Up Early, Can't Sleep, Too Excited

Hello,

Well, we do not have An An yet. It is 5:40 am in China right now. With the time difference between here and the States, you tend to wake up really early in the morning. For the past few mornings, we have all started waking up around 4:00 am and try to get back to sleep. But, we all give up at 5:00 am and just get up. Thankfully, Todd & the kids are still sleeping this morning. But, my mind is going a mile a minute thinking of Ruthie, so here I am blogging.

I thought I would share a little bit more about our previous few days here in China. Beijing is a very large city, about 30 million people. Downtown Beijing is quite international, so seeing foreigners is not unusual. As I stated before, the Olympics are huge for the Chinese people, being that they will be held here next summer. We did see 3 of the stadiums where the events will be held.

The Chinese culture is so different from ours. We value independence and being able to take care of things ourselves. However, in China, it is a dependent society, where the people view themselves as a whole. Because of this, they are extremely helpful and even if they offer help and you say you can do it yourself, they still help you. This has been evident in how much they have helped us with Kai and Gracie - the bus driver always carried Kai & Gracie off the bus, even though they were perfectly able to get off themselves. One of the local guides took Gracie's hand and took care of her throughout the whole tour.

We met a Chinese family at The Great Wall, who were fascinated by our bi-racial family. We do get a lot of looks being a family with white parents and Chinese children. This family was from Hong Kong and could speak English. They told us that it was so wonderful that we adopted Gracie & Kai. As always, when people tell us this, we tell them that we are the lucky ones to have the opportunity to be their parents. They asked a lot of questions and it was a neat experience.

Changsha is a very neat city. Although we are in the middle of downtown with large skyscrapers, there are local vendors selling their food along the street. We saw a girl, in her 20's, who was in a wheelchair with an electronic keyboard who was performing, hoping that people would leave her money in her little box. I took her photo from a distance because I didn't want to make her uncomfortable. We didn't have any change to give her, but hope to see her tomorrow so we can give her some $.

Gracie has been enjoying the Chinese food. Seriously, her favorite food so far is the Rice Krispies that they serve at the breakfast buffet. Below, she is holding a Chinese dumpling that she drew a face on. Such a funny girl.

My "Chinism" for today is their translation of the English language, which us not very good. In places where there are signs in English, the translation from the Chinese does not make much sense. We are always chuckling at them and look forward to seeing the next sign. It doesn't matter where you are; a 5-star hotel, an airport, a tourist attraction, etc. it is everywhere. Below, is a photo of one sign that I took at the Great Wall.

Well, it is time for me to wake up the kids and get going. I can't wait to see Ruthie! We are due to get her at 7:30 pm Mountain Standard Time.

Talk to you all soon!

Love,

Noelle