Our journey to Elle began with a stop in Istanbul, Turkey.  Dawn had never been there so I knew she would enjoy the Grand Bazaar so here she is inside the Bazaar:

 

We left Istanbul and then after 10 hours we were in Guangzhou, China, hopped on another 4 hour flight to Xian, China.  Xian was the capital city of China for the first 13 dynasties.  It's a city of approximately 9 - 10 million people and has an incredible amount of history.   We checked into our hotel and after 30+ hours of traveling were pooped.  We visited the Terracotta Warriors (turned out Dawn was very glad I arranged this stop as she and I both were amazed by the 6000 warriors), Ancient City Wall (which is a call that surrounds the whole city) and the The Big Goose Pagoda.  Here's some pics:

 



 

 

 

 



 



We then took a flight to Elle's province.  After arriving at our hotel, Elle was brought to us in our room.  This was a much different process than we've experienced in the past.  To say it was an emotional day would be an understatement.  She is the cutest and tiniest little 18 month old I've ever seen and she's already very much a momma's girl.   She didn't cry much (only when I got close) and settled in very quickly.  I will post pictures tomorrow but I thought it best to wait until the kids get to see her latest photos before we put anything out there for everyone....trust me it'll be worth the wait.