We've Arrived in Nanning!

After about 4 hours of sleep, we were up again, ready for our flight to Nanning. We went down to the restaurant for breakfast where we met up with Shawn and his family. As we were eating, the other family adopting a baby from Thea's orphanage sat down at a table next to us. They are Steve and Beth from Minnesota. After 3 years of waiting, they received a referral for an 11 month old baby girl. They just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and this will be their first child. How awesome is that???!!!!! I am SO EXCITED for them.

We will be meeting up with one last couple who toured Beijing first - Gordon and Haruyo. Haruyo is Japanese and this will be their first child as well. Their baby girl is from a different orphanage, but we will all get our daughters at the same time.

Our flight from Guangzhou to Nanning was uneventful, which is a great thing :) Kam sat with Shawn and played games. Although Shawn can't hear and Kam doesn't know sign language, it hasn't stopped them a bit! They are great for eachother. Hey Brody, Kam says thank you again for the fun stuff for the plane ride. He has been sharing with Shawn. Shawn was actually giggling really loud when Kam shot candy out of the Wii candy dispenser.

Once we got our luggage, our guide, David, met up with us and took us to our hotel. It was a short drive - about 30 minutes. The hotel is okay - rated a 5 star in China. That equates to a 2.5 star in US (according to Mark). Our room is a nice size and we have two bathrooms. There is a beautiful park right outside and we're anxious to take the kids to it.

We haven't been settled in for long and Kam is already bored and driving us bananas!! He's asked to swim 50 times. He's also starving (we all are!). And the food we brought is in Thea's suitcase (go figure)!!! . . . lost somewhere between home and China. I sure hope it arrives soon.

No official plans for tonight, other than rest. I think I could sleep for 20 hours right now. I've probably averaged 4-5 hours a night for the last week.

We meet David in the lobby in the morning to go to Wal-Mart. That will be fun. Mom and Mom - remember that experience? Kam does. He immediately asked me if everyone was going to touch his hair again :) After Wal-Mart, we relax for a bit.

We get to meet Thea tomorrow at 3:30pm at the Civil Affairs Office. That is 3:30a EST on Monday - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

On another note - THANK YOU to everyone for the awesome e-mails. You really have no idea how much fun they are to read while we are here. It is something that we look forward to every night. Kam wants to respond to his friends tonight and hopefully I can respond to mine as well. For now, I need to take a nap!

Signing off for now,

Kari