T - 60 Minutes

Yesterday we left Beijing to fly to Jinan. When we got to the airport ticket counter our guide/translater/life line Lillian had a ticket for tomorrow instead. No panic here but she was a tad distracted as this had never happened to her before. Of course it had to happen on our trip. She quickly got in touch with our agency and then tried to get it changed. Luckily she got the last seat on our plane.

We arrived in Jinan via Shandong Airways. Eric got a video this time of our driver holding our name waiting for us outside of baggage claim. Our driver proceeded to take us to the center of Jinan to our hotel. I don't have time to write and haven't had time to process all the thoughts going through my head as we drove through Jinan. Eric and I kept looking at each other and both had a million thoughts and emotions running through our mind. The smog and pollution is awful, people were everywhere, the area seemed very poor and dirty. I couldn't help but think somewhere in this city is more than likely Max's mom and dad. I wondered what they were doing, why they had to leave him at the bus station ... many questions that we will never have answers for. Suddenly in the middle of all this poverty we drove up to a huge, beautiful hotel. We couldn't help but walk in with a knot in our stomach. We are so blessed. We have no idea what it truly means to be in need. As we walked into our room the first this we saw was the little crib set up right by our bed. If that isn't reality I don't know what is.

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled and then went out for a wonderful dinner at a local place with our guide. It is so nice to have Lillian with us to help translate and order for us. She has a great personality so we are having tons of fun with her.

We crashed again last night only to both wake up at 12:45 thinking we had slept the whole night. Needless to say we both took a sleeping pill that got us to about 3:30. We were wide awake so at 5:30 we hit the fitness center for a nice workout and then got ready for the day. At breakfast we saw Tracy and her husband who are adopting a 10 year old little boy from Max's orphanage. They will get him this morning too. There was another family that had gotten their 7 year old little girl yesterday from another city in Shandong.

I know many are praying and we feel them. I feel emotional and excited but very calm. I was even able to eat breakfast this morning with is not like me when I am nervous or have things going on. I feel totally at peace this morning and am just excited to see and hold our little boy. We have everything ready ... the diapers, his clothes are in a drawer, bottles and sippy cups are out, toys are ready to be played with, the coat is ready to be worn, his little bed is ready and my carry on turned into a diaper bag.

IT IS ALMOST TIME!!!