One More Person in the People's Republic

Well, friends. Today is the Big Day. It's gonna be Wheels Up on my trip to China to get my daughter.

This means several things:

1) My posts will be less frequent, but I assure you, still ongoing. After all, I'm flying Air France, which means I will bump into French people, and you know how I get when that happens. ;)

2) I realized last night that I have single-handledly raised the stock price of Bristol Myers Squibb with all the pharmaceuticals I'm taking, both for adult and baby. I've got the Imodium, the Cipro, the anti-barfing stuff, the ear drops, the eye drops, the nose saline, the anti-constipation, the pro-constipation...let's put it this way: If there is an orifice that could drip, run, dry up, seize up, or otherwise go horrifyingly awry, I have the drugs to make it better.

3) I had a big epiphany this morning as I got up early, shoveled snow, walked to my coffee shop and sat quietly, leisurely, ruminatively drinking my last cappuccino in the United States----and finally internalized that this was the last time without a little person attached to me via the Snugli making it not so quiet, leisurely or ruminative.

4) I will, for only the second time in my life, step off a plane into a country where I do not speak the language, cannot read the signs, and (for the first time in my life) look not at all like the people who surround me on the streets. That is going to be such a huge rush, to see how I do, to see if have the stones to tackle all that Beijing offers. I'm psyched to see Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, eat the famous Peking Duck, and just generally hang out and take it all in.

5) I am so ready for Guangzhou after Beijing for one simple reason: Beijing = 37 degrees; Guangzhou = 67 degrees. Nuff said.

6) Prepare yourself for a few posts about the other families with whom I'm traveling to get our bambinas. Even my agency person said, "it's so great to have the support of other families with you, but by the end of the 10 days you just want to get your kid home and get far, far away from all of these people. And that's okay." So you KNOW you are going to hear about that! I already know who is going to drive me crazy. One guy who mouth-breathed through our entire "travel arrangements conference call" with all of the traveling families. He rather athletically respired into his mouthpiece through the entire call, to the extent that I was starting to wonder whether I had dialed a 900 number rather than an 866. He also knew EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING and so, by divine design, will drive me crazy because, as we all know, *I* am the person who knows everything about everything. ;)

Okay. Time to go do one final look-see to make sure I'm truly ready to go. Someone asked me if I was scared about flying so far, being on a plane for so long, traveling to a completely foreign land with no language skills save a pocket sized book of helpful phrases; my answer is no. Because I do not believe for one minute that this is a solo trip for any of us. The Chinese have a saying: "An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.” I am simply going to follow my end of the red thread, holding on tightly, to the place where my daughter is waiting for me; and then we are simply going to follow that same red thread home.

Next post from China!