We started the day very early (3am for me). I guess we still have a little adjusting to do. Orientation with Holt was very exciting and emotional. I felt like I was on the verge of tears the entire time they talked about what to expect when we meet the babies. About half of our group found out today that their babies are in foster care (those at the Yuanling SWI) which was quite shocking to them. They may have a more challenging day ahead than we do because their babies are actually bonded with a family. They also received recent pics of the babies and the SWI which was exciting to see. They will not tour the SWI because it is 8 hours from Changsha, but they may be able to come with us to ZZ. We met a few new families today that just arrived so now our group has grown to 40. There are 2 families who have their Chinese daughters with them who we have really enjoyed getting to know. We had yet another good Chinese meal here in the hotel and then left for our tours of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is gigantic and can hold up to 500,000 people. There were vendors trying to sell us souvenirs everywhere and the are sometimes very persistent. We must have said "no" at least 500 times today. The Forbidden City is over 1000 meters long and we walked every meter. Some of us started to feel like the tour would never end! It is beyond my comprehension that it was built in 1420 and still stands today. Even the trees were that old and we took a pic of the oldest tree called the Lump Tree. I think by the end of the day, most of us could only think of tomorrow and were ready for the sight seeing to be over. We ate dinner with a couple from Montana (Mike and Alison) and really like them. Alison is from Irving and Mike is from Louisiana so I guess we are just drawn to those from our part of the country! Our bags are already packed for tomorrow and we are really getting anxious now. In just a few hours our lives are going to change forever and I can't even describe how excited we both are. We have no idea what to expect tomorrow to be like when they come knocking on our hotel room door with our daughter in tow. We have talked a lot about Jakob today and really miss him, he wouldn't way much on the phone today but at least he heard my voice. We are definitely happy with the decision to rent the cell phone. I've actually managed to make it to 8:30 tonight (I was asleep by 7pm last night) so I hope to be fully adjusted to the time soon. Who knows what tomorrow night will bring! Beijing was incredible and we will always treasure this experience. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how crazy people drive here. I don't know why they bother to paint stripes on the road because none of the cars/buses/bikes pay any attention to where they are going. Our guide told us that their stop lights are merely "suggestions" and that they don't really have to obey them. Beijing traffic makes Dallas rush hour look like a cake walk. Pretty funny to watch but a little scary to be in the middle of the action! I almost forgot to mention too, these two very cute Chinese college students approached us in the Square and asked me about the pin I was wearing (Feb DTC). They told me how beautiful I was and asked if I was a model, HAHA! We explained why we are here and they were very sweet and told us all about why there are so many girls to adopt. Sometimes we feel like people here think we're from another planet instead of just another country. Our guide explained that many of them had probably never seen foreigners before and that's why they were so curious. Several Chinese people snapped pictures of us, which was very amusing.
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