Galactic Hotel

these are some pictures of our hotel in Nanchang. i am pre posting this so i can show you some pictures of the building i found. it looks beautiful and it sounds like a wonderful 5 star hotel. in the night time photo you can see the traffic in front of the building, i have heard that crossing this road/highway is very difficult and the one thing i hear complaints about from other families that have traveled. I guess Walmart and other stores are across the street, i think we might be taking a taxi to those stores. :-)













possibly what our hotel room will look like. i will let you know when we get there.

Which one is that?

We had a long day, we left the hotel at 6:30am, but we were up at 4am to finish packing and getting ready. we ate breakfast on the bus and we arrived at the airport to check in.
We had a 2 hour flight to Nanchang and a50 min bus ride to hotel. We arrived around 1pm and had to meet for paperwork at 2.

We got the phone call at 3:30 to come down to the lobby to get the girls. Other families were already with their babies when we arrived. Our two were lying on the couch with their caretaker waiting. She handed P Paige first, who he handed to me, then he got Phoebe.
They are much smaller than I expected, maybe fitting into 6-9 mo clothes with room to spare. At times they look identical and other times completely different, P keeps asking me, which one is that? I think phoebe is a bit larger and fussier and seems to be a little more vocal to get what she wants. Paige is more quiet and content and sucks her fingers. Both seem to have a crouppy cough and stuffed up nose.

Prayer needs:
The girls stay healthy and bond with us.

Nate has an easy transition to big brother, yesterday was hard for him.

It warms up a bit, expecting snow tomorrow for our sightseeing day.uggh.

These are a few pictures from my phone of us receiving the girls. I will post more later, we have another busy day of paperwork and buying supplies. Paige is on the left in both.
Love
Kare

The Forbidden City

check out this site below, it is a great way to look at the palace museum and all the different kind of artwork it holds. it's beautiful. it is called the forbidden city because the emperor lived here and it was the center for Chinese government, commoners were not allowed to enter this enormous city. it has 980 building!
We are going to visit TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City and the Great Wall(Juyongguan).


http://www.dpm.org.cn/index1024768.html

A fun day

So very tired and ready for bed, just one last entry for those faithful readers. We had the most fantastic sightseeing day ever, we went to tien an men square, the forbidden city and the great wall.

It was beyond freezing and we froze the entire day but we managed to all last the entire 5 hours or so we had to be outdoors. I can't say enough at how LARGE these structures are and how much walking we did to see them all. Tien an men square can hold 10 million people at once, there is a shrine to Moa and his body is on display since his death in 1976, and little did I know it is right next to the forbidden city.
The forbidden city is an enormous structure, it goes on and on with huge gates separating each section. The architecture is stunning and breathtaking. I could have spent days taking pictures of all the beautiful buildings, ornate ceilings and amazing colors.
The great wall was awesome. We all climbed to the first section of the wall. Nate loved going to the top too! It was climbing straight up, the stairs are very uneven, thank the lord there were hand rails, and it is scary to look down. I don't think that pictures do it justice, it is huge, it is very tall, it is very high and it is a lot of work to climb. Anyway it is late and you wanted pictures so here they are. Big day tomorrow, we leave at 6 am for the airport, get the babies by 4 pm. I will post about that as soon as I can
Kare

Busy Day

Thank you for your prayers, we have felt them and their blessings. Nate is getting more sleep, which makes for a happy toddler. We have a busy day today, Nate is still sleeping and we will be off to breakfast soon. We meet our group in the lobby at 8:30 to start our tour. I might not get to update with todays pictures because we get home so late and then we have a party for Nate afterwards then we have to pack for our next step on this adventure. We will see what our options are at the next hotel, free wifi here so I can blog often, don't know what we get in Nanchang.
Pray for my MIL, Linda, her flight was delayed and she arrives about 4 hours late. She gets in around 6pm.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Nate!

Nate turns 3 while we are in China. This is the number three in chinese text. We plan to have a little party for him when everyone in our travel group arrives.

Drum tower

Ok, going to try this again. Just sending the video to see if this is the problem. This is the drum show we saw from the drum tower located in the hutong. I will update more if this works.

Olympic stadium

I have been trying to blog a bit today but my posts have not been showing, I am going to give it another try.
Today we went to HardRock Cafe and had lunch. It was Yummy, it was a beautiful place and we had the place all to ourselves (a little secret is to go for a late lunch and the place is very slow).

Then we took a taxi to the olympic park. Wow, this park is huge! I have a feeling I will be saying that a lot while here in China. We saw the birds nest, water cube, the main causeway, and the torch. It was a bit surreal, seeing it on TV and now being there in person, getting to see the size and colors-- it was all so cool.

It was cold and you will notice we are bundled up and Nate is pretty unhappy having his picture taken. We arrived around 4pm and the sun was setting, it was perfect timing because shortly after we arrived the lights came on in the nest and cube.

Big sightseeing day tomorrow, then on Sunday we meet our girls. Can't believe we are so close to meeting them, it IS really going to happen. This has been an amazing journey.

Tidbit:See that last picture with the funky tower with the IBMlogo, that is a 7 star hotel built for the olympics. I didn't even know hotel star system went that high, apparently there are only two in the world, the other is in dubai. This one has a giant screen that is 4 stories tall in the middle of the building.

Squattie Potty

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> Yep, encountered my first Squattie potty yesterday. Ladies, I have to tell you, not as bad as I thought. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

> (getting picture from yesterdays sight seeing ready to upload real soon)