1st day in China

Here in China we are 15 hours ahead. We left on Wednesday morning and when we arrived Thursday night it was still only Thursday morning back home. It's like the TV show "Lost." We jumped ahead in time and when we go home we will go back in time. Mind boggling.

We are working to get ourselves on Chinese time, but by the end of the day today, we were dragging. We were all able to get a good night’s sleep and were able to sleep until 6am. We started the day dressing in long underwear and heavy coats because we new we would be outside all day sightseeing.

Breakfast was interesting. There were foods that we normally see on a breakfast buffet like eggs, bacon, toast and fruit, but also Chinese food that I would expect at lunch. There was wonton soup, stir-fried noodles and fried rice. This surprised me, but we can always count on Thatcher eating noodles, so that, along with a lot of watermelon, made for a good breakfast for Thatcher.

Next we boarded a bus with the 11 other families with our agency. Like us, they are all here to get their special needs children. There are families from Alabama, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia and more. There are 32 people in our group.

Our first stop was Tieneman Square. We walked through the square and took pictures of the soldiers, monuments and surrounding buildings. Local street vendors offered for sale silk purses, colorful chopsticks, furry hats with a communist red star, and official Chairman Mao watches. We stopped at one point and gathered for a group picture and Zhou took a picture with everyone’s camera. We noticed that Chinese tourists were gathering around and taking pictures of us. One college-age kid kept trying to get in the picture and Zhou (all the while laughing) pushed him out. Then, after all of our pictures were taken, Chinese people began getting into the group while their family members took pictures of us. Two girls got into a picture with me, then introduced themselves to Thatcher and got pictures with him. For the rest of the day, wherever we went, it was a common site to see adults and children in our group being stopped by Chinese people for pictures. It was really funny!

After Tieneman Square we walked to the Forbidden City. Built in the early 1400s and home to 14 Chinese Emperors, the Forbidden City is a palace made up of many courtyards and buildings. It was interesting, but we kind of rushed through it. In addition, with so many people there, it was very difficult to keep our group together. Regrouping took up a lot of time.

Next, we took a rickshaw ride threw a residential area. We stopped at someone’s house for lunch. Zhou arranged us to be fed by some locals so that we could see what a traditional middle class family eats and how they live. It was very modest and he explained how this man, who is a soldier, could only afford to rent a small two-room house. It is normal for 3 or 4 generations to live in one room of a house that size and rent one room out to migrant workers. One more thing to make us thankful.

I thought lunch was good. I am not so sure that everybody else thought so. I am pretty adventurous and I found the food not much different from Chinese food we might eat in the U.S. I think if there had been forks, then others might have found the food more enjoyable. As it was, the conversation around the table centered on everyone’s difficulty with chopsticks.

Our next destination was to be a silk factory. But first Zhou needed to stop at the CCAA--the Chinese Adoptions Authority. He needed to make a donation for Special Needs Orphans on behalf of our Agency and he stated that we are the first group that he has ever brought to see the place where all of the adoptions are processed. We didn't go inside, but most of got off the bus while waiting for Zhou to take pictures of this agency that enabled us all to get our adopted children.

At the silk factory we were shown the life of the silkworm and shown how the silk is taken from the cocoon, woven into thread, and weaved into rugs and cloth, or used to make the filling for silk comforters. He told us that first the cocoons were baked in an oven to kill the worm and the worm could be eaten as a source of protein--tastes not like chicken but like peanuts. That's what he said. Anyway, their goods were very high quality, very expensive, but beautiful.

Not yet adjusted to Chinese time, we were fading at the end of the day. We had dinner on our own, and we decided to just get dinner in our hotel.. The hotel’s a la carte menu had Indian food, Italian food and American food as well as Asian cuisines. Norma, Kristi, Thatcher and I all opted for food we were pretty familiar with. I had fried chicken wings and fries, Kristi had a burger, Thatcher had spaghetti (he said the best hotel food he has ever had) and Mimi had a club sandwich. After so many new experiences, I think we all just needed a little bit of comfort food. And Thatcher was so tired that he actually fell asleep at about 7pm while twirling his spaghetti. We all had a good laugh at him.

It was another exciting day. We will not get our daughter until probably Monday afternoon and we are anxious. Luckily, we will be very busy until then--tomorrow we have a big day as well. We will see the Great Wall, do some shopping and see an acrobatic show. It has been very busy so far, but we are really enjoying experiencing something so different from what we know.

Lastly, thank you all for your supportive postings and the prayers. It means so much to us. If you read this and see no pictures, check back. We are having technical difficulties but I'll get them worked out soon. Thanks again.