Day 5: The Road to Tianjin

This morning we checked out of our beautiful Beijing hotel room, said good-bye to our newly made friends and set off for Tianjin. The road to Tianjin was paved with good intentions and potholes as we drove instead of flying since the city was only 2 hours away from Beijing . Our guide Wendy is bright, energetic and compassionate and taught us all a Chinese children’s song during our bus ride.

We arrived at the Harbour Center Hotel and were impressed by the size of the rooms. It’s a very nice room, but there is a lot of construction going on all around the hotel area, so it’s kind of busy and loud outside. We arrived mid-afternoon and learned that in Tianjin, it is difficult to find a restaurant open between lunch and dinner. But a 10 minute taxi ride took us to KFC. (I promise, we’re not trying to eat Western food, but we didn’t have much choice.)

After unpacking, we took a walk through a local neighborhood. We stopped into an establishment that looked to be a restaurant. Speaking almost no Chinese to a staff that spoke no English, we managed to order, enjoy and pay for two beers. We might have had dinner there, but without some translation, Karen was afraid she might accidentally order fish! (Sorry, Michael, we left the Franlkin translator in the room). We later had dinner in the hotel restaurant while preparing a list of questions to ask Micah’s caregivers.

We collected all our necessary paperwork and gifts and prepared to meet Micah tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning! We just sat back and let it sink in that tomorrow morning we will be parents. It’s humbling and a bit overwhelming, but also exciting and awesome. We are ready to get our son and begin the process of being parents. It’s important to get a good night’s sleep tonight, so this will be short tonight.