On Our Way to Kunming!

We’ve all been up since 4:30 or 5 this morning. I’m really trying not to think about the fact that we’ll be meeting Mei Lin tomorrow because I know I won’t be able to sleep at all if I do. I know it’ll be difficult to sleep tonight. We’re supposed to meet her in the morning.
I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I decided to update the blog. Miyah woke up hungry again so I got a call at 5:30 from Pat asking for something for her to eat. Cheerios and Goldfish crackers are about all I had left. She’s eaten through most of the snacks already.
We instant messaged with Matt this morning and then called to talk to him. Miyah wanted to say hi and tell him how much she missed him and loved him. When she got on the phone though she began quoting movie lines and singing to him.
Grace from CHI met us at the hotel to bring us to the airport. The Beijing airport was definitely busier than I remembered it, but we didn’t have to wait in line to check in and they didn’t even charge us for the extra piece of luggage or for each piece being overweight. After all that weighing and shifting and reweighing we find that so far none of the airlines even care how much our luggage weighs. Northwest didn’t even weigh our luggage when we left home. I did mention to Chloe here that we had an extra piece of luggage for orphanage donations and she said that the Beijing airport isn’t very strict especially if they explain that they are donations. So I don’t know if Grace explained that or not, but we didn’t have any problems. I’m so glad we decided to take things for Mei Lin’s orphanage instead of donating them in Beijing.
We’re now on our way to Kunming. I’m so excited to see a new part of China. From everything we’ve heard and read, Kunming is supposed to be beautiful. Most families prefer it to Guangzhou even. Here’s a little blurb about Kunming from Frommers:
"As the capital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, also known as the ‘city of eternal spring,’ is one of the most pleasant and relaxed cities of China. And Lonely Planet says this about Yunnan: "Yunnan is without a doubt one of the most alluring travel destinations in China. It’s the most geographically varied of all of China’s provinces, with terrain as widely diverse as tropical rainforest and icy Tibetan highlands. It is also home to a third of all of China’s ethnic minorities (nearly 50% of the province is non-Han - the majority people group of China) and half of all China’s plant and animal species. If you could only got to one province, this might well be it. Yunnan is also well known for it’s mild climate year-round. Kunming has a flavor all its own that seems more than half a world away from Beijing...."
Yunnan contains the nation’s highest number of species of flora and fauna and has been called the "Kingdom of Plants/Animals", "Garden of Heavenly Marvelous Flowers and Plants", and "Hometown of Perfume".
We are also excited to see Elsie, our CHI coordinator, again. Elsie was our coordinator in 2004 and our family fell in love with her. She’s a sweet, kind young woman. We’re so pleased to spend the rest of our trip with her! And we’re also excited to meet the McQuades who’ll be adopting their little girl from Kunming, as well.