Arrived in Beijing

August 16, 2006. Deana’s Mom got up with us bright and early and took us to the Dulles Airport. Since she’s never been to DC before, we gave her a quick tour and did a dry-run to the Dulles Airport on Tuesday. She got back home on her own just fine. The flight from Dulles to Chicago was uneventful. We got to Chicago about 15 minutes before our flight to Beijing began boarding. Talk about cutting it close! After boarding the plane, we met a few of the families from Bethany who are also traveling to adopt children from China. The flight to Beijing was long, but amazingly tolerable. We both fell asleep a few times.

August 17, 2006. We landed in Beijing at about 2:30 pm. After landing, we had to go through an area where we were required to complete and turn in a form about our current health…necessary because of the bird flu. Then, we processed through immigrations, got our luggage and breezed through customs. As we walked out of the customs area, we saw thousands of people waiting for passengers to arrive. We were looking for our guide who was holding a “Bethany” sign. There were hundreds of people holding and waving signs, so it was a bit overwhelming at first. After only a couple minutes of looking, we found our guide, Joy, holding a blue Bethany flag. We gathered our group, got onto a bus and headed to the Beijing International Hotel. We almost felt as if we were back home in DC with all the traffic.

At the hotel, we checked in and went straight to our room for a hot shower and to get our things settled. After a bit, we met several couples who are traveling with us for dinner at the Rose Café, the main restaurant here in the hotel. Dinner was nice. The menu offered authentic Chinese cuisine and a variety of Western fare. Deana had a curry chicken and rice dish and Jim had a Shanghai noodle bowl. Both were excellent. After dinner, we headed back to our room to get ready for a special treat. The hotel has a pretty impressive spa that offers in-room massages so we decided we’d treat ourselves to a little paradise. We each got a 90-minute full-body Chinese massage. Just what the doctor ordered and the perfect way to end the day!! We should be well rested and full of life for the next three days of sightseeing in Beijing. Four more days until we finally meet Leah!