After posting about our trip each day, I realized that there were a few little incidents that I forgot to write about. Our first little mishap happened on the day we were to leave. It happened even before we got on the plane. I had packed all of our bags and they were all together in my bedroom. We had to be at the airport early in the morning (6:45am) for our first flight to Newark. With a 45 minute ride to the airport that meant we all had to be in the car NLT than 6:00am. I was up early, got a shower, dressed and got ready for the long trip. I then woke M up to get her ready. In the meantime, DH was up too and trying to get himself ready to drive us to the airport. I wanted to wait until the last possible moment to wake E up so about 5:45 I woke E up and DH was suppose to be taking all of our bags to the car at that time too. I didn't pay any attention to see if they all made it to the car because I was trying to get E awake and saying goodbye to her. Thinking all was well, we all got into the car and headed to the airport. DH pulled up to the departure gates, M and I got out of the car, and DH was putting our luggage on the curb. I looked at the luggage and said "Where's my red suitcase?". DH said "What red suitcase?". It was at that moment that we realized that my red suitcase (the one with most of our clothes and extra shoes) was still sitting in my bedroom at home. DH immediately hopped back into the car and took off. So much for a nice goodbye! He was driving at a high rate of speed so he could get back in time for us to make our flight to Newark. He was making great time, when a few minutes ahead of him a truck had crashed on the interstate, thus blocking the whole North bound lane. DH doesn't like to show his credentials but had to at that point in order for the State trooper to let him pass and so he could get home. If that State Trooper wasn't as kind as he was, M and I would have had to make the trip to China with very little clothing and a few other necessities. In the meantime as the minutes ticked away, I'm starting to get a little nervous that we would be without a valuable piece of luggage. I could purchase stuff for M but not me. I don't think there are too many 5'9" larger women in China. With 30 minutes until our flight was scheduled to leave, DH pulls up, gives us our red suitcase, and then hugs M very quickly because he didn't get a chance to do that earlier. M and I checked the bag in and went through security as fast as we could, and headed to the gate (this time we were lucky and the gate was actually at the beginning of the terminal and not the end as it is usually in my travels). We were about the last people on the plane but we made it!! Our bag made it to China too!! Moral of the story: Double check to make sure all of your luggage is in the car before you leave the house!

Our second little incident happened at the Newark Airport. This incident wasn't as stressful though. M and I were the lucky ones to get the random search boarding passes. That meant that we were going to have our check in bags searched and have both of us patted down when we went through security. All went well until they were checking my backpack (the one that had the DVD player, camera and all of my items to keep me occupied on the flight) for explosives. The machine beeped and printed up a red ticket for traces of TNT. Holy Cow! How could that happen. Here I am probably one of the most law abiding individuals (I don't even like to drive over the speed limit because I don't want to get pulled over) and my bag has traces of TNT. They had to get another TSA person over to thoroughly search my bag again. The bag and contents had to be sent back through the xray machines. Both M and I were sitting on the chairs very nicely to not cause any other problems. Finally the TSA agent said we could go. Now 2 weeks later, I finally figured out why my bag tested for explosives (I wish I would have remembered the reason while they were searching through everything). On Chinese New Year Eve, the family that we were celebrating with gave M a little firework (a sparkler type firework). We didn't set it off at the house because M was getting tired and we were going to go back to the Hotel. I put the firework in my backpack to take it back to the hotel. We still didn't get a chance to set if off while in China so I had to throw it away because I knew we couldn't bring it back to the US. This firework left enough traces of explosives in my bag to set off the explosive detection machines. Moral of this story: Never put a firework in any bags that you plan to carry onto a plane!

In Honor of President's Day...
Have fun solving this jigsaw puzzle.

Sunday, Monday Feb 10-11, 2008

Our trip to China is over. We checked out of our hotel around 11:00 and then had to wait around for a couple of hours until it was time to head to the airport. We had our last lunch in China while waiting. Can you guess where? Well, McDonalds of course. Had to find something for M to eat because I knew she wouldn't eat any of the airplane food. Our guide and driver showed up around 1:00 pm to drive us to the airport. Our plane departed at 5:00 pm for Newark. Our flight left right on time. M and I both ended up sleeping quite a bit on this flight mainly because we were flying during the night. Before we knew it we were over Canada and getting closer to Newark. Everything on this trip went so well so far. We weren't going to be as lucky on our way home. Our first indication that we might have problems was when the pilot came on the loud speaker and said that we will have to be in a holding pattern for a while due to high winds in the Newark area. We probably had to circle for about 30 to 45 minutes until we were allowed to land. The whole time we circled it was pretty bumpy. We did finally land and had no problems going through immigration. We did have to wait about 1 hour to get bags before we went through customs. I was getting a little worried because we only had about 1 hour before our next flight left for home. Finally our bags came down the belt and we headed through customs quickly and just as I was going to leave our bags to get rechecked, the guy told me our flight was cancelled. Bummer!!! We had to go to the ticket counter and make other arrangements. The soonest flight would not be until the next day at 11:50am. Thank goodness the airline took care of us and provided us a hotel room and food vouchers at no charge. We were able to get a good nights rest before we headed out the next morning. Our flight the following day was delayed also. We finally took off after 1:00 pm. I was never so glad to finally land at our hometown Airport. I do have to say that M was a real trooper and she did great for me even with the delay.

M finally has been able to go back to school today, Thursday Feb 14. The evening we came home we were hit with a pretty bad snowstorm/ice storm. Schools were closed for 2 days! At least M had time to get over jetlag and we didn't have to deal with her being tired at school.

Saturday, Feb 9, 2008 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, M!!!!

6 years ago today, a very special little girl was born in China. What better way to celebrate your Birthday but in the country where you were born. Today M was so excited to be turning 6. Happy Birthday!!!


Our day was another low key day with not a lot planned on the original tour but our guide offered to take us to the Pearl Market in the morning. I wanted to visit the Pearl Market again because I had some people from home who wanted some pearls. Unfortunately the Main Pearl Market was closed due to the Chinese New Year. I was bummed. When our guide had the taxi pull up to the front entrance to the Temple of Heaven, I was a little confused because I knew we had just passed the Pearl Market building that I've visited before. That's when I found out that it was closed and we were just going to another Pearl Store located within the grounds of the Temple of Heaven. The store was all right and I was able to find some good buys for our friends and some stuff for the girls. The guy who helped us in the store was very kind and when he heard it was M.'s Birthday, he gave her an extra pair of earrings to go with the pearl necklace I bought for her. (M doesn't have her ears pierced yet but I'm sure when she does, the earrings would look beautiful on her). When we first entered the store, we were shown a real oyster and they opened it for us to see how many pearls were inside (we both took a guess before she opened it and boy were we wrong). M mentioned a little later that she wanted an oyster and the salesclerk gave her one that was opened and they were just going to throw it away. Have you ever cleaned out an oyster in a hotel room? Well, we did and we removed about 30 tiny pearls for M to keep. We also cleaned up the oyster shell well enough so that we could bring it home in our suitcase.


The afternoon was a another trip to a local fair. This one was called the Temple Fair. There were just as many people at this fair as the other one and I had to keep a tight grip on M's hand again. This time we were able to see a few different things but not much. Most of M's view again was about the level of all the people's behinds. I at least had the advantage of height so I could see over top of most of the people. M again was able to get some more Cotton Candy. As we were leaving the fair, we were so fortunate to be standing at the right place to see the little dance/drum routine. M was able to be right up front and see everything. I didn't bring my video camera to the fair (mainly because I totally looked ridiculous with a both a digital camera and a video camera hanging around my neck) but I did remember to take some movies with my digital camera so that we could remember the sounds of the fair.





After the fair we headed to our dinner, Imperial Cuisine. Basically it was just another tourist type restaurant that prided themselves on serving food that would have been served to the emperor and such. By this time, I was kind of getting tired of eating Chinese food but managed to fill my belly. M actually ate something at this meal, fried rice. It was the first time that we had fried rice served and M does loves fried rice. At this dinner, we celebrated M's Birthday. The tour company provided a cake and candles for M's birthday. After dinner we all sang Happy Birthday in English and Chinese. M was a very happy little girl that evening. It was wonderful celebrating her Birthday, but it was also a little sad knowing that our trip was almost over. We would be heading back home the next day.

Friday, Feb 8, 2008

Today was the exciting day because we were headed to the Great Wall of China at the Badaling pass. When we were discussing the trip and I told M that she would be going to the Great Wall, she was so excited. Well today she was going to see it in person for the first time. On our way to the Great Wall we made a couple of other stops to some more local sites, the Cloisonne and a Jade Factory. Our first stop was the Cloisonne factory. I was a little disappointed because we didn't go to the same factory that I've been to on my previous 2 trips to Beijing. This one just wasn't the same. They just had some tables set up inside the building that just demonstrated the process so you can see how the Cloisonne was made. Since we were also the only group in the building, M was able to try her hand at putting the enamel onto a vase. We ended up buying some tiny panda ornaments for all M's classmates at School and some bracelets for her teammates at Gymnastics. For some reason, I thought the prices were a little higher than on my previous trips but that could be because the dollar isn't as valuable anymore (7.1 yuan to 1.00). Our next stop was the Jade Factory where we had a little lunch. This wasn't my favorite lunch on the trip but at least it filled my stomach. We had a little tour on how they carved all the jade pieces. We were also given some ideas on how to determine if a piece is genuine jade or a fake. I only picked up a couple of little items for the girls. I had purchases both girls a nice jade piece on my previous trips so I didn't buy a lot this time.

We were finally headed towards the Great Wall after lunch. We went to the same location that I've visited on both my trips, Badaling. M was very impressed with the Great Wall and was very excited to be able to walk it. It was very windy and cold on this day but we braved the weather and started to walk. M was having some problems with her coughing (she had been coughing all week due to her illness that she had right before she left home) due to the cold winds and her over exerting her body. We only walked as far as I've walked in the past, the tower at the top of the hill pictured in the top right photo. I'm proud that M made it that far because she was coughing so hard that she told me she almost threw up one time.

Now to one of the highlights of our trip, the Ice Lantern Festival in Lonqingxia. We headed north of the Great wall to a resort area called Lonqingxia. The festival was at the base of a dammed up gorge. It was totally amazing what they had carved out of ice and snow. They made lots of different buildings inside the enclosed area out of ice. The ice was also lit up which made it all the more beautiful. There were ice sculptures everywhere. If it only wasn't so cold inside, I would have liked to stay a lot longer. M. was getting very cold and after her little mishap at the squatty potty, she didn't want to walk around anymore. It was getting close to about 6:00pm and we still haven't eaten our dinner yet so we left the area to go to the restaurant. Dinner, that was another experience. The only parking close to the festival was in front of different restaurants and if you wanted to park there, you had to eat at that particular restaurant. Let's just say, I'm glad I didn't get ill. The restaurant wasn't up to our clean standards and I was worried about eating anything. I was the polite tourist and tried some things but the whole time I was hoping it wasn't going to make me sick. At least we had our guide and driver to order foods that were probably more eatable than others. We both got so chilled from this trip that it was tough for me to get warmed up after we got back to the hotel. I was up at around midnight taking the hottest shower I could stand just so that I could feel warm again and get some sleep.

Chinese New Year, Thursday Feb 7, 2008

There was not as much scheduled today due to Chinese New Year. We didn't have anything planned for the morning so M and I just hung out at the Hotel and the area surrounding the Hotel. Our hotel was located in a great spot, right next to the New World Shopping Mall. That meant that there were lots of restaurants and shops within walking distance. Due to M not eating Chinese Food that well, this made it possible for me to find a comfort food for her so that I could get some food inside her body. That comfort food was McDonalds, so this morning we headed to McDonalds for some breakfast. M thoroughly enjoyed her pancakes and hash browns. There was also a Starbucks near the hotel so I was able to have some comforts of home for myself. Just as we were walking back to the hotel, the hotel had a little lion dance performance. They set off fireworks outside the hotel and then the lion dancers danced outside and then went inside and danced all around the hotel. M really enjoyed watching the dancers and was following them all around the hotel.

We met our guide and driver at 1:00pm for a trip to a local fair. I've never seen so many people in a small area at one time. I was so worried the whole time about loosing M in the crowd so I had to keep a tight grip on her hand. It was very interesting but it was just too much for me with all the people. They had some areas where some Chinese Opera performers were performing but there were too large of crowds that M and I could barely see anything over all the heads. Poor M really couldn't see anything of the fair either. I think all she saw walking around were all the people's behinds because of how small she is and because of the huge crowds. M did get to enjoy one vendor item, cotton candy. She said it tasted just like cotton candy from home. We only stayed at the fair for about an hour or so which meant that we had an early dinner. Our dinner tonight was at a Peking Duck Restaurant. You would have been proud of M because she actually tried the duck. During this trip, I've been trying to get her to try different foods and she always refused. When I wasn't looking, M picked up a piece of the duck and tasted it. She actually said "Yummy". She ended up eating a couple of pieces that evening (if you haven't figured it out, M is a very picky eater). There was a also a kind of soup that we were served that she loved and she not only ate her bowl but mine also.

Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008

Our morning started off with a visit to the Summer Palace. I've been to the Summer Palace twice before and it looked totally the same. M has really started to enjoy the trip and she finally was very interested in seeing everything around her. We did go to a different area within the summer palace that I haven't been to before called Suzhou (probably spelled wrong) Street. Basically it is an area with lots of little buildings surrouding a man made little lake. The buildings housed a bunch of little shops that sold a lot of the same kind of souvenir stuff that you can find in Guangzhou (stuff that I already had plenty of so I didn't buy anything). After the Summer Palace we headed to an area where you can see the new Arena (The Bird's Nest) and Water complex (Water Cube) that they built for the Summer Olympics. We then headed to lunch at a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant. I do have to say that of all the meals that I've had in China, this was my favorite. I've never had Hot Pot before and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. M even had fun cooking (she didn't eat much though) the meats in her Hot Pot. After lunch we went to a tea shop where we were able to try 4 different types of tea. On all of my previous trips I have never purchased any tea(I bought tea pots but no tea) so this time I splurged. I bought a large container of Oolong tea because it was the one tea that I thought I would probably like to drink a lot more of and it tasted more similar to teas here in the US.

The Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium)

Since this was the Eve of Chinese New Year, we were scheduled to have dinner at a local families home. We went to the home of Michael Han's (the owner of Always and Forever Homeland Adoption tours) sister and mother. I really think the home was not the typical Chinese family because it was actually very nice and large, not what I thought most homes were like. I believe the family is one of the "rich" Chinese. They actually lived in a 2 story Single Family home that had lots of rooms and a well equiped Kitchen. They even had 2 large flat screen TVs. I was also kind of surprised at how all the activities took place. The dinner was more informal that I thought because not everyone sat down at the table at the same time to eat (I envisioned the dinner to be similar to our Thanksgiving dinners but it wasn't). They had a young son and he just sat at the table long enough to eat a little and then left. The mom didn't sit down right away either. There was lots of variety of food and everything was very good (M of course didn't eat much again). The Dad did set off fireworks periodically throughout the evening. There are no laws governing the type of fireworks individuals could set off so some pretty powerful fireworks were set off all over the city. M. was having a hard time throughout the evening mainly because the family didn't speak English and she just felt out of place. She had a mini breakdown in a spare bedroom because the family thought she might want to take a rest and she really didn't want to be in the room (it was tough to say no when you really couldn't communicate that well). M. did recover well enough to be a good girl the rest of the evening. We didn't stay until midnight because M was getting very tired. On the way back to the hotel, the local people were just setting off fireworks all over the place. M and I didn't stay awake until Midnight but I was awakened many times with all the noise of the fireworks until late in the morning.

Tuesday, Feb 5, 2008

Our day started off early for our trip to the Langfang Children's Village operated by the Philip Hayden Foundation. I guess if any child needs to live in an orphanage setting this is the place to be. The facilities are set up to resemble as close as possible to a home environment. There are different rooms with 4 cribs per room. Each room has their own caretaker. Most of the children here are special needs and have been sent here from different orphanages across China. Here are a few photos of some of the beautiful children that they hope to have adopted by the end of the year:

This is the place that the Hands of Hope tiles are displayed. I was able to see the tile donated by the families from M's orphanage (Qingxin) in Guangdong Province. We ended up having lunch at a local restuarant. M's first experience at trying the local cuisine, which of course she didn't eat anything other than some rice. Our afternoon tour was at the Temple of Heaven. M was in a much better state today so that I think she actually enjoyed walking around. This was my first time visiting the Temple of Heaven too. M was able to fly a kite towards the end of our visit. She really enjoyed flying the kite. We didn't have any activities scheduled for the evening so M and I both enjoyed just a quick dinner at McDonalds (had to find a place that M would at least eat some food) and went to bed early again. Enjoy the photos below of the Temple of Heaven:

Monday, Feb 4, 2008

I'm now back home and wanted to post about our trip. I will try to do a post for each day with photos so you can see how all that we did and how M and I coped on the trip.


We arrived in Beijing around 3:00pm China time on Sunday, Feb 3, 2008. Our flight from Newark was one of the best flights that I've taken to/from China. This was also the first time that I've flown Continental (flew United on all my other China flights from Chicago). The plane was one with the individual TV screens on the seat backs. A great thing when traveling with a 5 year old. M was able to watch some kid programing while I was able to watch some movies. Having this entertaiment made the flight not seem as long as the 12 1/2 hours. M did well on the flight and probably slept about the last 5 hours. We were met at the airport by our guide, Susan and driver, Uncle Chen. We then went to our hotel, Courtyard Marriott, and checked in. We didn't do anything that evening except venture out to a local market to buy some water and other supplies. M ended up crashing pretty early and so did I. We both woke up pretty early in the morning too which made for a very long day on Monday.


On Monday we had a very busy schedule. This is the day I realized that it might not be a good idea to have so much planned on one day that involved a lot of walking especially when you have a 5 year old dealing with jetlag. As soon as we got out of the car at Tianneman (my spelling is probably not correct but you get the idea) square, M started to complain about being cold. I did have to agree with her because it was a little colder than I thought mainly because of the wind and I probably didn't dress her as warm as I should have (strike one for Mommy). This complaining was nothing compared to what she was like a little later

that day. After a quick walk around the Square, we headed towards the Forbidden city. The wind wasn't quite as bad and M did perk up a little bit for a short time. The Forbidden city is a huge area that to me seems to keep going on and on. To M, it was way too big because then I not only heard, I'm cold, but I'm tired, my feet hurt etc.. Hafway through, she also began to cry. In a way I felt bad because I knew she was just so exhausted from lack of sleep, but I really wished she could have gotten a little something out of the experience. I don't think she will probably remember the Forbidden city because of her breakdown and how miserable she was. She did recover a little when we were walking back to the car and I carried her for a little bit. After the Forbidden City, we headed to the Hutong for a Pedicab ride through the Hutong. M really liked that I finally got a smile from her that day. We had lunch in the Hutong at a little restaurant. We also climbed the Drum tower where you were able to get a wonderful view of the city. Due to the state that M was in, I asked to go back to the hotel so that she could get some rest before the Acrobat show that evening. M. slepted for about 2 hours that afternoon and slept the whole way to the acrobat show. I was able to wake her long enough for her to enjoy about 1/2 of the show and then she just fell asleep again. She ended up sleeping all night too which made for a happier girl the next day.

The acrobat show was amazing. I feel bad that M just couldn't stay awake because she was so excited to see the show. I did manage to take some awesome photos of all the different tricks for her to see later on. Below are some of the highlights of the show: