Our trip to Beijing...

Due to all the bad weather our flight to Chicago was cancelled last Wednesday with no seat available until Thursday.  So we left Omaha at around 1:00 in the afternoon on Thursday and arrived in Chicago about 2:30 pm. Our flight to Beijing wasn't until 9:00 pm so we had a long wait at the Chicago O'hare airport but we made it through. We then boarded our flight to Beijing for a 13 hour flight to Beijing. When we arrived in Beijing it was about midnight. We got into our hotel and slept.  We were scheduled for our orientation in the morning which covered some basics about the Chinese culture, information about Zoe, etc. There we about eight other families also preparing for their adoption as well.  We met a number of really nice couples. Maybe the most unique family was from my home state of Arkansas.  The couple are Mennonites and brought their 7 children along as well...seemed like a vary nice family. At noon we had an authentic Chinese lunch and then headed to the Forbidden City.  It was amazing.  The Forbidden City is where the Emperor's and Empresses lived so many years ago. You cannot imagine how large and beautiful it is.  We walked from the Forbidden City to Tienanmen Square.  A huge square where many of the large holidays are recognized and it is right across from where Mao Tse Tung rests in his memorial building.  A few things that struck me about Beijing was how clean the city is you see no graffiti and everyone is very friendly.  A few Chinese people asked Nathaniel to stop so they could take a picture with him due to the color of his hair.  Nathaniel was very accommodating...after the tourist stops we came back to the hotel to rest and all fell a sleep, none of us got up for dinner..between the jet lag, long day touring in the sun and the stress and excitement of meeting Zoe did us in...we got up the next morning we repacked (because we could only have as many suitcases that total 44 pounds per person as opposed to the2 suitcases of 50 pounds that you are allowed in the US). We flew out at around 1:00 pm and arrived on China Airlines to Kunming at about 4:30 pm. So at last we are in the same city with Zoe...

went to the Beijing airport (it was built for the Olympics) is is huge...beautifully designed.