Busy day

Teng Wang Ge Pavilion

i am pre-posting this entry just in case i have difficulty writing to the blog while in China. This pavilion is located in Nanchang, and from what i read, has had a very turbulent past. it was built in the year 653 and because of war or poor construction has been rebuilt practically ever 20-40 years. I have counted 11 fires that have burnt it down completely and it has been rebuilt a total of 29 times over the centuries. it mainly serves as a tourism attraction and is now a landmark in Nanchang. You can climb to the 6th story and see most of the city and river. We should be visiting this landmark on Jan 12-13. it looks beautiful, I love the architecture and i am excited to visit.

Leaving Nanchang

We are leaving in just a few minutes and I wanted to jot down a few notes about our stay here in Nanchang.
-They are building a new airport right next to the old one, it's going to be huge.
-When we arrived it was hazy and we discovered it was because of all the construction in the area was allowing the dirt and dust to blow around, it was a hazy red.
-This city is huge, it seems to go on forever. it has 4 million people in it, that is considered small!
-The hotel is beautiful, however the beds are incredibly hard, like nothing I knew could exist. It's like they took a sheet and put it on the dinning room table and called it a bed. Every hour we wake to turn because we are so sore.
-Right now they are on a no honking restriction, if they are caught they can get a ticket. I can only imagine the sound when it picks up.
-Because of the Chinese new year, or they call it spring festival there are firecracker going off many times during the day, sometimes they last 3-5 minutes and go day and night.
-We seem to be a big spectical here, everywhere we walk crowds of people gather to see the babies, they touch their cheeks and hold up two fingers, as if to ask twins. Then they give us thumbs up. This includes adult men, children and all women.
-there is a lot of construction going on in the city, two huge hotels are going up across the street.
-the girls are eating congee, rice and formula, they are in size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothes.
-the girls are able to sit on their own for a bit longer now and are grabbing for toys. When they are close to each other they try to steal the others toys.
-All areas in china they are allowed to smoke cigarettes. The lobby is full of smoke, hallways, even in the elevators. Everywhere you go it smells like smoke.
- we are allowed to pack up to 44 pounds per suitcase. Yikes.
Gotta run.

3 days with the girls

We are having some wifi difficulty, I have been trying to blog for two days now.
We have had the girls for just 3 days and we are having a blast. We are learning about each of their likes and dislikes and figuring out their schedules. They have started smiling and laughing and we have found their tickle spots. They are looking at us as if we are becoming familiar to them. They are cooing and doing some baby talk and give us big smiles when we smile at them. We are so blessed to be able to parent twins, we are having so much fun, we are in love with our girls. We thank God that he has blessed us with Nate, Paige and Phoebe.
1. Paige at walmart
2. Phoebe
3. Phoebe at top
4. Paige on left in red jackets
5. Girls with Nate
6. Paige with grandma

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.