First Full Day in Beijing

Today was an interesting day! Started with the breakfast buffet, which was very nice, although for some reason the Chinese do not know that Dr Pepper is a breakfast drink. The food on the buffet was a mixture of normal American items like sausage links, bacon and omletes, but there was also fried rice, steamed biscuits and sushi.

After breakfast, we ganged up with the other families that we have met so far, Lee and Grace, Robert and Michelle, Karyn, Robert and Debbie and we walked to the store, well a store to get some snacks and water and Coke. The store was quite crowded and of course, no one here speaks English(imagine that), so paying for our items was fun. Lee and Jubal tried some home cooking they were cooking at the store with an egg and some crunchy stuff, with some hot sauce. Interesting, but won't be doing that again.

Afterwards, we all made a taxi trip to the Lama Temple. The buildings were interesting and the people that came, other than tourists, burnt incense, lots of them and prayed to budda, which if we understood correctly, there are a lot of budda's. Hopefully we will be able to post the pictures we have taken, which would include the ones taken here, soon. We are still experiencing some difficulties with the internet here.

There are thousands of bicycles here. Seems to be the primary mode of transportation. There are bicycle lanes, but the bicycles cross in the intersections with the cars. There are hardly any stop lights, so the bicycles wait for the cars and the pedestrians wait for both. We spent some time in taxi's today and although the driving here is aggressive, there doesn't seem to be any anger in the drivers. We saw people passing on the shoulder, we were cut off several times and cut several other drivers off and almost ran over a bicyclist, but they just look at each other and keep going. The bus drivers drive the same way, but they usually are given the room they need when they cut you off.

We had Thai today at Jimmy's. The food was very good and the service was excellent, which other than the taxi drivers, has been the norm. The places and streets we've been on have been extremely clean. The air is foggy here or at least that's what we're calling it. After dinner, we walked to the mall which was about a mile or so. The stores were small, but very nice and if we needed anything, between the grocery store and the stores in the mall, we would have been able to get it. We saw an attempted bicycle theft also. Some of the bicycles have locks built/welded on the frames. The woman trying to steel the bicycle had several keys she was using, but a few tries, she just walked away.

We also met Marie and David, Dave is a native Oklahoman and Danielle and Michael. Very nice folks.

We are still trying to post pictures. It could happen...we will keep trying.

More later, God Bless

we made it

We finally made it over here. We started early this morning at Tulsa. Going thru the "check in" was a mess. We haven't flown much lately and security is tight to say the least. The security folks had all our stuff out and we lost a few things to the trash like tooth paste and shampoo, so it took quite a while to get through. One guard, I think, felt sorry for us and came over and helped us or we would still be there. After that, everything went smoothly. We flew to Detroit and had a lay over there for about 5 hours and then on to Toyko which took 12 hours and then on to Beijing, another 3.5 hours, so we are tired. We just wanted to let you know where here!!! Hopefully we will have pictures and a better story tomorrow.

Be well God Bless!

The suitcases are packed!!

Ok..it is 11:30pm ..we are packed..we probaby ,well I packed too much..but the suitcases closed? and they weigh only 30 & 40lbs? pretty good I think. We are not even sleepy..we need to be at the airport at 4:30am..only 5 hours from now!!! wide awake :) Jubal is balancing the check book? I am blogging..something is wrong with this picture....I hope we can continue with the blog while in China ...if not we will email?
We will see everyone on the 9th!!

Itinerary in China

10/24 pick us up at airport @ 925pm, check into Hotel Poly Plaza
10/25 we are on our own..rest sight see
10/26 Delight tour?
10/27 Sightseeing tour to the Great Wall,Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square
10/28 Fly to Nanchang..Check in Hotel Jinfeng Hotel...Get Natalie around 330pm
10/29 Do relevant paperwork
10/30 Shopping for babies
10/31 Sightseeing to XiangHu Park
11/01 Sightseeing to Teng Wang Ge
11/2 Families go to Civil Affairs Office to get babies passports!
11/3 Families fly to Guangzhou..check into White Swan Hotel
11/4 Sightseeing tour to Chen Family's Temple
11/5 Medical Checkup's and taking babies visa pictures
11/6 Sightseeing tour to Yuntai park
11/7 Guide goes to American Consulate to hand in families documents
11/8 Families go to American Consulate for interview and get visas
11/9 fly home with our new babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travel plans!!!

Oct 23rd
Northwest Airlines
leave Tulsa 605am
arrive Detroit 929am
leave Detroit 320pm
arrive Beijing @ 925pm Oct 24th

Nov. 9th
Northwest Airlines
leave Guangzhou 830am
arrive Tokyo 140pm
leave Tokyo 340pm
arrive Detroit 115pm
leave Detroit 305pm Flight # 3757 Northwest
arrive Tulsa 440pm

We have tickets!!!

We have our tickets....we are leaving on Oct. 23rd @ 605am (wow) we arrive in Beijing on Oct. 24th @ 925pm..that's a long time!!!We will get our daughter either on the 28th or the 29th!!! yeah..we will stay in China until Nov. 9th.
I will post the actual schedule when we receive it next week...we are soooo close now!!!

We Have TA (Travel Approval)

We have our Travel aproval..but still waiting for our CA (consulate appointment)?
We should get it next week..We are going to travel on Oct. 22nd..we want to rest, and do some touring before we get Natalie..We will travel to Beijing..tourist stuff, then 28th or 29th?? we will fly to Nanchang..that is where we will get our baby girl..we stay about 3-5 days , and then fly to Ghonzoho to get Natalie's passport and Visa..that takes about 1 week or so..then home.