Greetings from Zhengzhou

We made it safe and sound to Zhengzhou today. It was only a 1hour and 20 minute flight. It went very fast as there were 5 other adoptive families going to the same place as us on the plane so we had plenty to talk about. Tomorrow morning we all get our children together in the lobby of the hotel. That will be amazing. I believe there are 14 children in all being adopted tomorrow. Zhengzhou is very very crowded and congested. 8 million people live here. Yikes. We took a taxi to go eat tonight and our taxi driver actually drove behind people on a cross walk to get us to our destination. It's amazing how that scared me a year ago when we were here getting Annabel. Now when you get in the car you just hold on and enjoy the ride. Kind of reminds me of Mr Toads wild adventure at Disneyland. hehe There are indeed no rules to the road here. No car seats, no turn signals, no driving between the white lines, etc.... But there is also no road rage. People don't seem to get mad at each other. It is just normal for them. Surprisingly in Beijing it was way less crowded due to the Olympics. They are only allowed to drive their car every other day (last number on license determines your day) in order to help with pollution. It was much less congested then here in Zhengzhou. They don't have that rule here since they are so far from the Olympic Site. On the freeway yesterday we saw a mom and dad each on their own moped going about 40mph. Each had a small child sitting behind them on the moped. No helmet, no straps of any kind to hold them on. It is just such a different lifestyle then ours. One thing I do love about being here is the Chinese people who work at the hotels are so incredibly nice to us. They really make us feel welcomed. We also feel like celebrities in this province. While at McDonald's tonight (which by the way was the BEST tasting Mc Donald's ever) several locals were taking our pictures while we stood in line. I looked at Amber and said "smile, your photo may be on the Internet tomorrow". She just laughed. At one of our stops in Beijing a young man, not from Beijing, grabbed Joey and asked him to pose with him for a photo. For those of you who know Joey, he doesn't like strangers touching him. He was a little taken back. But then my guide explained to him that he may be one of the few Americans that kid had ever seen. Well I just looked at my clock and we are down to 13 hours and 50 minutes. At 10:30 am we will meet Jacob. I have started to get teary eyed a few times today and tried to hold it in. I am sure tomorrow it will just flow. Please pray he is ready for us. Please pray Annabel is ready to share her family. haha Ok, the next post from me will be with pictures of Jacob with his new family. Thank you lord for keeping us safe up to this point. We pray for your continued blessing over the next few hours and days. We pray we can make Jacob feel safe and comfortable as he bonds with our family in the upcoming weeks. God Bless, Tamara