We Made It

Our last flight between the US and China was quite possibly the worst day in either of Katie or my lives. Lee screemed as loudly as he could for about 5 hours and slept for about 30 minutes. This time was undoubtedly better but still had it's challenges. Lee slept for about 5 hours of the 15 and a half hour flight from Los Angeles to Guangzhou and was fairly well behaved for all but about 2 hours in the middle. The course of the trip included Lee yelling the three following lines: While on a silent plane waiting for the door to open to deplane in Phoenix "You're a bad daddy. You're going to jail. You won't do fun things and will die."; while standing in the seat with his hands cupped aroung his mouth like a megaphone just after he woke up "Everybody wake up now!! I excited to go to China!!"; and while running down the aisle "You can't catch meeeee!!"


We arrived in Guangzhou at 6:30 Tuesday morning and got to our hotel about 31 hours after we left our house. Surprisingly, we weren't too tired. For those of you who don't know, as they did for Lee's adoption, Katie's parents and my mom are joining us for the trip. Dan and Frances got in late last night and my mom joined us on the flight from LA. We are all staying at the Holiday Inn which is a new hotel and is just great. Traditionally, adoptive families stay at the White Swan or the Victory Hotel while in Guangzhou, but since there is a huge trade fair that will be going on later in our trip, the rates are high and the Victory is getting cleaned. The Holiday Inn has much, much bigger rooms and should work very well. It is a 10 minnute walk from the White Swan and along a famous street with lots of activity and places to eat. Our guide, Bob, told us that we are close to KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's - isn't it great to get a true international flavor.

Actually, even just our short time driving through the city today and seeing the view from our hotel we notice that China continues to change. Our hotel is across the street from a highrise luxury apartment building that is still under construction while across the street the other way are some cramped, rundown apartments that look like they have been there forever. You can see a little bit of both in the picture. The streets are still filled with more pedestrians and cyclists than cars, but there is construction everywhere. Even though our hotel is new and beautiful the beds are just as hard as a few years ago.

So far, we have eaten breakfast, cleaned up, and taken a nap to get us on a reasonable sleep schedule. We may get out a little this afternoon, but the real goal is to get ready for Gotcha Day tomorrow. We will meet Bob at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon when he will take us to meet Francie at 3:00. Katie and I have hit the stage where it is a bit sureal. There is no real explanation to describe the thoughts going through your mind the day before you meet your daughter. We know our lives are going to change, but we don't know how. We want answers to so many questions about Francie that we know we won't even find out tomorrow. What has her life been like? What does she like to do? Will she learn quickly who we are? How is her health? How will she fit into our family? How will Lee react? One question we will get answered is if she breaks Katie and my rule that within our family the girls' hair needs to be longer than the boys'. We have low expectations on this one as she probably had her head shaved for the summer. Oh well, we'll know tomorrow and can give her a pass on this one. She doesn't know the rule, yet.