It's 4am and I can't sleep

(Allen) I was exhausted yesterday after the tours, and really couldn't finish some of my thoughts in a coherent manner. Thankfully, Maile stepped back in and gave a little more detail about our day. I'm looking out the window at the streets of Beijing for what is our last morning here, and reflecting on our time so far. These are just random observations..

- Our guide, Veronica (not her real name, Chuan Yue is her real name) is absolutely fantastic to us. Most Chinese have 3 names. Chuan Yue only has two, because her mother she says "was a simple woman, and thought it too difficult for a child to have to write 3 characters." She is really taking care of us. Some examples are:

• The families must leave at 6:20 for the airport this morning. The hotel breakfast restaurant opens at 6:30. She convinced the restaurant manager to open at 5:40am so that we could get some breakfast before we left.
• She has pre-checked all of our baggage and it will be waiting for us in the room at our next hotel stop.
• She arranged a wake up call for all 12 Hunan families this morning (which looking at my clock, should ring in about 20 minutes).
• She called the orphanages and confirmed that all babies are doing fine. She arranged a meeting with the nannies the day after "Gotcha day" because in her experience we are too busy loving our babies to ask the right questions. We have better questions the next day.
• She has taken the time to teach us as much as she can about the culture of the Chinese people.

Pretty good stuff. I really have never taken an organized tour through a country before, so much of this is probably what is expected, but I can tell you it is a relief to know that I don't have to worry about traversing the Beijing airport, I just have to focus on Amelie.

We interacted with a lot of the other families yesterday, and I have to say they are a great bunch of people on the whole. The food, so far, has been wonderful just about everywhere. No tummy problems (yet!), though I haven't been all that adventurous so far.

Maile's dad was remarking that it hasn't really hit him yet what we are really here for. I think that tomorrow when Amelie is placed in Maile's arms, and he sees both his new grandaughter, and the happiest moment in his own daughter's life, it is going to hit him like a ton of bricks. Maile's mom too. Who's going to hold the camera and take pictures when we're all blubbering?
I have been paying particular attention to the children of China during our travels. It just struck me now that I see many children ages 2 and under, but I haven't seen a lot of children (or teenagers for that matter) in any other age group. I'll have to be more conscious of this. It could simply be that I am paying special attention to those children in Amelie's age range.

Do you think Lakeland'ers or Floridians in general would object to Amelie walking around in split pants? I'm guessing so, but I tell you it is so cute to see these little children walking around with their little bottoms peeking out. Oh well.

Speaking of children, as I'm hoofing it up what seems like the 134,000th step of the Great Wall, and monitoring myself for a heart attack at the same time, small children and elderly Chinese are passing up and down the stairs without breaking a sweat. Overall, the are very physically fit. There are 13 million people in Beijing, and there are 10 million bicycles, so it is also called the bicycle capital of the world.

Well, the wake-up call just went off, so I had better sign off for now and get moving. Maile and I will probably check in on the blog this evening, though hopefully it will be an uneventful day with smooth travel and a comfortable hotel room.