Going to China!

Mark and I have always felt it very important to our family that our two children get to visit their birth countries.  Finn is from Guatemala and Tali was born in China.  Tali's adoption agency, CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International), does heritage tours four times a year.  We have decided that Tali and I will be boarding a plane for China in December!  We leave the 22nd or 23rd of December, which means that we will miss Christmas.  Boohoo.  I will miss Finn so much!  But, I hope he can understand how important this is to his sister.  His turn will be next.

We are lucky to also have Tali's babysitter going with us.  Karah is an intelligent, kind and lovely young woman who is interested in travel.  She is considering going to college in Denmark or another European country.  I know that whatever she decides to do, she will make it happen.  Tali and I are both happy to have her along with us on this trip of a lifetime.

CCAI sets up the tour for us and if it is anything like our adoption trip I know we will be very satisfied.  We are visiting five cities, and since I've only been to Beijing and Tali's birth city, Fuzhou, I am excited to see something new, as well as share the familiar parts with Karah and Tali.  We will be visiting Beijing, Chengdu, Guilin (a bucket list item for me!), Yuangshou, and Xi'an.  Seeing the Terracota Soldiers, The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, the famous pandas (we can hold a panda baby for an extra $350.),  acrobats, opera, and a river cruise down the River Li. There is so much more, but I can't remember everything right now.  Needless to say Tali and I are very excited and I can't believe that we have to wait another eight months.  Sigh.