The Big Day....

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The Big Day is finally upon us and unfolding before us!

In just a few hours we will leave the hotel together here in Zhengzhou and travel to a local government building to unite with Baby Julia. There is nervous excitement and happy anticipation among all the families including ours. Everyone is holding up well though. It is a truly momentous occasion!

We’re staying in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Zhengzhou and it is quite nice, the finest hotel in the city it would seem. The agency chose it because it has non-smoking rooms (often difficult to find in China) and because the rooms are larger than most (better to accommodate the baby's crib).

Our travel to Zhengzhou was uneventful. As we left Beijing, the baseline air pollution was unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed short of being downwind of an active forest fire. Check out the pictures I took from the plane as we taxied down the runway to take off from Beijing International Airport. Despite a sunny cloudless sky, at mid-day the visibility was so poor that we couldn’t really see the aircraft control tower from the runway! (Which means they couldn’t really see us!) It seems that the pilots must need to fly the planes by IFR protocol even at high noon on clear days! (IFR rules cover the protocol for flying blind in the dark of night and in low visibility storms.) I guess that is the price paid by a nation which opens a new coal-fired power plant every single day.

Zhengzhou is the city where we are now and it is well known in China for being the crossroad junction of the main North-South Railway with the main East-West Railway. It is an interesting city, smaller and less cosmopolitan than Beijing, but still packed with people and the ever present cranes! It is far more provincial than Beijing, but it is a provincial capital after all!

Say a prayer today for Grace to cover the uniting of Baby Julia with her Forever Family!

We’ll try to post a picture at some point later today but we now enter the truly unpredictable part of our journey so I don’t know exactly when that next picture will come.

Thanks!

JC

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Photos

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Zhengzhou.
(Very fancy!)

The aircraft control tower from the runway at Beijing International Airport.
Nope, do not adjust your monitor. This is how it actually appeared. You can barely make out the tower in the center of the picture. Who needs visibility at one of the world's busiest airports?

The runway at Beijing International Airport
Super limited visibility.

Zhengzhou building boom.
No matter where you go in China, the Cranes are ever present.

Zhengzhou Apartments.
Even in inland China, the massive density of humanity is unbelievable.

Comments

[Jack Bartels also known as dad, grandpa, hey you, etc]

I am glad to get back this morning and have this chance to catch up with this momentious occation.

[Hal Stein]

Your big day!
Hi Jim and Shannon and family, By this time, you've met your new little baby daughter, and I can only imagine how that must have felt. I am so happy for you, and love reading the blog updates! Hal

[Sherry McCain]

WOW!
Hi, Jim and family, I can't believe the pictures and the wonderful life experience you and your family are having. It all is so amazing. I look foward to seeing you finally hold that baby in your arms and bringing her home!

[SAJI P KURIAKOSE]

Extra ordinary and beautiful ..I used this airport several times on the way to Korla Quingdao ,and Beijing capital. I never forget that golden days
I AM VERY HAPPY TO BE THERE IN THE AIRPORT AS A PART OF MY TRIP