HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

And what a happy new year it is for us!! Wishing you all the very best in 2010! (Seriously...is it 2010 already? Is this the year of the "space odyssey?" Weren't we all just worried about about Y2K? Where did the decade go??)

Our little man, Jackson, has had SUCH a busy time since we returned home from China two weeks ago. The holidays have certainly kept us hopping (and made recovering from jet lag lots of fun)! He has been adjusting remarkably well and we are so proud of him. It's amazing to think that he will be starting kindergarten in just a few days. Our hope is that he loves his new school and all the new friends he will make.

Since this is the first opportunity I've had to sit down and update this blog on our trip, I thought I'd try my best to give a snapshot of what our journey was like in China. Believe me...no matter how wordy I get, it's still the "Cliff's Notes" version! LOL!

We left for Beijing on 12/2 from Chicago aboard United Airlines and we were "lucky" enough to have the very last seats on the plane (not sure if my sarcasm is coming across). Yep...the only thing behind us was the galley and the latrine (good times). Our seats couldn't even recline! When the folks in front of us reclined their seats, we had all of about five inches of room (and getting out of our seats should have required a certificate in yoga!). No worries...we only had to remain like this for about 14 hours. (Ugh!)

We were so thankful to arrive in Beijing on 12/3. We were met at the airport by a guide named Helen after we made our way through being scanned for our temperatures (H1N1 precaution) and immigration/customs. We proceeded directly to our hotel which took about an hour. Along the way, Helen, who was very energetic and happy to see us proceeded to tell me that I looked Chinese (okay...THAT'S a first!). We had a good laugh about that. We were grateful to finally make it to our hotel, the Kuntai Royal Hotel. The room was nice, but the beds were a bit hard (as I had heard so much about). It didn't matter much...we were so tired, we could have slept in the lobby.

The following day, Michael and I were hungry and decided to go on a walk around the area. Beijing is quite impressive. The city was very modern and busy (actually I should have photographed the airport - - it was AMAZING!). We went to one restaurant, but no one spoke English and the food was much better suited for lunch or dinner (we really had a taste for breakfast). We ended up at, of all places, McDonald's! Too funny and not quite what we planned, but their breakfast choices were different from what we have here and it was SO affordable!

Our Beijing guide, Catherine (who was incredibly sweet), met us at the hotel where we met three other families from our travel group (they were all adopting infant girls from the same province/orphanage - - very nice folks). Off we went to Tiananman Square and the Forbidden City. It was amazing to be there. The day was freezing cold, but it didn't feel like it when we were at the Forbidden City. It was a dream come true for me to be there.

(Too funny!  One of my favorite photos!  This is Michael's "self portrait" face!)

Afterwards, we headed over to the Olympic Village and we saw the "Birds Nest" and the Water Cube. The day got much colder and the wind picked up so much it was like being in a hurricane! I think we spent all of about 15 - 20 minutes at the Olympic Village. Our entire group raced to get back to the bus where we had to keep reminding the bus driver to put the heat on! Bbbrrrrrrrr!

We then headed off to a tea house to warm up and sample several different varieties of teas. After that, we attended am acrobatic show which featured an amazing team of very nimble acrobats.

We were kept quite busy that day so that we would get acclimated to the time change. By the time we returned to the hotel, we were exhausted (there is a 14 hour time difference between Beijing and Chicago). It was an incredible day.