Preparing for Jun Yu

Today was a travel day. We got up nice and early to take a bus to the airport.... lines, luggage check, lines, security, lines, boarding... we didn't take a lot of pictures. But, major kudos to the girls for staying peppy and upbeat through it all. They are ecstatic to be one day away from Steven.

The actual plane ride was only about an hour, and then we were in Zhengzhou, the capitol of the Henan province. We're in a beautiful, brand new Hilton that is spacious and lovely inside. The hotel gave our group (13 families) the entire 20th floor. Probably a good call with 15 loud, screaming babies joining the party tomorrow. The kids loved being able to run up and down the hallway with the other siblings in our travel group.

5 Star Service? The concierge staff

running out to carry your sleeping

child in, fluffing pillows for her on 

a couch and bringing a glass of bottled

water for the awake child.

After checking in at our hotel, Matt did a quick run to the bank to exchange our currency while Melinda and the kids unpacked and then played princesses, mermaids and sharks - a game that involved a lot of pillows. jumping and giggles.

Then, we had one more stop... Where do you go for everyday low prices on essentials like baby formula, bottled water and dried pig heads? Walmart!

(We only bought two of those things... we'll let you guess which two). 

Because we know that now you 

are all curious as to what a 

Chinese Walmart looks like... 

These ramps were fun... though we 

pity the stocker that had to fill 

the bins on the move.

One of the biggest differences from 

US Walmarts is that the "savings arrows" 

are red and gold, instead of white and blue...

...also, the dried pig heads (bottom) and

 bird jerky skeleton things (top).

After 16 months of waiting - it's go time! The next post will be all about our baby!