Good Morning

Good morning from China. It is 7:40 a.m. and we have been up since 5:15. Another night of not much sleep as the beds are so uncomfortable, but of course Brian slept just fine. I am having trouble posting photos and have to upload one or two at a time. We had a fun day yesterday and we have a great group of families. Shana and Jeff, who will be traveling to the same province are a lot of fun. Jeff is a teacher and coaches wrestling and track so Brian has someone to talk sports with. Shana and I are a lot alike.

Joy, our tour guide in Beijing, is great. Beijing has a population of 16 million people and is only the 3rd largest city in China. Beijing has grown by 2 million people in the last 3 years. The cost of an apartment has doubled and even tripled in the past few years due to the Olympics. Young couples are having to postpone their marriage because they cannot afford a small one bedroom apartment. Also during the Olympics the government limited the days people could drive. It depended on whether your license number ended in odd or even number. We had a great traditional chinese lunch yesterday with normal pork and chicken dishes similar to what we have in the states. Nothing too exotic yet.

We are off to the Forbidden city and it is going to be cold again today. Tomorrow Shiyan, our adoption coordiantor will arrive and hopefully we will get more information on when we will receive Ciarra. Hopefully we will get some more great pictures today and have an easier time getting them posted.