Gotcha Day!

Hello!

Obviously the site is up and running again! (It is also in Chinese, so we are guessing that we are filling in the right fields!)

In 3 hours we meet to take the bus to the Provincial Civial Affairs Office where all 16 families will receive their children. Joey is the oldest child in the group and one of only 3 boys in the group (Stud Miffin!). The babies will arrive by bus from 2 different orphanages. Fortunately, Joey's orphanage is only a 1.5 hour bus drive. The other orphanage is 5.5 hours away. For all of the children this is their first bus ride, so we are told it may be a very long day for them. They will arrive at 2:30 this afternoon (1:30 am back home).

We are told that the Orphanage Director and one of Joey's Nannies will be accompanying him. We can only anticipate how he will react...soon we will know!

Our hotel, the White Swan, is comparable to the Ritz Carlton (except you can't drink the water!). It is quite beautiful and the breakfast and lunch buffets are awesome. Our room overlooks the Pearl River and there is endless boat traffic (barges, fishing boats, dinner cruises, etc.) The shore line and hotels light up like Las Vegas at 7PM each night and offer laser light shows throughout the evening. Everyone here is very friendly and extremely helpful. Being that this is the city that all adoptive parents must travel through, there are MANY, MANY Caucasian couples with there Chinese little ones. Everyone is happy to share their story. All 16 couples in our group are really nice and our CCAI Reps are fantastic as well!

Every vendor or store owner stops us in the street to talk about our "little girl" that you will be adopting. When we tell them that we are actually getting a "little boy", they stop and look at us and say, "Ah, you VERY LUCKY"! We couldn't say it better ourselves.

We'll let you know more soon...

MB & Tom