WE MADE IT!!!

Our day has been quite the adventure; a little like the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Bottom line is that we are sitting in our hotel room safe and sound. I won't bore everyone with the travel details but will hit some highlights (and since we won't meet Liam until Monday we know you probably don't even care just yet!)
1) Learned that Steve was quite paranoid about carrying several thousand dollars in cash on his body. He decided it was best not to tell people we were adopting as they might shake him down. Of course we were only at the St. Louis airport 10 minutes before I told the first people. Steve proceeded to stay 'under cover' and got himself caught in a tangle of lies with a Chinese gentleman who wanted to know why anyone would travel to Changsha as there is "nothing" there. I gotta love that my husband is a terrible liar.
2) Dramamine has become my best friend.
3) Sat across the aisle from a family with a 2.5 yr old precious Chinese girl. Now if Liam could take lessons on airplane etiquette for the 2 and under crowd we will be in great shape. This is probably also a good place to acknowledge that those well-traveled folks did not exactly explain just how terrible a 13 hour flight in coach can be. We are exploring career opportunities to make some extra cash so we can move up to business class on the way home!
4) The pollution is every bit as bad as we had been warned. We weren't even out of the airport when it was literally like someone smoking just blew a puff of smoke into your face. KT-you wouldn't survive for a minute! On the way to our hotel our wonderful guide named Elsie commented "look, you can actually see the sun". What we saw was nothing like the Carolina blue skies at Mimi and Pop pops but more like a faint yellow spot.
5) Getting to the hotel with our guide and driver-hmmm...just glad we made it. I kept thinking that maybe if you are the car that hits the other car (vs being hit) that the whiplash may not hurt as bad. Glad we didn't have to follow through on that experiment.
6) And we have officially seen little ones toddling along in their split bottom pants. Steve and I both agree that little Asian teeny tiny tushies are too cute!


There are some pictures but nothing too exciting just yet. Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall with 10 other families in our group.
Love from Beijing,
Paige and Steve

One of three suitcase just squeaking by the weight limit! Good job helping us pack Lauren.





The ultimate answer to "are we there yet?" The map shows on the tv screen in front of you and shows where you are, how far you've gone and how much longer until you are there.




Leaving the airport we got stuck in traffic that came to a complete stop for over an hour. Our guide said that has never happened to her. We replied that she has never traveled with us before; we slow everything down. Many people climbed out of their taxis and buses to walk to the airport. Quite the sight.