Greetings from Beijing,
We are so sorry for the late posts. We have had great difficulty with internet access. I can hardly believe that I am writing to you from Beijing, China. Our friend, Renee Evans, asked for details, so allow me to share a few about our trip. During our layover in Chicago, a female, Chinese college student greeted me hesitantly. We started chatting, and before long, she was helping me with my Chinese, which is minimal, and I was helping her with her English. She wanted us to call her by her English name which was Allisa (think Allison without the “n”). She wanted me to learn the Chinese word for “precious” because she said that the Chinese often refer to their children in this way. She wrote the characters for me and explained their meaning. The first character includes the character for “jade” combined with the character for “roof”…..meaning that you have brought something of great value into your home. The second character in the word precious includes the character for “shell” combined with the character for “roof”. Long ago shells were used as money in China, so, once again, the characters refer to bringing something of great value into the household. When a child is brought into the home, something of great value has been added to the household….something precious. Meili, you will indeed be a precious addition to our household. In addition to our college student friend, we met two other families….a mother, who is a college professor, traveling with her son and a mother and father, who is also a professor, with their daughter. Eli struck up a conversation with both families, and played “Rumicube” with the children. They were all very friendly. In fact, Eli and the children exchanged e-mail addresses and the father invited us to visit them at their home by the beach. Josh, Caitlin, and I played “Crazy 8’s” with Allisa and took a walk to Starbucks. Allisa changed her seat on the plane so that she could visit with Josh while we traveled….no worries, Angell J. The flight to China was LONG….14 ½ hours. If you know Brian, you know that he hates to fly. Thanks to Dr. Dave, Brian slept the entire flight with the exception of ½ hour….Thanks, Dave! The stewardesses were so friendly and wanted to know all about our adoption. We arrived in Beijing at 11:38 to a rather deserted Beijing Airport. I had been a little nervous about customs, but the man who was working was very friendly and joked with us as he looked over everything. He said that Caitlin was very beautiful….we already knew that :o) Our guide, Joy, met us at the airport and arranged for a van to take us to the Chang An Grand Hotel. We were all very happy to get some sleep at that point. Thanks for all of your prayers!
We managed to fit everything into carry-ons.
Grandma, Grandpa, and Jonathan were there to see us off.
