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| Past China reunions |
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Old Photos
I spent the day scanning old photos of our trip to China in 1997 and a few reunions in the years to follow. I found these photosof Diana and her brothers in 1997 and in 2000! I have had so much fun today that I have not done anything else!
The photo below is our 2000 reunion in Park City, Utah with Lydia, Emi, Diana, LeeAnn, Hannah and Marissa all in matching dresses. It will be so amazing to take photos in March of the girls together! I am trying to search for Russ and Laura Clift. I tried Facebook, but they are not there. Hopefully they will hear about the reunion and contact us.
Happy New Year to all!
Deb and Diana Return to China!
We have been hoping to organize a family trip to China for the past several years, and actually have a trip for Christmas/New Year's 2009 in the making. However, a great opportunity just presented itself last week. There will be a Yangzhou reunion for adopted children March 14-21 in Beijing and Yangzhou, and we just couldn't pass up this opportunity. To make this trip even more exciting, so far two other girls, Marissa and Hannah, adopted at the same time as Diana, will be attending with us. We are crossing our fingers Emi will be joining as well. We may even get to see Guangjie, our friend and guide, who traveled with us during our adoption trip.
I am writing this blog so our family and friends can "travel" with us, but also as a journal and scrap book for Diana to document our experience.
I hope you will join us as we travel back to China, our first time since June 1997. I am sure things will be very different. The Beijing Olympics will make Beijing much easier to navigate and more "food friendly." for me. Diana and I are both "picky" eaters, so food will certainly be a challenge for us. But, those of you who have traveled with me before, know I will have lots of snacks!
As we eat away at our snacks, we can replace our suitcase with gifts and trinkets!
We were able to use Mark's frequent flier miles for our flight, non stop from San Francisco to Beijing. (All those trips to Chicago came in handy after all) We leave March 13 and will arrive in Beijing on March 14th. Our Beijing sightseeing includes a trip to the Great Wall, Olympic venues, Tian'an Men Square, the Forbidden City and a visit to the "matching room" at the CCAA (where family files are matched with waiting babies). We then fly to Nanjing and take a bus to Yangzhou where we will visit the orphanage, attend an anniversary ceremony, play with waiting children, make dumplings at the orphanage, tour the Slender West Lake, Daming Temple, Ge Garden, and of course shop! The girls will then plant trees at a farewell ceremony at the Yangzhou Social Welfare Institute. We will spend a final night in Beijing before we head back home.
We still can't believe we are really going!
Our next step is to get our visa's for China. Since we still hope to go next Christmas with the boys, we are going to get multiple entry visas (positive thinking!).
Thanks for letting us share our adventure with you all.
Deb and Diana
I am writing this blog so our family and friends can "travel" with us, but also as a journal and scrap book for Diana to document our experience.
I hope you will join us as we travel back to China, our first time since June 1997. I am sure things will be very different. The Beijing Olympics will make Beijing much easier to navigate and more "food friendly." for me. Diana and I are both "picky" eaters, so food will certainly be a challenge for us. But, those of you who have traveled with me before, know I will have lots of snacks!
As we eat away at our snacks, we can replace our suitcase with gifts and trinkets!
We were able to use Mark's frequent flier miles for our flight, non stop from San Francisco to Beijing. (All those trips to Chicago came in handy after all) We leave March 13 and will arrive in Beijing on March 14th. Our Beijing sightseeing includes a trip to the Great Wall, Olympic venues, Tian'an Men Square, the Forbidden City and a visit to the "matching room" at the CCAA (where family files are matched with waiting babies). We then fly to Nanjing and take a bus to Yangzhou where we will visit the orphanage, attend an anniversary ceremony, play with waiting children, make dumplings at the orphanage, tour the Slender West Lake, Daming Temple, Ge Garden, and of course shop! The girls will then plant trees at a farewell ceremony at the Yangzhou Social Welfare Institute. We will spend a final night in Beijing before we head back home.
We still can't believe we are really going!
Our next step is to get our visa's for China. Since we still hope to go next Christmas with the boys, we are going to get multiple entry visas (positive thinking!).
Thanks for letting us share our adventure with you all.
Deb and Diana
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