We made it. About 24 hours after leaving our hotel in Charleston, we checked into our hotel in Beijing.
Our flight from DC to Beijing was a little over 7000 miles. We had an all female crew piloting the plane.
We didn't actually fly over the North Pole, but we did fly over the Artic Ocean. With all the ice and water, I can't imagine the North Pole would look any different though. (I looked for polar bears, but didn't see any.) Flying into Beijing, we saw some wicked looking mountains just outside of the city.
On the actual flight, we had 2 meals and 2 snacks. The 2nd snack was a bowl of noodles (like ramen noodles). We were given both silverware and chopsticks. We all ate it with the chopsticks to get in practice.
We had a basket of flowers waiting in our room - compliments of our guides.
Once we got here, we had about an hour to rest, and then our guide took us to buy water. (You can't drink the water, so we have to buy it.) We walked to a store about 10-15 minutes away. The streets were cleaner than I thought they'd be. I felt quite lost in the store - it was like an IGA. Saw Coke and Pepsi, but no Mountain Dew.
Now the rooms are a little different. There's no power in them, unless you're in them. Once you come in, you have to slide your room key in a slot on the wall - that turns the power on. Since we only get one room key - you can't leave it on if you leave. If you're out of the room for very long, it gets hot and has to cool back down each and every time you come back.
I think there's only one TV channel in English, and it's CNN, so the boys watched part of a movie tonight in Chinese.
We ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. We ordered hamburgers. I'm not sure what they were made out of though, because they didn't taste like any hamburger I've ever had. They weren't bad - they were just different. Drinks were warm - can't have ice - ice is made with water. (Unless the ice has holes in it, then it's been made with filtered water.)
We have a full day tomorrow. We're leaving here early in the morning and not coming back until evening. We have tours all day.
We’re David and Lois McBeath. We live in Point Pleasant, WV – a small town along the Ohio River on the western side of the state. We have 2 sons. Austin is 15. He’s a sophomore at Pt. Pleasant High School. Darrell is almost 12. He’s in the 6th grade at Roosevelt Elementary.
We actually began our adoption journey more than 10 years ago. I saw an ad in the newspaper about Chinese babies. We called about it, but it just wasn’t even feasible at that time in our life. All these years, it was always there, stuck somewhere in the back of our minds. I don't know why exactly – it just was. The thought never completely went away.
We also talked off and on about having another child. Our house was only 3 bedrooms, and we know the boys could have been in a room together, but we didn't want to do that if we didn't have to. In the spring of 2006, for some reason (I don't recall exactly what) - it came up again. We started thinking and talking - why not? So we started checking into it more. We did a lot of research online. The more we found out, the more we felt a calling, a desire and even a need to do this.
We started the adoption and added onto the house all at the same time. It took about 6 months to get the paperwork together. Then about another month after we sent it to China for them to translate it and 'log us in' (11/6/06). That's when we started to officially wait.
We finally got "THE CALL" on 7/13/08. It was a Sunday afternoon! After 2 ½ years, we are finally going to get our baby!
We actually began our adoption journey more than 10 years ago. I saw an ad in the newspaper about Chinese babies. We called about it, but it just wasn’t even feasible at that time in our life. All these years, it was always there, stuck somewhere in the back of our minds. I don't know why exactly – it just was. The thought never completely went away.
We also talked off and on about having another child. Our house was only 3 bedrooms, and we know the boys could have been in a room together, but we didn't want to do that if we didn't have to. In the spring of 2006, for some reason (I don't recall exactly what) - it came up again. We started thinking and talking - why not? So we started checking into it more. We did a lot of research online. The more we found out, the more we felt a calling, a desire and even a need to do this.
We started the adoption and added onto the house all at the same time. It took about 6 months to get the paperwork together. Then about another month after we sent it to China for them to translate it and 'log us in' (11/6/06). That's when we started to officially wait.
We finally got "THE CALL" on 7/13/08. It was a Sunday afternoon! After 2 ½ years, we are finally going to get our baby!
Leila Ann McBeath, formally known as Shun Xi Yi, was born on Oct 29, 2007. She had a cleft lip and cleft palate. The lip has been repaired, but not the palate. (We'll have to do that when we get her home.) She's in the Children's Welfare Institute of Shunde District of Foshan City, which is located in the Guangdong Province, in the southern part of China.
Shunde, the hometown of flowers, is one of four cities under the jurisdiction of Foshan City. Covering an area of 806 sq meters and with a population of 1.05 million, Shunde City is situated in the middle of the fertile Pearl River Delta, between Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It was set up as a county in the 3rd year (1452 AD) of the Jintai reign of the Ming Dynasy (1368-1644), and conferred with the administrative status of a city in 1992 by the State Council.
Foshan City is also where the actor Bruce Lee was from.
Shunde, the hometown of flowers, is one of four cities under the jurisdiction of Foshan City. Covering an area of 806 sq meters and with a population of 1.05 million, Shunde City is situated in the middle of the fertile Pearl River Delta, between Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It was set up as a county in the 3rd year (1452 AD) of the Jintai reign of the Ming Dynasy (1368-1644), and conferred with the administrative status of a city in 1992 by the State Council.
Foshan City is also where the actor Bruce Lee was from.
2 comments:
Oh, this blog that you set up is so interesting. I am glad you did it.
Wow, the things we take for granted.....ice cubes and full electricity.
Which one of you is having Mountain Dew withdrawls???
I hope you don't find out what was in the hamburgers.
Well, I think I will go and have some tea with ice now.
TAKE CARE!!!!!!
Can't wait to hear about the GREAT WALL. I can't imagine seeing that in person!!!!
Post a Comment