is sponsoring the foster care for our daughter so that we can give him a gift for the foster mom and he is going to give us a disk with pics and updated info on Meigan. We are both very excited and also kinda numb.

For those of you coming to Nanning let me tell you a little about my first impression. It is a large city, quite warm and very chinese. There are alot of bikes and motorcycles on the streets as well as cars. There are no general traffic laws obediences except for the red and green light. People cross wherever they would like and 2 lanes often becomes 4 lanes. Yesterday we were waiting at a red light to turn left. well the traffic wasn't moving fast enough for someone behind us, so he pulled out to the left of us and went around us on the the left side (into oncoming traffic) and then went straight through the light instead of turning left. Also the airport is about 40 mins from the city, and the roads are really quite nice, very smooth and wide lanes, and roads. There is a lot of Cement here, not as much as in other cities we've been to, but alot of buildings. most of them seem to be shorter buildings (3-4 floors) but it is polk-a-dotted with many tall buildings throughout the city as well. There is a lot of trees, and green gardens intermixed as well, and we crossed a large river on our way into the city.

Now for our rooms, we have two beds, both twin beds, and if you took a piece of plywood and set it down on a boxspring and covered it with a flat sheet that is what the beds feel like here. Our bed in Hong Kong was firm, but these beds put it to a whole new level. Jodie says she doesn't think they are as hard as some of the ones we have had before. I took my comforter (no top sheet) and layed on it and then folded it on top of me so that I had a little bit of padding to sleep on. I did feel like a burrito though. There are no light switches in the hotels. when you enter you stick your key card in a slot and then you can operate the lights and the air conditioning and what else not by a control panel on the night stand. Our hotel in hong kong was the same way and you could even open and close both set of curtains with the control panel. We do have a tv in our room and it has about 40-45 channels on it, most of them in Chinese or Japanese, I found the cctv9 which is english and then a few others including Bloomberg, National Geographic, BBC, HBO and another movie channel. I did not find ESPN last night, but I didn't look to hard either, usually ESPN here is through the Asia/British version and so you get a lot of soccer and a little of the us sports updates (I saw that the Bears lost in the last few seconds (on MSN.com), stupid Bears). The internet has been great so far, I have been able to log onto both email sites and blogger has not been a problem so far. Our hotel also has a very large outdoor swimming pool, with a bunch of older looking people swimming doggy paddle laps around the pool. There are also two tennis courts, a 4 land bowling alley, billiards tables, table tennis, and a work out center, haven't seen em yet. I will try to update you more as we see more of the hotel and the city.

We are just going to get ready now and go do breakfast, I am so looking forward to having some Boa zi (steamed buns filled with roast pork), this trip I am not worrying about eating vegetarian except I do not want to eat meat unless its my only option. Especially if that meat is D.R.C (dog,rat,cat). Brian

Well have a good day and we will post pics later of Meigan and maybe even a video if we can figure out how. I think I will be able to use the webcam to capture a few seconds and then place it here on the blog. We'll see you all later.

Sunday in Hong Kong

Well we didn't have much planned for today, we didn't really feel like running around all over town, so we took it easy. We did take a train to the temple site to check it out. It's in a strange part of town, and very unassuming. Not your typical "let your light shine" kind of a place. While we were there, the courtyard was open so we went inside and we saw two men that looked like missionaries. One of them started to walk towards of us and I recognized him and I told him "I know you" and he looked startled. He was a missionary from Mongolia that was serving in our town a year or so ago and we actually had him in our home for dinner. He also knew my brother Jeff, I believe. So I took a picture of him with me.

We are at the Airport now getting to go to Nanning and we have met several families (4) that are traveling to Nanning to adopt also. It's kinda nice to know that we will not be the only ones there tomorrow. I think they are staying at a different hotel than we are.

Wish us Luck!

First Day in Hong Kong

Today was supposed to be a relaxing day in Hong Kong to prepare for the rest of the adoption process. It turned out to be anything but. Everything went smoothly, we just ran from one place to the next to get as much in as possible. First we went to the top of the peak on Hong Kong Island. We took a tram to the top and then a bus back down. The bus took forever to get down the mountain, then we got off at the wrong subway/train stop. So we walked to the next one (different train line) and took the train to Disneyland Hong Kong. It is just like the one in California, only alot smaller. We were there for about 5 hours and saw every part of the park. We rode Space Mountain (its a tamed down version) and Buzz Lightyear ride, the Jungle Cruise, and It's a Small World. We saw The Lion King, High School Musical, the Parade, and Braved the Chinese Food! Then we left and went on a Harbour Cruise while the buildings were lit up with lights, lasers, and spotlights. Jodie was so tired she almost fell asleep on the boat. We got in about 10pm tonight and can't wait to fall asleep.

Brian didn't realize that Hong Kong takes a different type of adapter for the electical converter so we are unable to charge the computer, so we may not post tomorrow till we hit mainland china and can plug in the computer. Hope you are doing well and we miss you.

For those of you unfamiliar with our family, we have already been to China once on a humanitarian trip and did all of the familiar sight seeing stuff in Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, and Guilin. Therefore we elected to not do it this trip and just do Hong Kong.

I will have to post pictures later as my battery is about to die.*Update* We called the front desk and they have an adapter they let us borrow, so I've posted the pics for the day, and then we are off to bed. Mom (Connie) I tried to call you this morning but I couldn't get through, it seems my calling card I bought here is only good for 2mins and 46 seconds. We'll try again soon.

Love brian and Jodie

We Made it to Hong Kong

We have arrived safely in Hong Kong. Our flight from LA to Hong Kong took about 15 hours. We were told that we would have to make a layover in Taiwan for more fuel due to a strong head and weather, but we did not have to. Jodie was able to sleep alot on the plane, Brian chose to eat instead. The food was very good, Brian even ate raw salmon, that was oh so good!

It is early Saturday Morning here and today we are planning to go to the Mountain Peak on Hong Kong Island and then go to Hong Kong Disneyland, and end with a Harbour Cruise. We realized once we got here that somehow we did not pack our Hong Kong guide book so hopefully we don't get to lost, luckily it seems that alot of people speak english. Also we think we may have somehow forgotten to pack the locket we made for the foster mom. So we may have to send it after we return.

When we checked into our hotel they gave us a very nice room on the 17th floor looking out onto the Harbour, very spectacular at night. But it was a smoking room, So we returned to the front desk to see if there was another room available and she said all they had left was a suite on the 8th floor with an even better view at no extra charge. I tell ya, this high life living is difficult. First Business class on the plane and now extra fancy suites.

China Here We Come!!!!

We made it to the airport and we are just waiting to board our first plane. We hope to sleep the whole 15 hours from LA to Hong Kong.

We would like to remind everyone how thankful we are for all of the support you have given us the past three years as we have waited for this. We can't believe our journey is finally here.

To all those families still waiting, the memories of the long wait really do disappear and seem so short. I never thought I would be able to say that, as I read the posts of others saying so. You will get there.

Our next post will hopefully be from Hong Kong in about 24 hours.

Wahoo! China Here We Come!

The Name Debate

You would think that after three years we would have a definite name for our daughter, but we don't. Some days she's called Meigan, other days Meilin, and still many days she's called sister or the china baby. I have been waiting to finish a blanket for her crib, it has been sitting in the embroidery hoop ready to go for days. Today I finally pushed the start button. Does that mean this is her name? No, but I decided the blanket was big enough if I had to cut off the name and sew on a new name! I guess we could always name her Meigan Meilin. Any opinions out there?

Less than 1 week!

In 6 days we will meet Meigan. I cannot believe this is actually happening. We leave in two days. Our bags are packed, the kids are ready for Grandma's, and soon our long awaited journey will start.