Greetings from Beijing!

Day 1

We arrived safely in Beijing yesterday evening after a VERY long day of travel. Our first flight to Chicago on Thursday morning left and arrived on time. But the second leg of the journey was much more complicated. Our flight from Chicago to Beijing was supposed to depart Thursday at 12:45, but mechanical problems left us sitting on the tarmac for 4 HOURS. We attempted to push back and taxi twice, but had to return to the gate each time due a hydraulic pump failure. At 4:00, they ordered everyone off the plane. Our nerves were completely rattled. We managed to make it through 3 years of waiting and delays with most of our sanity intact, but those last 4 unexpected hours of delay really shook us. Then at 5:30 pm, we pushed back from the gate for the last time and started our 13 hour journey to Beijing.

Since we had already been on the plane for 4 hours before actually taking off, the flight was technically 17 hours. There's really only one way to describe sitting in the same confined space for that long: brutal. Mark, who can sleep anywhere, was snoring in no time at all. But for me and one of our travel mates (SK), sleep was impossible despite our best efforts.

We touched down in Beijing at 7:00 pm (Beijing time) and met our wonderful agency guide, Chen. She'll be with us throughout the entire trip to help us through the adoption process and keep us out of trouble :-)
We arrived at the hotel around 8:30 and because they ran out of standard rooms, we were forced to upgrade to a suite. It was difficult, but we took one for the team :-)
The room is amazing and after so many hours in the air, we were anxious to crawl into bed. Unfortunately, to say the mattress is "firm" is an understatement. It's like sleeping on a box spring, only less comfortable. All kidding aside, we'd sleep on a bed of nails if it meant getting to Zoe any faster.

We were starving, so we ordered a sandwich from room service. And despite the stern lecture we just received from our guide about not drinking the water, (or anything uncooked that was rinsed in the water) Mark proceeds to eat the lettuce and cucumber on his sandwich. I thought he was going to fall over when he realized his mistake. You see, we had just heard a story from a travel mate about a guy who ate one seemingly harmless cherry tomato on his trip last year and spent the following 3 days in the bathroom battling the "travelers two-step." Thankfully, Mark seems to have made it through the 'lettuce incident' without harm.