We made it to Urumqi

Hi everyone! We are now in Urumqi. We have had an action packed 2 days of touring Beijing. We saw the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square and an incredible Kung Fu show. We also made it to the Great Wall before we left to the airport and flew all the way across China to the city that is the farthest from any coast. The Great Wall was so fun - we took a ski lift up to the top, then climbed the Wall for an hour at a very steep point (yes, my buns are feeling it) and then we took a toboggan ride down- I have pictures but will post them later. It was so exciting. Angela (from Lady Bugs N Love) was our guide, and she is amazing. We ate at some wonderful Chinese restuarants these past 2 days and tried everything from Peking Duck to pumpkin french fries.
All along the touring adventure, Avery and Jack were ROCK STARS - I mean, literally they were treated like celebrities - the Chinese people would come up to Avery and want to touch her hair, take pictures with her and Jack and just stare! I could have made some good money if I just charged everyone that wanted some attention from either one of the kids. They took it very well - at first Avery was a little freaked out, but she smiled and went along. The hair touching was getting to her by the end of the day though.
So now we are in a part of the world that has very little English going on. The road signs are now only in Chinese and Arabic (due to the heavy muslim influence here). The front desk staff at the hotel knows little English, so for us to argue that our rooms should be adjoining and no feather pillows for Greg was a bit frustrating (I am sure equally for them). Our guide is Alfred, he is a university student majoring in English and Tourism - he has helped families before with adoptions but not a large volume. We'll see how smoothly this goes. I sat with him and filled out some preliminary paperwork for tomorrow, but he was a little clueless.
We are so excited about meeting Danielle tomorrow..... it is going to be a new life for all of us tomorrow. We miss Austin, wish so much he was here. We have been talking to him quite a bit!
We'll post again tomorrow with lots of pictures!