Happy New Year!

Greetings from Beijing! We arrived safe & sound around 4pm China time on Sunday and were amazed at how quiet the airport was--the whole city is on "vacation" through 1/3 so apparently things will be unusually dead. Tom and I both still can't believe that we're finally here. It's strange, too, b/c Beijing is not much different from our major cities (Chicago, NYC). McDonald's and Starbucks are w/in walking distance and they have Pampers and Huggies in the supermarket. Tom and I traveled about a 1/2 hr. from the airport to the Beijing International Hotel via a shuttle bus, along w/ 3 other adoptive couples, two of which will be first time parents in just a few days. One couple (one of the "first-timers") admittedly way-overpacked for the trip--I'm shocked how much they brought (100 diapers vs. our measly, 6!). Everyone was jet-lagged yet adrenaline-ridden. Three other couples arrived tonite and then we meet one last couple in Changsha, on our adoption day (1/5).

Life is similar here . . . when we checked into our hotel room, we discovered that the lights didn't work so we were quickly taken to a new room. We spent a good portion of our time this afternoon trying to figure out how to make a long-distance call from our room and how to use the Internet. I'm still uncertain whether this blog is working . . .

Tomorrow is a "free day", dedicated to doing (or not doing) whatever we want. Thankfully. Tuesday we're scheduled to go to the Great Wall, but we'll see as the weather is apparently supposed to drop quite dramatically by then (20's . . . not unlike winter in Chicago usually).