Arriving in Chongqing!

This morning we left Beijing and traveled to Chongqing.  As we were leaving  the hotel, Andrea was inspired to have the hotel concierge write down that a lot of our luggage was for the orphanage donation in case our luggage was over weight.  When we got to the Chinese Air agent who was checking us in, we gave him the card so that he understood what we were doing.  He was very nice and didn't charge us for any of the bags and let us check two additional bags that we thought we would have to carry on.  Just another example of the Lord guiding our trip!

I'm sure Andrea would want me to admit my struggle going through security.  I am the one who always coaches Andrea and Connor on trying to have everything just right so we can get through security quickly.  Well, in my excitement, or just my stupidity, I forgot to take out the aluminum packet of Tylenol in my pocket as well as my wallet.  That set off the alarm, which then led to the wanding, which then led to the discovery of my money belt!  Everything worked out fine, but I was hoping not to have to explain the large sum of US cash strapped to my belly.

We arrived in Chongqing and met De (our guide) at the airport.  She is wonderful!!!  She took us to the JW Marriott to check in and then we went to the bank to exchange all of the money that everybody sent for the orphanage.  It all equaled out to 21,000 RMB!  After we got the bricks of cash, we had the opportunity to meet the orphanage director back at the airport.  This was a very important opportunity because Andrea and De have been working hard over the last three months to be able to see the orphanage.  The amazing news is that we got permission to take the toys into the orphanage and set up the room!!!  This is unprecedented at this orphanage.  Then Andrea asked the big question…..if we could see GiGi (that's what they call Lizzie in the orphanage).  The director said he would have one of the nannies bring her to a place where we can see her, but he will not allow contact because he can't risk any infection into the orphanage.  He was so nice to meet with us and we really owe a lot to De for establishing the relationship with him.

After we met with the Director, we went to Wal-Mart and bought the floor mats and lots of toys.  We have several big boxes to take on the train ride tomorrow to deliver to the orphanage.  Debra told us that the city officials didn't think Xiushan was open to foreign visitors because they haven't seen foreigners there for some time!  Anyway, we are very excited for the trip tomorrow, but probably won't be able to blog about it until we get back to Chongqing. 

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers for Connor's cough.  It is getting better and he did such a good job trying to hide his coughs all through our time in the airport and during our meeting with the Director.  He was such a big helper at WalMart too picking our the toys for the babies.

We leave on a very early train in the morning, so I'm heading to bed!