In less than 12 hours, we meet Graeme!!!

Tommy, Lily and Jessie hug our guide, Helen, goodbye.
Lily Wen enjoys her Pepsi NO ICE from KFC!

Tomorrow she will be a big sister...she is so excited!

Today has been a long but wonderful day. We left Beijing this morning. We had to say goodbye to our guide Helen. She was wonderful and so good with the children. It was hard to say goodbye to her.

Then, we boarded the plane to Anhui Province. As we sat on the runway, I got teary eyed thinking about how we were finally heading to Graeme's home province. It really hit me that we get him tomorrow and just how amazing that feels to finally be this close. We landed and it was raining lightly but the day cleared up and has been beautiful. We have had hot and sticky weather since we have been here. The families that traveled to Hong Kong have apparently been in downpours of rain with flooding and everything. I'll take hot and sticky over wet and muggy any day!!! We arrived at our hotel in Hefei and checked in to our room which was tiny. We found that the corner rooms are larger and moved to a different room for more space. We spent the afternoon exchanging money, resting and organizing.

This evening we walked to a nearby marketplace with our travel mates. We were all a little ready for some American food. We found a Kentucky Fried Chicken and since we all live in Kentucky....well it was just meant to be. We joked about saying we had been sent by the Colonel to check the quality. There was a definite language barrier when ordering when a manager finally produced a picture menu...then we were in business. We had a pleasant dinner with wonderful conversation. We walked back to the hotel and cut through a gorgeous park on our way. There were lots of young couples and seemed to be the place to go for some time alone. We have definitely stood out here more and are stared at each time we leave the room. We have only had one person approach us to touch Lily and pat her with lots of smiles but we are not quite sure what she said since our guide was not with us. She is picking up the other family that will join us tomorrow.

As you sleep tonight, we meet Graeme. Words just can't describe how excited we are to be on the verge of the beginning of our life with him. I have been organizing the room to get it toddler friendly and packing his backpack of toys and snacks to go meet him. I am supposed to come up with a list of questions that I have for the Nannies. I just want to say, "Tell me everything. I want to know every detail of his life before us." I so want to ask the right questions to be able to share as much as we can with him. We are going to have another chance though later in the week when we visit the orphanage. I must head to bed now for tomorrow I meet my son!! Keep the messages and e-mails coming...they mean so much!