Hi it's Laura

Well I hardly know where to begin... I don't know what Harvey has already told you

Beijing -

One word for you HOT! It's not a pretty city but it is crammed full of people NYC X5 i think. It was really hard to enjoy it but we did some touring and The Great Wall and the Forbidden City were certainly worth seeing.

The Hotel there was nice kind of par with a Westin.

We were in Bejing less than 48 hours before we hopped the ~2 hour flight to Nanchang.

Nanchang -

It's a much prettier city I think than Beijing but the traffic here is CRAZY!!! We were here less 2 hours when we watched some guy get slammed into by a cab driver on his scooter.

So less than 4 hours here we met Zoe!!! The whole "Gotcha Thing" was just as unceremonious as people had warned us about. Pretty much here go..... (more on Zoe in a moment) We went back to the Civil Affairs office today to finish up paper work and pay some fees, see a notary and get her pass port paper work started. She is in China's eyes ours now... SIGH....... (one more).... SIGH.

The hotel here is kind of a joke by china standards it's 5 stars.... NOT. Maybe 3.5 dirty carpets, tiny tiny rooms and we got a suite it's TINY the whole suite is probably the same size as our bedroom at home.

Smokers - All the men here smoke and some women too and they smoke EVERYWHERE; elevators, restaurants, hotel lobby, office buildings I forgot how much a I hate that smell. I am certain someone on our flight to Nanchang was smoking.

The Group -

We started in Beijing with 9 families (one of which we met in the O'hare airport. All really nice people but one MAJOR thing I noticed. There were only 3 out of the nine that this adoption was going to be their first child. Isn't that interesting...... I guess in my mind I thought it would be the other way around.

When we split up to go to our provinces there 4 families going to Nanchang. 2 from Texas,one from Washington State, and us. By the way the families from Texas assure us that the heat here is WAY worse than Houston on a bad day. They are really amazing families and incredible people I am really glad to know them all.

ZOE -

Let me tell you how amazing my daughter is! She is so strong, she is happiest when you stand her up. They said she can crawl but we have not seen her do it yet. She sits up very well on her own. She slept all night last night in her crib, and didn't cry when she woke up, she just sort made these little noises until we noticed her. I have not really noticed anything developmental that I am concerned about. she seems to have good hand/eye coordination, she will watch Harvey and I as we walk around the room. Our sounds are a odd to her i think so we are constantly talking to her to get her accustomed to the sound of English. She's pretty quiet really she has only gotten ticked off once and that was when we sat her on then floor with her toys so we could get ready. I think she is getting used to the attention :) One more thing she has teeth!!! She has two that are about half way in and two more that are trying to brake the gums!

Wrap up -

So i could ramble all day about this trip but I will tell you so far it has been quite an experience and I already can't wait to come home!!!

Miss you all terribly and can't wait to tell you more....