China

It is just after 5:00pm on Thursday January 21st. We are hanging out in our hotel room on the 25th floor above Gaoyou City waiting for the evening fireworks to start. We haven't gotten a concrete answer as to why there are so many fireworks happening all night, big enough to reach our windows and all over the city, but we can see them from our vantage point up here.  Sorry there are not any pictures with thsi post. The Internet is spotty and so is our computer connections ... Maybe I'll be able to post some from Nanjing...

Today we visited Norah's orphanage. We met with the director and her assistants, toured the new facility (the old orphanage building is about 20 feet down the street and now closed and chained up), played with some beautiful babies (two have files that have been sent to CCCWA already, the others may never have their files sent.. My heart), we took some photos, viewed her file, exchanged gifts, and went to a very nice luncheon where Norah bit the head off of her shrimp (cooked) and ate it shell and all.... (As our guide did). We visited the old pagoda and Buddhist temple that has been in the same place for 2000 years, lit some insense to send prayers for out family and listened to the chanting. On the drive back into the newer part of the city Norah promptly fell asleep and is now ensconced in her Harry Potter book (#5 that Santa - so naughtily brought her)  I think she needs the emotional "down time".  To say today was a lot would not cover it.
We haven't even had a chance to really feel everything about our time here in Gaoyou...



**Catch Up**

We've had quite a trip so far.... Beijing was intense in the way that only Beijing with it's miles of city and millions of people can be... Beautiful and demanding emotionally and physically .... The Temple of Heaven was our my favorite Beijing field trip... If you ask Norah I am pretty sure she will say, hotel pool (It is pretty amamzing), bobsledding down the Great Wall (Have to agree that was good fun too!), and the roadside snow playground on the way back from the Great Wall. The bullet train to Nanjing was smooth. A better and more comfortable ride than a plane and we could see the Chinese countryside (quickly) passing by. Not sure what we were served for lunch, besides the rice and soda!
Nanjing and the Ming Tombs and Sun Yet Sen's Mausoleum... Just the weather (pretty clear and sunny) compared to Beijing was lovely and so was the "slower" pace of the city...

We are only just half way through this journey of ours. Traveling to Gaoyou with Wei Wei has been a dream and goal for 10 years... We were so focused on today and on our hopes that it would giver our daughter something positive to carry with her and we believe it has, that we haven't been focused (obessesed) with the 2nd half of this trip...

Tomorrow we will drive back to Nanjing and stop at the JinLing Hotel where we first met Norah. Then we'll pack up our bags and get ready to head to Guangzhou early Friday morning...

Tomorrow is a transition day... And our flight on Friday will have us flying into Guangzhou and leaning forward towards our boy who we meet in 3 days.

Three more days....