Today is “Gotcha Day,” the day that we will forever remember as the day that we got Lacey.  We have had breakfast, and have an hour to wait before we travel to the orphanage.  Once there, we will be escorted to a meeting room where we will spend our entire visit.  We will not be invited to tour the orphanage or meet any other children because the orphanage officials are worried that we might bring germs.  We will meet for 30 minutes to complete paperwork.  The most important documents will be to give us temporary custody of Lacey until we go to the Civil Affairs Office tomorrow to register the adoption.  Then, the children will be brought to us and the 3 other American families who are adopting.  We will have about 30 minutes to ask questions of the caregivers and then we will leave.  The children will say goodbye forever to the orphanage and immediately have to begin adapting to being Americans.  Shiyan has suggested that we take the children to Dominos Pizza for restaurant so that everyone can relax and she can do some translating to help with the introductions.  Shanghai has an original dialogue but the school age children are required to speak Mandarin at school.  So, communicating might be our biggest challenge.

Yesterday was a very long day.  We began by touring a putan, which is a traditional Chinese neighborhood.  We were taken there in rickshaws.  We met a woman whose family had lived continuously in the putan since 1936.  The early morning was a little cooler and this was a very enjoyable tour.  It was interesting to see how Chinese families have lived for many years.

Next, we went to visit the Forbidden City.  By this time, the day had become very hot and humid.  The crowds were unbelievable.  I guess I could compare this to the desire of foreign and domestic tourists in the U.S. to visit Mount Vernon.   However, I would take a typical summertime Mount Vernon crowd and multiply it by about 10.  The exteriors of the buildings were available for tourists to view.  Several interior rooms were available for viewing through windows.  Each time we tried to look, such as at the Emperor’s bedroom or throne, we were compelled to elbow our way through a crowd of tourists who were as sweaty and irritable as we  had become.  It was still very interesting and for the rest of our lives we can say that we have visited the Forbidden City.  Our guide, Joy, did a good job hitting the highlights and trying to keep our spirits up.  After exiting the Forbidden City, we immediately walked across Tienanmen Square.  Our guide had few words or opinions to share about the square.  Although there were hundreds of people crossing the area, nobody lingered.  A few pictures were snapped and everyone moved on.

This is a picture of Betsy and Big Sister Cassie in the Forbidden City

A most valuable lesson that we have learned is that Chinese people don’t believe in standing in line.  Everywhere we go, there is a great deal of good-natured shoving and elbowing.  The Chinese are not in the least offended by this and we have had to accept that we will be run over unless we also shove and push.

After our touring, we went back to our hotel.  We had already checked out at breakfast time.  We had an hour to grab a late lunch.  We then headed for the airport with Shiyan and two other families.  The airport was roughly an hour’s ride on the bus.  As it turned out, we hadn’t needed to hurry.  The Shanghai airport was overcrowded and all incoming flights had been temporarily postponed.  We all ended up sitting on the floor, waiting patiently.  Cassie has paired up with a little girl from Wisconsin name, Anna.  The girls were wonderful and occupied themselves by writing stories in Cassie’s journal and playing tic tac toe.  We finally arrived in Shanghai around 10:30 p.m.  From there, it was another hour’s bus ride to our hotel.  Our bus driver hadn’t figured out how to get the bus anywhere near the baggage claim.  Nor was he sure of which floor of the garage he had left the bus on.     We spent about 10 minutes riding the elevators up and down until we found the correct floor.  We ended up still having to carry all the bags down a flight of stairs to the parking lot. 

Another valuable lesson is that we all grab a few minutes of sleep whenever we can.  This is the only way that we can survive.  Some people dozed on the floor of the airport; some on the plane and others on the bus.  The children have been incredibly flexible. 

Here's Les trying to figure out how to close the glass window in the bathroom of our hotel!!

Well, very soon we will be a family of 4!