Nanning

We sadly left our apartment in Guilin and the lovely staff that had made our stay so enjoyable at 7:00 this morning to happily get on the train to Nanning where we will meet our new daughter tomorrow. The four and a half hour journey was unexpectedly stressful and extremely uncomfortable as the train was packed to the gills with people returning to jobs and schools after being home for the spring festival (the end of Chinese New Year). Every seat and aisle and nook and cranny were crammed with people and luggage and huge bags. As always, the Chinese people were very warm and friendly to us and one young woman who spoke English went out of her way to help us navigate the train. Our Nanning guide met us with an album of wonderful very recent photos and an updated info summary on An Lin and our week's itinerary. We meet An Lin at the Civil Affairs office tomorrow at 4:30. Tomorrow she will be making the same journey from Guilin to Nanning on the same train that we did today. We are almost there! My heart is in my mouth. Today is our last day as a family of three. I look at the wonder that is my daughter Xing Xing and feel the deep love I have for her and imagine how our family dynamic is about to change. She is busy dividing the hotel room into territories-hers and An Lin's. On the one hand she makes sure that anything she has, An Lin has also. On the other,she makes clear what is NOT to be shared and which bed, drawer, etc is hers. She was thrilled when a bride and groom at the Mingyuan Hotel where we are staying gave her a candy.