We are in Changsha!!!!!

Well..........................after a long day (or was it 2?), we arrived in Changsha around 10 PM Feb. 4. We traveled from Columbus to Chicago to Beijing to Changsha all in one day (or was it 2?). We had easy flights and no problems in the airports. Paul does have an eye infection, so we pray that it clears up soon. He did have a doctor at O'Hare airport take a look at it (in their clinic). He gave him eye antibiotic drops. They seem to be helping, but Paul is unable to wear his contacts and is wearing his OLD glasses that really aren't his right prescription! I am his "seeing eye dog!!" He has been resting a bunch with his eye shut to see if that helps it improve.

Today is Sunday, Feb. 5, and it is cold and rainy! Our guide, Susan, is a real sweetheart! She is looking after us carefully. She even is afraid for us to cross the streets by ourselves. She has arranged for someone to walk us across for dinner tonight, as she is not staying in the hotel since we are not in a large group. We did a little paperwork today. We meet our guide at 3PM tomorrow (Monday, Feb. 6) to go to the Civil Affairs office to meet Ava Xiao E. Our guide did say she heard that Ava is VERY ACTIVE, so we will get to find out what that exactly means tomorrow!!!! :)

Our hotel, The Gold Source Hotel in Changsha, is nice. The room is comfortable. We are just relaxing today. Can't really do much venturing out as the weather is not good. Also, not everything is open today, as CNY festival is still finishing up, so some things won't open until maybe tomorrow.

We seem to be the only caucasians around right now. Boy, it is different (but maybe a good opportunity) to be the minority somewhere. Lots of stares! There should be other adoptive families coming in later, but because of CNY, many agencies probably didn't have groups come until next week. We were the only caucasians on the flight to Changsha last night. Got lots of stares. A maybe 10 year old Chinese girl was ticketed to sit next to us on the plane, and did at first. She seemed to know several people entering the plane, and as they did, she would start laughing and pointing to us, like she was thinking it was funny to be sitting with these two foreigners. Lots of conversation we didn't understand going on around us about the whole thing. She finally chickened out and since the flight was not full, decided to move. :) We were semi-glad, as we were both DEAD at this point and took it upon ourselves to nap for the 2 hour flight, so we could focus on finding our guide at the Changsha airport.

Will try our best to keep you posted on our fun here!