WE ARE IN CHINA!!!

outside our hotel
huge department store
outside our hotel

Eating our last American meal at LAX
14 hours into our flight
Our first view of China, just as the sun came up
flying into Chongqing

This is unreal! We are really here in China, and so far, so good! We are staying in the heart of Chongqing. Our guide said it is the Times Square of China, and it really is a lot like that, very lively, lots of people. She just took our group around the center of the square, right around our hotel, and on our first grocery store trip to get some items for the babies. She said most of these people have only seen Americans on TV and that's why they stare and point at us! There is a little boy in our group with blonde hair and blue eyes who is our celebrity. The ladies point, smile, speak to him in Chinese, and touch his hair constantly. He is handling it really well.
We see everything through Hunter and Ella's eyes and imagine what their reaction would be. Hunter, you would love all of the action and big buildings surrrounded by trees and flowers. Ella, if you were here we'd be carrying you a lot! We hope we can all come here someday as family, when you are old enough to carry your own luggage! You both would love all of the colorful decorations that are up for Chinese New Year.
We slept about 9 hours on the 15 hour flight. I watched "Facing the Giants" on our laptop (thanks, Shannon) until the battery went out. The movie was good, quite sappy, but that's right where I am right now. At one point, the wife in the movie says "I never knew I could miss someone so much that I've never met." I started crying, of course, that's exactly how we feel about Piper. We cannot believe we are so close to her and are beyond excited about tomorrow. As we walk around, I am trying to soak every bit that I can about her birth country in so that we can share it with her as she grows. I already feel like its familiar to me in many ways. Her orphanage is about 10 hours south of Chongqing, but we were told that the babies are were brought here today and staying at a hotel here tonight, not ours, but one in the city! We'll meet them at 1:30 pm China time Monday, that's just after you folks go to bed on Sunday night. While you are watching the Oscars, we'll be getting ready to see Piper Grace for the first time! We were also told that many of the babies are sick with a cold, no surprise, but please pray PG is on the mend and feeling okay. Ironically, many attachment experts say that it's actually good for your baby to be a bit sick when you get them b/c they learn to depend on you as you care for them. So maybe a blessing in disguise?

There are so many details of the trip over here that I want to share, but we're getting ready to go eat dinner with our group. We really like our group and just can't imagine being anywhere but right here right now. We landed in Guangzhou and suddenly found ourselves in what felt like the Amazing Race. The airport is very nice and modern, but when we got to Customs it was apparent that we might not make our next flight. There was a big group of what looked like Algerian men in front of us who were really having a hard time getting through. The officials were going over each of their documents with a manifying glass, literally a magnifying glass. Finally, a pair of angels let us go in front of them b/c they knew we were going to be late. The officials are very serious when looking over your documents and I started to get nervous that we wouldn't get through. Of course we did and from there we all raced through the different check points to get to our next gate, which was quite a ways away. Our whole group made it on the plane, but without a second to spare.
Hunter and Ella, we are thinking about you all the time and "take you with us" where ever we go! We can't wait to talk to you tomorrow!

Please pray, we certainly feel God's hand guiding us!

Love, from China,

Dena, Scott and soon...Piper!