First full day in China

Our first full day in China started with the amazing breakfast buffet at our hotel.  I've been hearing about these buffets for years and was not disappointed!!  Not only did it offer your traditional American breakfast fare - omelets to order, french toast, bacon, etc - but it also had noodle soup, pork with bean curd paste and a variety of other things that I'm not sure I'll find the courage to taste!

We met up with the other family in our group at 11:30am this morning.  Their daughter is from the same orphanage as Maggie.  This is their second trip for their second daughter.  They brought Hannah home nine years ago and she is very excited to be a big sister!!  From what I can tell so far she will be an AMAZING big sister!!

Our guides took us to a famous dim sum restaurant called Sky No. 1 in Guangzhou.   The restaurant was on the 29th floor of the building and had amazing views of the city.  I was a little braver in what I tried at lunch but still have a long way to go.  Dad and Tom were much more willing to try things!

Our travel mates beautiful daughter Hannah who will be 10 in July

 Ours is the smallest group our agency has had in a long time.  We started out at about 18 families and are down to two!!!  Norman (far right) is our China facilitator and Claire (next to Norman) and Martin and Jimmy (far left) are all part of the in-China team.  They are wonderful!

 After a short tour of the city we all came back to the hotel to rest.  We decided that before we rested, Katie, Tom and I would try out a bar or two in the hotel for a little "happy hour".  We got happy at a place called "Bar", at a cozy little table in front of the window that looked out over the hotel entrance.  It was a great people watching place and we proceeded to get very happy during that hour.

Since it was still fairly early we decided to go for a walk - Big. Mistake.  We ended up in the "Undergarment District" of Guangzhou and for the life of us could not find our way back to the hotel.  NO ONE spoke English and we saw things that made Katie and I decide that there is no way in HELL we are eating anything with any kind of meat in it while here in China.  It was starting to get dark so we stopped at a police station to ask for directions.  They were nice enough to give us a ride back to the hotel and I'm sure were laughing and making fun of us the whole way - STUPID AMERICANS!

Tomorrow we will be touring the city all day and then Monday afternoon at 2pm we leave to get Maggie!!!  I can't believe that in less than 48 hours I'll see her face and finally have her in my arms!!!