My Water Broke

Hello All,

I'm writing Sunday afternoon China Time. So far the trip has been great! After leaving Thursday a.m. from KC, I met Sarah in Detroit, then we flew together to Tokyo (app. 13hrs) then on to Beijing (4 more). With the help of a sleeping pill, I was knocked out for much of the 13 hr leg, then I watched a movie, bleary-eyed, to make myself stay awake until our 9:30 p.m. landing Friday night (we lost a 1/2 day). It worked. After about 6 hours sleep we were up, and met up with about 10 other families in our group for a whirlwind tour of Beijing. We went to the Forbidden City, Great Hall of the People, and Tianamen Square, then on to a feast of Roast Duck and other delicacies, then to the Great Wall, which we scaled for a couple of hours. We were in bed by 6:30 p.m. and by 1:30 a.m. I was wide awake. Then we caught a 5:30 a.m. flight to Taiyuan this a.m. We will meet Joaquin here in Taiyuan tomorrow morning, then spend the rest of the week here, getting to know each other and wading though more paperwork.

Beijing is squeaky clean, manicured, and polished to a degree I hardly recognized compared with my last experience of the city. We were able to see the Birds Nest and Water Cube, and several other Olympic venues. But what struck me was the lack of smog, the lack of fumes, the lack of funkiness, the lack of mayhem on buses and streets. The standard of living is visibly higher than when I left, and with the Olympics, it just exacerbates it. It feels like a cosmopolitan city now. Fast food and other Western influences are everywhere. Landscaping along the highway? Greenery? The palaces in the Forbidden City were immaculate and freshly renovated, to the tune of 4 billion dollars. It all looks brand new. What a treat, it was hard to take it all in.

Today, when we arrived in Taiyuan, I felt reaquainted with the China I remember. This is an industrialized, poorer area. The sights and sounds and especially smells are all familiar to me, though I must say even here Chinese people are obviously much more used to foreigners than 21 years ago. Sarah is getting a lot of looks for her blond hair and height, and people call out "hello" and obviously notice us, but we are not the "foreign objects" we were as Westerners when I was last here. No crowds are gathering to watch our every move, we are of minor interest. My language skills are sneaking back, we managed to have a meal in a restaurant with no English to help us, we were the only non-Chinese, and we actually ordered pretty much what I intended. It is such a treat to be with Sarah, she is up for trying anything and savors every minute.

As for the title of this entry, as fate would have it, I spilled a bottle of water all over my very precious adoption documents this a.m. as we went through security at the airport. I was fortunate that most of the paperwork was in plastic binders, though a copy of my dossier and most of my American currency was doused; my passport is kind of crinkly too. So we had a good laugh, water water everywhere. It was also raining outside. Pretty fitting this should happen the day before I meet Joaquin. My water certainly broke. This a.m. we actually thought we'd meet him today, as some families are meeting their kids, but this was true of a different province. So tomorrow morning it is. There is a great swimming pool for kids in our hotel, and lots of good walking trails in the city, so I think there will be plenty to entertain him here for a few days. This time tomorrow I'm a mom!!

I love the families in our group. Most parents are older than I, most of the adopted kids are boys (who knew) and special needs kids from 7 months to 7 years old. There will be another 3 yr old boy with a cleft palate as well in our group. There is a family from Shawnee, KS (basically down the street) in our group, and others from NYC, Phoenix, Tennessee, all over. It was a surreal experience to spend the day sightseeing in Beijing and then get down to the business of adoption. We are certainly not tourists, there is quite an expectant, anxious, excited energy to our group.

Keep sending good thoughts, we'll download some photos of the little guy as soon as we get him!