T Minus 11 hours...

Ok. We have made it one step closer to Jada. We are currently cozied away in our beautiful room at the Trident Hotel in Bhubaneswar. We happen to be only about 45 minutes away from our beloved Jada. In about 11 hours (11:00 am Tuesday, India time) we will all finally be together. What a journey! It is interesting to look back over the last 14 months and remember the days we felt discouraged and tired of having to wait. I can still remember us saying, "Only about 5 more months! Only about 3 more months. Only about 1 more month." Now we get to say, "Only 11 more hours!"

Our trip from Delhi to Bhubaneswar was mostly uneventful. I made an Indian friend on the plane, who taught me how NOT to get swindled while in India. We ate at a KFC in the Delhi airport because we needed something fast. We had more wild automobile rides to and from airports/hotels. What can I say? Just another day in India!

Oh, I do have to take a moment to tell you about our shopping experience this morning. We left the hotel with specific directions in order to walk 20 minutes to Connaught Place, a well known shopping area. Well, needless to say, we stick out as tourists and were immediately approached by an overly-friendly Indian man. He tried to sell us a ride in his rickshaw, but when he found out we preferred walking, he immediately turned into our tour guide! Although we told him we were going to Connaught Place, he had a different shopping experience in mind for us! We thought it couldn't be TOO bad to follow his lead, so we did. We followed him for about 10 minutes as he took us down narrow streets, and through some questionable areas, but we then arrived at a small market. He shoved us inside and we were greeted with smiling faces trying to sell us everything from marble elephants to custom made suits! As we made our way out of the building (20 minutes later) our friend was STILL waiting for us! He then herded us into another shop where we went through the same process. This happened one more time and then we insisted we go back to our hotel. He, of course, had to take us back to our hotel via more narrow streets with some "interesting" sights, past multiple beggars with children, and attempted to push us into one more store. We finally turned around to find our own way back and he followed. We eventually got back and he gave us his business card (complete with mobile phone number) so that we could take a ride in his "Ferrari" (as he called his rickshaw) at a later time. Needless to say, we WON'T be needing his assistance in the future! So, we never made it to Connaught Place, but we did have quite the New Delhi shopping experience! We're pretty easy going, but it was intense for even us!

Ok, ok. Back to present time. It is nearly midnight and we are actually tired! Our bodies have adjusted quite nicely to the time change, so we will hopefully wake up in time to see what the lovely breakfast here is like. More on that tomorrow!

If all goes as planned, we'll update the blog tomorrow with new pics of Jada! We're so pumped!

Nighty-night from across the globe!