The Great (?) Wall

So, today was our big day for Beijing sightseeing. This made Jay giddy as he was really looking forward to this and had been very disappointed when we could not come to Beijing on our way into China and me very cranky as we did not get in last night until midnight and I (unlike others!) did not sleep on the plane because I was holding a squirming baby. For those of you who know us, this was a deadly combination :)

We headed up to the northern part of the city to see the Great Wall. We had seen an older, more remote section as we drove up to Ben's orphanage last week but this was a famous section near a passage built by an emperor to visit his mommy in Mongolia (how sweet!). I was under the impression that we were just visiting the wall but, much to my disappointment, we were meant to be CLIMBING the wall. I traditionally don't like to climb anything but Jay, on the other hand, got all geared up to try it out. We stopped by the etching of the words of Chairman Mao that say if you want to be a hero then you have to climb the wall and then we started on our quest to become heroes. It was quite cold so Ben was all wrapped up in his traveling backpack and was quite content to be carried up the wall. I looked everywhere for a horse, mule, donkey, or camel but there was none to be found so I headed upwards under my own power. If you look at the pictures you will see that this climb is NO JOKE and you are literally climbing almost vertically.


I made it to the 3rd platform (still really high!) before I thought that death was imminent and I needed to stop. I did, however, make it past the stand where you can buy your official hero card so that makes me, you guessed it, a hero!!! Jay left me with our guide and he headed off with Ben to climb higher and higher. About an hour went by and our guide started getting nervous. It wasn't long after that we saw Jay coming back down. When he explained to our guide what he had seen she was VERY impressed. It turns out that although she brings tourists there every week, Jay had climbed higher and farther than anyone she had ever seen! But, the real hero at the wall was Ben who never uttered a peep during the whole climb and managed to stay "clean" while he and daddy were climbing an hour away and mommy was at the third platform with all of the diapers!

After we left the wall we drove past the new Olympic village complete with the new stadium, The Bird's Nest. You can see it over our shoulder in the picture below. It really is quite an amazing building. We also saw the Olympic countdown clock. They had better get cracking as time is quickly ticking away!



This afternoon we went on a Hutong Tour by bicycle. A Hutong is a preserved housing "development" (from about 800 years ago!) in which people still live and do business. We were really tired but the ride on the bicycle was relaxing and we learned some interesting cultural things.

Tonight, to celebrate our LAST NIGHT (I can't believe it!) in China, we went out for my favorite food of all time: Peking Duck. Our guide sent us to the most awesome restaurant and it was GREAT! I could totally eat that everyday if it wasn't so very bad for you :) Ben made a giant mess with his food and loved every minute of it! It was such a nice way to celebrate everything we have been through over the last 2 weeks.

Tomorrow we are off to do a little more sightseeing and then we will be flying home. I am so sad to leave China yet I am really excited to get Ben home and to see Jack and Annie. Hopefully we will all be rested and ready to go in the morning... yeah right!

Goodbye Guangzhou, Hello Visa (LATE POST)

Well, today was our last day in Guangzhou. I won't lie and say that I did not enjoy myself here. The weather is pleasant, the hotel is wonderful, the walks are peaceful, the food is delicious, and the shopping is fantastic! It is everything that you can ask for from a vacation. The problem is that we are not on vacation and I am anxious to get back to the good stuff!

We had a nice long, late breakfast with our friends Pam and Scott then we headed back to the room for a monumental packing job. Funny how more stuff doesn't fit into already exploding luggage huh??? We ended up leaving all of our snacks and a whole package of diapers at the hotel (since Ben does not really use the diapers during the day- long story -we have not been going through them at the rate we had expected). Nothing like ditching all your baby stuff in favor of more shopping! We were able to get the packing done with enough time left to visit our favorite Starbucks. We just sat there enjoying ourselves and watching the world walk by. It really was a wonderful time together. At 2:45 we met our guide, loaded into a bus with ALOT of other adoptive families, and headed to the US Consulate.

The consulate used to be on the small island where the White Swan hotel is. Apparently they just moved about 2 years ago but American families still like to stay at the White Swan (aka the Baby Hotel) since everything is geared around the kids. Now though the consulate is about a 30-40 minute bus ride from the hotel. It is on the 4th (I think) floor of an office building and does not draw attention to itself. I am kind of sad to not experience the thrill of past adoptive families when they walked from the hotel to where they saw the huge American flag waiving in the air. Anyway, we all loaded into the consulate waiting room and then, one by one, we had to walk to the window so that we could show that all three of our passport pictures matched with us. It was so cute to see all the little kiddos (most were dressed up in some kind of red, white, and blue- even Ben!) and their proud parents. When we were all done we all had to raise our right hand and repeat our oath as a group. It was really cool to be part of such a diverse group that had such a common goal. At the end of the oath we all cheered wildly! I have to admit that when the consulate official was explaining that our children will become US citizens as soon as they go through immigration on the way home my eyes got pretty watery. Let's just say the cheering at the end of the oath didn't help that situation much! We now have Ben's visa to enter the United States and the magic brown envelope that, when handed to the immigration official at Dulles Airport, makes him an official American. I could not be more proud :)

After we left the consulate we headed to the airport for our flight to Beijing. We got stuck in a little traffic so we were cutting it pretty close. We were cutting it even more close since we thought he guide had Ben's ticket and she thought we did. Oops! We had to buy him another ticket (and pay excess baggage charges- HAAA!) and then we were on our way. After such a painful expenditure Jay was pleasantly surprised to find that out of the goodness of their hearts the check in agents had upgraded our tickets to business class! Since Ben was not too good on the plane (wouldn't drink his milk and kept squirming around like he was uncomfortable or something), we were grateful to be in bigger, more comfortable seats.

We got into Beijing and made it to our hotel about midnight. Can you spell E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D?

We are seeing more and more of Ben's personality everyday. He now talks nonstop- remind you of anyone??? Also, at first he was content to sit still and to look at things happen around him. Now, after over a week of go-go-go he cannot be contained. He wants to see and touch everything and to meet new people. His personality is definitely more like Jack's- maybe they will be politicians together! He is really enjoying discovering this brand new world. This has been difficult for us since he now never sits still but, at the same time, it has been really fun. Talk to me on Thursday after a 14 hour flight with a little guy who can't sit still and see if "fun" is still how I describe it!