The Big Day!!

Fyi- Jeff is the guest poster this morning!
It is the morning we have been waiting for since we began this second journey in 2009.  Such a mix of emotions as we prepare a diaper bag and get ready to go to meet Teagan for the first time.  We are so excited to finally meet the beautiful girl that we have only seen in picture and video.  But we also know that the next couple days will probably be very difficult and emotionally and physically taxing for both Teagan and us.  Our report on her when we arrived yesterday says that she is walking, lively and active and likes to grab the toy when she sees it.  Sounds a lot like another little girl that we met in China over six year ago :)

A couple other quick hitter observations so far.

• Having now traveled to several different parts of this country it is interesting how different each part is, similar to how different parts of the States look.  Nanchang where we visited for Izzy was in a farming area.  It was surrounded by beautiful green rice fields and was very beautiful.  Zhengzhou is much more industrial.  As we flew in I was very confused, they told us that we were about to land, but as I looked out the window I saw nothing but clouds.  I was frankly a little upset they made me turn off my ipad so early when we were still so far from landing.  Then at the last moment I realized that we were actually very close to the land it was just all the smog we were flying through.  It really burns the eyes as you walk around town.  I never thought I would be that guy with the surgical mask as I walked around, but I may have to rock it here.  The guides said that it is always bad, but is even worse than normal this winter.  Oh, and you forget what it is like to eat in restraunts where everyone is smoking since that just doesnt' happen in the States anymore. 
• As many of my friends know, I lost about 10 pounds on my last trip here as I am not very "adventerous" when it comes to local cuisine!  I will say that the food in Beijing was the best that I have had in China.  There were many very delicious meals and dishes that I have not had before.  My conservative dining habits has already become a bit of a running joke with our travel group though.  I shared with the group that last time around one of our guides said to me that "you are so big and only eat rice!".  So, last night at the group dinner they ordered me an extra large order of fried rice, which I will say was great!  They also had some crispy garlic chicken that was awesome.  I passed on the rest on the dishes :) 
• Our good friends Ron and Kara had warned us about the scooters here, and boy were they on point!  I am sure we will add some pictures later, but they ride scooters and mopeds on the sidewalks here.  And they are not just rolling down the sidewalk slowly.  We walked to Walmart last night as a group and we had people zooming in between us going 30 mph on mopeds.  It is absolutely insane!  I just kept thinking of my dad and his new scooter trying to keep up with all these little Chinese women on scooters weaving through pedestrians like they are miniture formula one drivers.  Dad, I don't think you could hang for a minute! 
• More pictures to come hopefully.  As Tracy said, the last hotel had amazing wi-fi but it did not work well with our laptop and vpn.  Here the wifi is terrible, which may make skyping with Izzy hard, but it appears the laptop situation is working much better.
• Leave you with a doozy.  We got a notice that says please do not flush your toilet paper down the toilet in your hotel room it will clog up the toilets.  Insert your own joke here.  I will be breaking this rule and playing the part of the dumb American on this one.  It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode "I can't spare a square".  When they say a square over here, the really mean just one square!