3/25 Update

Today we meet with Holt to review our agenda for the rest of the trip. We found out we will not meet Xiao Ting until Monday. We were a bit disappointed as we thought we would meet her on Sunday. On the other hand, we have a long flight (about 3 or4 hours) and have to get up very early (5 a.m.) to catch our flight, so we can relax on Sunday, unpack, and get things ready. Then we can maybe get a good night's sleep on Sunday (although I'm not sure how much I will be able to sleep) and be fresh to meet her on Monday. We got LOTS of new pictures of her, her friends and the orphanage. They are great. We got a sheet with some more info on her, some of which answers some of the questions we were going to ask. It says she is happy, outgoing and a bit of a tomboy. I guess she really is meant to be our daughter.

After the meeting with Holt, we went to lunch at the Museum across from Tienaman square. Then we walk through the square trying to avoid the people hawking their wares (include "Nolex" watches !!). At the square, Sarah and Matthew (the 15 year old son of the Bergquist family from Minnesota) were asked by several Chinese people for pictures. That was fun.

Then we explored and learned about the Forbidden City. And it really is a city - it is huge !! We learned lots of interesting facts about the emperor and the Dragon Lady. The city is very impressive and it was built in only 10 years with 1 million workers in the late 1400's. Our last stop was to visit the last emperor's nephew, who is a famous calligraphor. We bought a hand made sign made by him for our family. It will be quite a nice memory of the adoption.

Now we are packing up our bags. We have some paperwork that we need to copy and then will relax and have a light dinner. I hope I can sleep better tonight - I keep waking up at around 3 a.m.

I will try to post some pictures.

God Bless,
Marie