Day 2 of touring-Great Wall

 Blogging is harder this time (shocker)!  Working on post still.  Sleep has trumped all.  Plus we have just finished re-packing for the flight to Changsha and cable to upload pics is buried deep in luggage.   We didn't see much of the GW this time... snow and ice made it too difficult to navigate.  There were crazy Chinese women there in heels, as usual!!  Mark took AK up a bit further than I went and it kinda freaked me out, but they had a great time.  Too snowy for much a view, though. 

 Monday morning, 2 am here... we have all been up since 12:30.  Our sleep schedules are so messed up, esp. AK, despite efforts to adjust.  We have to be up at 4:30 am because we have really early flights so we have time to go to the hotel before the big moment.  It seems surreal that we are only about 12ish hours away from meeting Olivia at last.  We went to the Peking Acrobat show last night and it was incredible.  Poor AK was of course scared and spent the show with ears plugged, sucking on Bobo, and wailing when a particularly scary costume -- or the clown-- appeared.  She was mesmerized the rest of the time and said she liked it afterwards.  Ha.  She also slept the last 10 min of the show.  

Mark is currently mesmerized by a horrible 90's movie called "Hackers" with Angelina Jolie looking extra freaky w/ short hair.  LOLOL.

First day of touring Beijing

 Allison's new favorite picture of AK--LOVE IT!

The day was great, but exhausting and cold!!!  Forbidden City and Summer Palace beautiful but frozen... crowds smaller which is nice.  The food is sooooooo good- feel like I am eating a ton.  AK has been pretty adventurous which is cool.  We went to a tea tasting yesterday and that may replace coffee in my affections.  AK is the toast of our travel group.  Our guide, Sherry, even got her some (cheap) pearls at the pearl market yesterday.  Mark treated me to some nice pearls!!  Gorgeous, pink ones.  We really like our group-- just 4 families so far which is nice.  Everyone is returning for a second or third child except one couple.  They are adopting a 4 year old, and are Chinese- American (grew up in Malaysia).  and fluent in Mandarin which has helped!  AK lasted through most of yesterday's sightseeing but crashed harder than I've ever seen her at about 4, while we were at the summer palace.  She slept through the tea tasting and dinner, and basically through the night.  
She and the other family's little boy Jonah are big buddies already and like holding hands in their strollers.  

Taking the liberty.....

Hello, Kimberly's readers!  This is Allison!  Kimberly and I have been emailing since they arrived in China and she is having trouble posting to the blog and is too tired to figure out the proxy servers and VPN and a bunch of other technical gobbledygook that I don't really understand.  I told her I was going to take the liberty of paraphrasing her emails to me and post them here for now.  She is going to email me posts (and PICTURES!) so I can then put them on the blog. I also took the liberty of adding myself as a contributor to this blog. :)  I think I will create new posts for each email so that way it will be organized for her when they get home.

Countdown

• 5 more sleeps to TingTing  (AK's way of counting down)
• 4 packed suitcases (but I think we're going to have to suck it up and pay for 5 checked bags in China.  It's HARD to pack for both snow and 75 degree temps, plus all the gear needed for a 3 year old and a 10 year old!)
• 3 excited people ( me, Mark, AK)
• 2 exhausted parents  (Who needs sleep?? )
• 1  more day until we leave for... CHINA and our Olivia Ruth YuTing!!

Olivia Day should be Monday, 2/28!!  

Happy birthday, Ting Ting!

Ting Ting's tenth birthday was last Thursday... just one week before we are scheduled to leave for China to meet her and bring her home.  

We were blessed to receive new photos of her birthday party-- on her actual birthday, can you believe it??--  and a letter she wrote to us just after the New Year.  She was rather chatty in the letter, and told us all about a big snow they had in Hunan and how much she ate at the celebrations for the Spring Festival.  

The best part, though, was when she said she was happy to be joining our family. 

We've wondered how she felt.  After all, the nerves and excitement are about equal for Mark and me, and we are not leaving behind all we've ever known to start a new life.  It's one thing to wish for a family, and another to be facing the inevitable changes and challenges.   We are happy, and praying that she will be, with us. 

We are so excited and thankful to be Ting Ting's family.  Only FIVE more sleeps (as Anna Kathryn would say) until we meet Ting Ting!!!