Beijing

This was our first official document that we got for Charlotte. We're getting excited about meeting her on Monday!

Charles with some "Man Art" at the Great Wall.

Our knees were shaking by the time we made it back down from the second tower! It's quite a climb and the stairs are all uneven.

The air was always hazy in China but you can see some of the Great Wall across the ravine.

Climbing the Great Wall of China. Those ancient soldiers must have been super fit.

The Emperor's throne. Only he was allowed to use the colors red and yellow. It was against the law for anyone else in the country to use these colors.

This was the first courtyard of the Forbidden City. It was a truly massive palace.

Here we are in Tienamen Square outside the entrance to the Forbidden City. The photo of Mao is always the same although replaced every year with a fresh copy.

Tienamen Square - the largest town square in the world. We were here on a Saturday and it was packed with people.

We took the Bullet Train from Tianjin to Beijing last night. It took exactly one hour which was must faster than driving and very clean and organized. Josh said that it had just opened for the Olympics. We managed to catch a taxi to our hotel no problem. We feel like "old pros" with taxis now after all the rides we took in Tianjin. The first thing we noticed was that the city was much newer looking with tall modern buildings everywhere and the traffic was much more orderly...hardly any horns and people stayed in their lanes.

Today we met up with our group from Great Wall China Adoption. Evidently there are 30 families here with our agency to get their children! We were split into three tour buses and visited Tienamen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Our guide Grace was really nice. The common theme of all of these sites was "BIG"!

Tianjin

Ancient Culture Street: The lanterns were still up from Chinese New Year. Maybe they're up all year in this street? This place shows what shops used to look like.

Josh bought some porridge for us to try. It was like oily peanut paste but you could choose from the different powders at the left. The hot water pot was neat.

Josh and Janella took us out to some great restaurants. This night we went out for some awesome Thai food.

Uncle Charles with Lucy, Carter and "George" the alligator.

Carter with "George"

Emily

Lucy having fun with the hand blower! :-)

This was a typical street scene. A man who had a bicycle repair shop on the sidewalk.

Local vegetable and meat market...no refrigeration here. Note the dog near the meat counter. :-)

There were rows and rows of these types of shops which sell specific items, from food to bicycles, shoes, hair items, clothing, etc.

Kathy, Janella and Emily

We've had lots of fun with Josh, Janella, Carter, Lucy and Emily the past few days. We got to visit the school where Josh teaches in Tianjin and have had fun walking around the city and visiting with the kids. We can hardly wait to see them again back in California this summer!

We've finally arrived in China!

We left on Monday, February 23th and arrived in Beijing on Tuesday the 24th after a 12 hour flight and adjustment for time. We had a great trip except that the entire entertainment system was out. I was bummed! I told Charles before we took off: "This is the first airplane trip in 8 years that I will be able to watch a movie! Woo! Hoo!" (usually I'm making sure that the kids are quiet and happy). Instead, we stared at a black screen in the dark (the lights in the cabin were out too except for the annoying little head lamps that glare into your face). It was a llooonnngg 12 hours!! Ha! Ha! We did sit next to a lady and her 8 year old daughter who were also on their way to China to get their baby daughter so we had fun talking with them. They were from San Diego. Kathy's brother Josh and his family live in China so he met us at the airport and we headed to Tianjin which was about a 2 hours drive from Beijing. The drive was sometimes funny and surprising! There was a shepherd and his herd crossing the freeway, people on bikes riding down the middle of the road, people crossing and even walking down the middle of the road, dump trucks backing up into oncoming traffic with not an orange cone in sight, and no one paying attention to the lines in the road. They drive wherever they like and even on the shoulder. My Mom and Dad had told us about the driving but it was quite a thing to experience. It was great to get to Josh and Janella's apartment and visit with them. Their kids are getting so big. It had been over a year since we had seen them. We had a great first day in China!

Getting Ready to Leave for China

Well, we've finally set up a blog spot and hope we can figure out how to use it properly before we set out for Beijing, China tomorrow. After 21 months of doing paperwork and waiting we are finally packing and preparing to bring home our daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth Huaqing Specht. Charlotte's first birthday was in December and she is at the Yangchun SWI in Yangchun, Guangdong Province, China. We are hoping to post some memories from this adoption trip for our Charlotte!