Greetings from Beijing! Neil and I arrived safe and sound after our 12 hour flight from Chicago. We've met up with our guide Anli and her husband LiFang, and the other 2 families we are traveling with. We are excited, pooped, jetlagged, amazed, and more than a little nervous. We learned from Anli that we will be meeting Mia after she takes a 9-hour overnight train ride from Hanzhong to Xi'an on Sunday. Poor little girl!! We hope the ride will be comfortable for her. Time for us to get some shut-eye. Early tomorrow we will begin Beijing sightseeing with a trip to Tiananmen Square. BTW, we ate our first authentic Chinese food tonight and it was DELICIOUS.

4 days until travel time!! The challenges of parenthood have already begun --- Neil is currently on the living room floor constructing a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe for Mia. Earlier today there were 5 adults working on figuring out the instructions and we weren't getting very far! Neil and I nearly broke our brains a couple days ago trying to get a used pack 'n' play to stay up. I'm happy to report that after some desperate googling for instructions Neil figured out the trick.

I worked my last day for a while last Monday and have been busily shopping, packing, and babyproofing since then, with the exception of one very lovely day at North Beach on the Chesapeake Bay with Betsy, her son Nate, and Nate's cousin Anna. Neil is still working. He traveled for work to Albuquerque this week, so he didn't get to see just how hairbrained all the trip preparations have been making me.

We had a very nice visit from friends Holly and Chris, and their soon-to-be one year old Carter earlier today. Carter tried out some of Mia's toys and broke in her Wondermat. He seemed to be having a blast. Poor Smoky, however, was not. When Carter crawled up to him on the opposite side of a glass door Smoky looked at Carter in terror and fled. Difficult adjustment period to come for the felines of the house!!!


Friday a week ago Neil's workmates surprised him with a very sweet guy-style baby shower. It consisted of pizza in the conference room and a very funny powerpoint of parenting tips from 2 dads in the office. We were very touched!

After the shower we met with fellow adopting parent Vicki and her 7 year old son Danny, both of whom will be traveling with us in China. Their family actually just left today so that Danny can see the giant pandas before they get their daughter/sister. Neil and I really enjoyed getting to know them a little and are looking forward to spending time with them in China.

We have received our itinerary, which will be basically 8/31-9/3 in Beijing, 9/3-9/8 in Xi'an, and 9/8-9/13 in Guangzhou. We will be seeing many famous cultural and historic sites in each city and will try to tell you about them in the blog as they happen.

We recently received Mia's new measurements, or dimensions as Neil the Builder likes to say. At last check-up she weighed 22 lbs. and was 29 inches tall. She had 2 teeth. Not much additional detail in this report. It is amazing to think that 1 week from tomorrow we will be with her.

Kate

We have our travel dates!!! We will be leaving Baltimore on Wed., Aug. 30, flying through Chicago to Beijing, which we will reach on Aug. 31. If all goes as planned, we will be meeting Mia Xiaohua in Xian on September 3rd, her birthday. We will go to from Xian to Guangzhou to do paperwork and a medical check-up for Mia at the US consulate there. We will fly back out of Hong Kong on Wed., Sept. 13, and come back through Chicago into Baltimore that same day. (-:

On Sunday, July 30, our good friends Betsy and Will threw a very lovely shower for our very lovely daughter. Our thanks to them both for their generous hosting, and to our wonderful friends and family who attended and showered us with lots of great loot for Mia! Here are some photos of the event.

Gift opening: (Jenny, Kate, and Neil)




Betsy, the hostess extraordinaire:


Melody blisses out in the massage chair, with Rita, Ben, and Linda waiting their turns: Some of the REEP program's greatest past teachers --- Dorothy, Christine and Betsy:

What a photogenic line-up! Mary, Randy, Yulia, and Chelsea

And of course, there was the adorable party crasher, Betsy and Will's dog Soleil, who continually escaped from the guest bedroom in search of fun, frolic, and people food!