Thursday, October 23, 2008-A Good Day at Last!

I woke at the usual 2:30 a.m. here but managed to go back to sleep for an hour this time. At 7:00 I checked the Internet and found that our documents arrived at the Beijing Transit Facility at 6:59 a.m.  I also got an email confirmation from the Holiday Inn for a reservation for the rest of our stay.

There is blue sky showing over Beijing!  It rained last night and apparently pushed the smog away.

We met our guide and had a crazy, hectic, happy day.  First we went to DHL to confirm a new anticipated 11:00 delivery time (we have to exit the hotel, walk around the corner of the building, and re-enter the hotel to get to the DHL counter which is just off the main lobby-due to the heightened security restrictions).  At about 10:00 we left for the notary office.  Spent an hour there, then returned to DHL right at 10:50.  They were unloading packages at that time, literally, and we got ours first.  Then we were off tolunch because it was too late to go to civil affairs this morning.  We came back to the hotel for passport photos, went to civil affairs for a new 1:30 appointment (this is where Aidan officially became ours!), returned to the notary public office, and by 3:30 we were at the police station with his passport application.  The orphanage director got them to expedite the application at no additional fee, so we can pick it up on Monday morning, then head to the airport for Guangzhou!

We all fell asleep early tonight.