We will receive Ben tomorrow (Monday) and then it will all become real...

Seems very surreal now even though our new room here in Nanjing has a crib (rickety but a crib non the less)

Today we did well getting to the new province but found finding food much more challenging!

We are on our own now no other families with us and that is a bit more unnerving when you really don’t speak the language and are in a city. We feel like the only Americans in this southern capital city. Nanjing is like NYC and a lot of reconstruction is going on not as lit and open as the other city area we were in, in Beijing.

Not as many restaurants that have English menus or small amounts of english speaking wait staff. The food choices were a lot stranger and we wandered around trying to find more than the guide had suggested originally. When I asked for suggestions she insisted she bring us to a place show us the menu and if it was not good took us to the next place by the 3rd one I felt like the stupid American and asked to stop. She pointed out the hibachi place we did end up eating in tonight. I would not bring Ben there as things we take for granted now in the US are not a part of the culture here.

Smoking in restaurants is still permitted and so many people smoke it is sad.

The hotel here has room service and a western restaurant that our Guide neglected to mention when she kept referring to pizza hut and KFC.
There are a few other places we may try but tomorrow being the first day with Ben I’m thinking room service might be the best way to go. He may not be a happy boy with the adjustment to us taking over care 2 complete strangers to him.

Hopefully the guide (Nancy) will stay and help with his transition once we get back to the room.

I miss Beijing already. There was a children’s toy store there and book store. We luckily bought 3 story books with Pinyin (written Chinese) and English. Only BMW and designer stores were seen on our walk and the streets are so busy we have to take tunnels done below the street to cross. They are dimly lit and a bit unnerving for me especially without a sense of where we needed to go. I hope we have enough to keep him occupied here until we can get to the White swans play room. This just doesn’t seem ideal for walking around with a child when he gets tired and bored.

The hotel is gorgeous though and even had a deep tub to soak in which I took advantage of tonight to decrease the stress. After so many years of waiting and hoping tomorrow is the day and we are both filled with such emotion and uncertainty for how this will really all go. We are trying to let go of any expectations and roll with what ever happens. It is natural and healthy for him to be upset and grieve a while after he is removed from the Nannies. We will try visiting his orphanage but the guide looked surprised we asked to do this.