Ella and I were so excited about the trip. It had seemed so far away and finally it became a reality. I was especially nervous because we used BLAS—Bridge of Love Adoption Service—run by the Chinese government. Communication had been infrequent and I had to internationally wire our payment for the tour. I hadn’t gotten a real confirmation, but I had the guide’s cell phone number so I felt confident that everything would work out.
We flew to Chicago and then for another 12 and a half hours to Beijing. Ella did a great job. We played cat’s cradle, practices Chinese and watched movies. We hardly even slept. Toward the end of the flight, we met two families on our plane on a root seeking tour with BLAS. They were going to a different city, Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province. They told me that their group was over 20 families and mainly from the U.S. I knew our group had 11 families.
We arrived in Beijing on Sunday, November 22nd in the afternoon. We were met at the airport by the guide of the group going to Zhanjiang. I worried when I didn’t see a Huanggang City sign, but the guide assured me that I was to join her group to get to our hotel. We met a couple more families going to Zhanjiang at the airport. We quickly made friends with a Dad, Adam, from Pasadena, who was traveling alone. His wife and four year old daughter stayed home, but he really wanted to experience the reunion. I found a cash machine and got my Chinese money. I always feel better once I have the local currency.
We went straight to our Hotel which was already decorated for Christmas. Our room was lovely with two beds –each bigger than a twin, but smaller than a double. Our BLAS guides, William and Tony, gave us lovely red scarves, a journal for Ella and markers and our itinerary.
I kept looking for some of the other families from our Huanggang group. I finally met Robyn, Tim and their daughter Tian from Australia in the hotel lobby. Ella and I walked around the lobby/mall area and found a Starbucks with free internet. I found out that I wouldn’t be able to access facebook or our blog while on the trip. I was able to email Gabe and tell him that we arrived. Starbucks looked just like Starbucks. Ella had a roll—we left soon—too exhausted to eat dinner.
Ella and I managed to stay awake until 7:30 pm. Ella woke up hungry at 1:00 am. I tried to convince her to fall back asleep, but finally broke down and let her eat the Hotel Pringles--BBQ Steak flavor. She was quiet for quite awhile, but neither of us managed to get much more sleep.
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