Hello friends and family, as I write this it is Sunday evening and I am trying desperately to stay awake at 7:30pm. The time change thing has been harder than I remember it being the last time I was in Europe. Last night I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore at 6:00pm but I was up for the day at 3am. I am working on it- Patrick is doing much better than I am because he was already on this schedule at home. Our flight over was good- uneventful except for the fact that apparently after 22 hours of travel my body decided that motion sickness was the way to go and I spent the last part of the long flight and the bus ride into Hong Kong throwing up. Fun for me and all the people around me. We got in at 6:30- dusk and by the time we had gotten our luggage and cleared customs it was 7:30-dark. The ride into town was busy and bright but didn't really give us a good idea of what the city was like. We got to our hotel called the Regal Kowloon which was very nice and our rep (who met us at the airport) checked us in and we got to go to bed. This was great because we only got a couple hours on the plane ride.

We decided just to let our bodies sleep and we slept until 8:30 the next morning (Sat) and that meant that we did not go on the guided tour of Hong Kong with the other families in our group. This was really ok with me because my stomach was still not 100%. We walked around the water front on what they call the Avenue of the Stars and enjoyed the breeze. It wasn't that warm but it was very humid. In talking to some people they told us that all of the museums were free that day. Patrick and I took in the Space, Art, History, and Science museums and walked around the streets a ton. Needless to say we were both very tired and went back to the hotel. We ate a very overpriced meal at our hotel that wasn't very good and then went to bed.
Sunday we got up and packed to leave Hong Kong. We left with the other people in our group (7 families all together) on a bus for the 3 hour drive north to Guangzhou. This is the capitol of the province. We left Hong Kong and had to go through customs again to enter main land China. This was very uneventful but nice to get behind us. We had more time to look at the country side and the hugeness of the cities. We arrived at our hotel (The White Swan- look it up if you get bored- it is very nice) and were passed off from the rep we had in Hong Kong to the one who will be staying with us here for the rest of the time. We got our room assignments and unpacked before we walked around this part of Guangzhou called Shawmain Island. The Pearl River goes on each side of it and it is a little like Disneyland- not a good representation of the real China but fun to visit. We had a tasty dinner outside which is great because it was at least 90% humidity and over 80 degrees. We are sticky all the time. It is fun to see all the people with their children they are adopting.
Tomorrow we get Olivia at around 3:30pm which is 1:30am for those in Idaho. We are very excited! It became a little more real when we walked into the hotel room and there was a crib set up for her. I will post more tomorrow.
Thanks for all the prayers- keep them up please!
Love,Patrick and Donna