Leaving in 6 1/2 hours !!

Finally ! The time has come for us to leave to go meet Ben. Yay :o)
It is midnight and I am finally finished packing and handling all of the details. I've been asked to post our itinerary, so here it is... May 7th...we'll leave the house at 6:30a.m. to go to the airport. We'll fly United from Charlotte to Dulles airport, with a little layover and then on to Beijing (that part is 13.5 hours). We'll stay in Beijing for 3 nights at The Peace Novotel Hotel, then take the train to Tianjin on Sunday the 11th (Mother's Day). We'll receive Ben on Monday 5/12 at the orphanage. We'll be at the Holiday Inn Tianjin Hotel until that Friday, when we'll take a flight to Guangzhou where we'll be staying at The White Swan Hotel. Our consulate appt is on 5/19, we'll receive Ben's travel visa the next day after the oath ceremony... then fly out the next morning 5/21 from Guangzhou back to Beijing, have a layover and then Beijing to Chicago, with a small layover again, then on to Charlotte, arriving late on the evening of 5/21. We'll be doing the usual tours in Beijing, including the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Summer Palace, Altar to Heaven, Hutong Tour, Tieneman Square and an acrobatic show. While in Tianjin, we will get to visit the orphanage and also visit the Tianjin School for Deaf Children, where he boards Mon-Fri. We'll probably have some more sight-seeing in Tianjin and Guangzhou, but I don't know what it will be yet. I have hired a Chinese sign language interpreter for at least the first 2 days. We do not have any travel group...meaning no other families from our agency are traveling the same time as us. This will be very different for us, because we've always had a big group which has been a lot of fun. Now, we'll have our guides all to ourself!
Well, sleep is a must...so signing off !
Love to all & kisses and hugs to Mike and all my beautiful children :o)
Lisa