Chairman MAO....!!!!!

Entrance to the Forbidden City/ Imperial Palace. Pass right under Chairman Mao......LOT of 'vendors' in the Square, selling everything from postcards/pictures of China.....'red books'.....cheap kites.....knock off rolexs......to a Chairman Mao watch, with his hand moving....gotta love the folks of China....!

Saturday.....4/7..Forbidden City...'Parenthood 101"

Well, it is Saturday evening....about 5;20......whirlwind trip continues.....trying to catch our breath a bit.....today, we had a meeting with the entire group of families, and the doctors/social workers that are travelling with us....they went over some parenting tips 101, such as feeding a baby....changing diapers....feeding babies etc.....as there are a lot of first time parents in the group, session proved to be helpful....but for all of us who are parents, we all know that gotta just wing it sometimes...!!! somethings can't be learned by books or teaching...just got to experience first hand.....Zach hit the wall a bit, with jet lag catching up with him....After meeting and lunch, we took bus to Tianamen Square...Forbidden City.......as it was close to the hotel, Tina decided to walk back to hotel with Zach and forgo the tour....Probably for the best, as LOT of walking....and the kids that were in the group seemed bored....tired.....Tina and Zach were able to catch up on some sleep, as we toured the Forbidden City/Imperial Palace....INCREDIBLE how big the entire area is.....Lot of history, and tour guide went through a lot....took some video and pics; will try and upload pics later on........Amazing how congested with traffic Beijing is...tourguide, who is born and raised in Beijing, said that the number of automobiles have grown incredible.....used to be more bikes, now cars everywhere......makes NYC or Boston look like a Ghost town.......makes me wonder..Are they really ready for the onslaught that will come during the Olympics??......besides our travel group who are adopting, seems like a lot of US tour groups in Beijing.......weather has been fantastic.....shorts and tee shirts thus far......welll....off to dinner....its 'family style' dinner.....after hosting a wedding for 400 of our closests friends, nothing for us...!!!! FYI: if anyone wants to 'get in touch' with us, we can receive emails (rtwalnista@comcast.net)........Glad to see on Boston.com that Dice K had a good first showing........tomorrow off to the Great Wall........later...

Oceanic Flight 815.....

It is now a little after 9:00 am, Beijing time, so figured I'd catch up a bit.....for those who don't watch the show LOST, post title may not make sense.....Anyway, we are finally getting adjusted to time change....As mentioned in previous post, yesterday was a long long travel day, but went better than expected....Zach could not have been better for us, even with all of the travelling.....All of the families have been great, and there are some kids Zachs age, too,.....Zach and I went to the pool.....sauna....now getting ready to do some sight seeing around Beijing.....got the video camera and digital camera all charged up.....First time ever travelling internationally, so getting used to the language barriers......But, do the best we can......right off the bat, hit a snag as our first room had internet access, then did not. got up this morning and tried to log on, but could not....had to spend quite some time trying to explain to front desk...sent folks up to the room, still no go....so, ended up changing rooms.......but, all worked out just fine....as everyone says, just go with the flow....nohing a few Tsingtao's cant correct, right???? Feel that after a day of sight seeing, relaxing at the pool/sauna, will be back on track, sleep wise.....oh, FYI, if anyone posts comments to this blog, we cannot access it......We found out that we can post comments and updates, but cannot 'read' the blog......!!! Hope this post finds everyone well........Two more days until we finally meet...and hold...Isabella for the first time......Can't wait.......

Where are here...!!!!!

This will be a QUICK post for now to let everyone know that we have arrived in Beijing, save and sound....!!!! Trip was great....in all honesty, the 13 hour flight just FLEW bye...(yeah, right...!!) In all seriousness, Zach was fantastic on the plane....even if his portable DVD player was inadvertently left on prior to getting on the plane....resulting in NO battery for the entire trip....but, rolled withe punches, made due, watched movies on computer, played games, etc....long, long LONG day...left Mansfield at 5:30 a.m., and with the time change for China more or less was settled in our hotel room at 5:30 a.m, EST time...(yup, 24 Hour of LeMans got noting on us...!!) Hotel is great......we went out for dinner as group last night....crashed at 8:00 PM Beijing time, and course, due to change in time wide awake at 3:30 a.m.....did fall back to sleep.....just grabbed some breakfast, and taking Zach for a swim.....we meet in lobby at around 10.....today, visiting Forbidden City and Tianamen Square.....so far, trip has been great.....and, who needs sleep anyways???? Best wishes to family and friends who are reading this, and will write a longer 'blog' tonight........

Loki....The Masters....Red Sox......ICE!!!!

As I finish up our packing, I am thinking what I will miss during our trip to get Bella.........our dog, Loki, who will be spending 2 weeks in doggie daycare..(yes, he does exist....yes, he does run away occassionally....and yes, ALWAYS comes back)......Tiger at the Masters.....Dice K and the Sox.....and....ICE (been told stay away from ice....only drink bottled water......!!!) It will be whirl wind, exciting, non stop trip......but, as one of our good friends told me, "keep your eye on the prize", which is getting our daughter home.....! As new to the whole blog thing, wanted to test out posting pics, hence our beloved dog, Loki...(contrary to statements made, we love the old dog and looking forward to him meeting Bella).....! anyway, next updates and posts should be when we are enroute to Beijing.....!! (No Tina, we aren't getting rid of the dog...!!)

Do we have everything?????

this time tomorrow, we will be at Logan airport, waiting for first leg of journey to Newark and on to Beijing......NEVER travelled this far, or international before...Good news is that Wide Horizons (adoption agency) handles a TON for you....!!! But, key is to pack lighlty.....tell that to Tina!!! she has actually been good about that......Course, packing for a 6 year old can be difficult.......lets see....GameBoy...check...DVD player...check.....movies...check.....Computer games...check......we know we will forget something....glad that things are cheap in China....i am sure Tina will be helping out with the Chinese economy when we are there...!!!!! Trying to explain go Zach that he will not be able to watch a lot of his favorite shows on the trip.....at least all of the hotels have a pool, and most seem to have bowling alleys??? We are as packed as best we can...have car service picking us up tomorrow at 5:30......get into Beijing on Friday at 1:30 PM China time (1:30 a.m. US)......basically, to the hotel to crash a bit......Stay in Beijing Friday, Saturday and Sunday (sight seeing to Great Wall of China, Forbidden City), and off to Nanning on Monday, 4/9 to meet Isabella for the first time......Easter Bunny came 'early' for Zach and left him a basket this morning, with a note, explaining that he left it as he is proud of him for helping out to get his little sister.....Glad we did this as it made his day....and Bunny was kind enough to leave some computer games which will come in handy on the trip.........!

Little snag before the trip...but all set...!!

Hard to believe only 2 more days til we get on plane for China....!!! Been waiting long time for this, and we know the wait will be worth it once we get our daughter. Unfortunately, last minute changes in travel plans. Tina's mom, who was supposed to travel with us, won't be able to go now due to an unexpected circumstance at home. Everyone is fine, but Helene will be staying home. She will be missed on the trip, and Zach is disappointed but understands.

For those who check this blog now and then, if you do not see any updates when we are travelling it is due to not being able to access the site from China. We have been told that in certain areas, may not be able to sign in in order to update, but we will try our best to keep a running journal of our adventure to get Bella.

We just wanted to say 'thanks' to all of our family and friends for the incredible support we have received throughout this process.....we couldn't have made it this far without great family and friends.....!!!