We Made It!

The flight over here was amazingly easy, but did not start off that way at Seatac. My (unreasonable) extreme fear of flying set in, and I almost had myself talked out of boarding. As soon as we settled in on the plane I popped a half of the anti-anxiety the Dr. prescribed and I was fine and was able to enjoy the flight.
Jie Ling is the best little traveler as is Jake, and it was an easy 13 hours.
We arrived in Shanghai around 5:30 and made it to the Astor hotel easy squeezy. We met up with Grams and Gramps had a couple glasses of beer and went to bed. Jie Ling at this time decided that it was time to go home and told me she didn't like China anymore. She was fast asleep within 5 minutes as were the rest of us. The next morning (3:30 am) Jie Ling woke us up declaring to the world that she had to go poop! All went well and by 4:00 am we snarfed down some yummy noodles compliments of United Airlines. Our hotel was right across from the Russian Embassy and was built in 1846. It was pretty cool!





























Our tour of Shanghai was fast and furious! Our first stop was an amazing temple where we met a monk from Tibet (new to the temple) who was quite curious about us, and us him! We walked the Bund, Nanjing Road, Yu Yuen Garden (spelling?), and drove around the French Concession and had an amazing history lesson. We had an awesome guide!! We kept things moving as we had to catch our overnight train to Hefei, which was an 8 hour train ride. I don't want to tell about the train yet, I'm going to leave that post to my mom!! Let me just tell you it was an experience of a lifetime, and we literally laughed all night long and into the morning.

We made it to Hefei this morning and we are T-I-R-E-D. I'm not sure if this post is even making any sense?? Our hotel is nice, and the noodle bar on the second floor is amazing. I was a big girl and tried everything, and was surprised at how delicious it all was!!

Hefei is pretty cold right now, and I pretty much packed Jie Ling light weight clothes...I bought her a cute pink hat from a vendor this evening, and will probably have to go out and get baby Ya Ya some warmer clothes once we get her.

Gotcha day is Monday!! I received some updated pictures of her today (totally unexpected) and she looks great and healthy.

Better go...I'm beyond tired and worried this post is all gibberish. Mom and Dave are doing great. Oh boy do I have some major stories on mom (Liz this ones for you) We had to turn around on our way to the train station, and unload luggage, and go through hotel garbage cans to retrieve lost items!!! We've only been here two days, but it has already been one adventure after another traveling with these two old people!!

Take care!
One more sleep until we meet our girl!!