Where are we going?

Doug & I have been doing alot of reading about where Alex is from.  We want to know as much as we can about his city and province, so when he gets older we can answer all his questions!   Here's a little about what we have learned so far.   The city he is from is named Qingyang and is the province of Gansu.   Gansu is located in the northwestern part of the country, and the Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province.   The entire province of Gansu has a population of 26 million.  The capital of Gansu is Lanzhou.  This is where we will be traveling to get Alex.  The orphanage director (and maybe his nanny) will be bringing Alex on the 8 hour drive from where is orphanage is located to our hotel on "gotcha day."   Doug and I constantly talk about all the firsts that Alex will experience in such a short time.   This will probably be his first time ever outside of the orphanage gates.   We pray that we will be able to comfort him while he morns the loss of his caregivers and gets use to his new mommy and daddy.    We will be staying in Lanzhou for 5 nights.  We've read that Lanzhou is one of the most polluted cities in the world.  While we are there, we will have our civil affairs appointment, fill out lots of paperwork and do some sightseeing.  Then, off to Guangzhou, where we will finish up the last portion of our trip.