Tour Day!

Today was a very fun day of touring, but also very exhausting.  We went to Tienanmen Square and walked around there.  The history is fascinating.  Then we went to Forbidden City.  It is hard to grasp the magnitude of it.  Our guide told us it would take 3 days to tour the entire palace.  She said it took 14 years and one million people to build it.  We were able to see many artifacts of jade and cloisonne as well as the empress' chambers.  There are so many people touring and you sometimes have to be pushy to be able to see things. 

While we were at Tienanmen Square, a group of people wanted to take Trevor and Noah's picture.  Noah is the son of our friends who are in our same travel group.  The boys had several minutes of fame as each person in their group wanted their picture with them.  It is great for Trevor to have someone his own age on this trip.  

After Forbidden City we went to lunch at an extremely nice restaurant.  We were served several traditional Chinese dishes.  Everything is put on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and you put the items that you want on your plate as they spin by you.  Travis decided that would be a great idea for home.  I thought it was a neat experience to taste the local cuisine in such a nice atmosphere.  

After lunch we went  on the Hutong tour.  This is the oldest part of Beijing.  The houses are very small and they have to use a public washroom.  The Hutongs are now protected by the government after many were destroyed to build apartments or businesses.  We went to the home of a very nice lady who welcomed us in and talked with us.  Her husband is an artist and creates beautiful paintings.  We rode in a rickshaw to this area and then back to our starting point.  That was also a really cool experience.  It was a true taste of Chinese culture.

Later we went to a silk factory.  Trevor got an outfit and I bought Katie a couple of dresses.  It was so interesting to learn about how the silk is made.  Tomorrow we will go to the Great Wall, so we are all going to get a good night's rest.

Some pics from our trip here!

**Note: My substitute blogger, who will remain nameless, had trouble posting these pics this morning but has since learned how to hold her mouth right to get it to work :-)

Travis, Trevor, and I at Huntsville Airport before take-off!

Trevor on the plane--He's excited even if it is EARLY!!

The view right outside our hotel room

We Made It To Beijing!

 

Well, that was a long flight!  I had a complete and total meltdown
with 5 hours left to go on the plane.  I'm talking sobbing.  Travis
did his best to console me, but I just needed to have a good cry.  Now
that it's over with, I can enjoy the trip.

Trevor did much better on the plane than I did.  When we landed in DC,
I jumped when the wheels came down.  He looked at me and said, "Mom,
it's just the wheels."  He was extremely calm the whole time while I
was a basket case.  But God got us here and He will keep us safe.

Beijing is huge!  The airport was extremely crowded and we feel very
out of place.  But our guide is so sweet and will be with us the
entire time we're in Beijing, along with the same driver.  I would
never survive driving here.  It's crazy traffic and people weave in
and out and there are pedestrians everywhere in the road.  Very
different from home.

We've already settled into our very nice hotel room and exchanged
money.  The hotel actually connects to a mall, so we are going to eat
at KFC in the mall for dinner.  That seems kind of funny to me.  We
came half way around the world and we are eating at KFC.

Tomorrow is a busy day.  We will go to Tienanmen Square and Forbidden
City.  We will get to shop and taste some of the local cuisine. 

 We literally walk out and there is a garden area that even has real
birds in cages.  Very beautiful!

China Bound

It's finally here!  The moment we've been waiting for.  We're headed for China in just a few hours.

God is Good

Today has been a little stressful.  FedEx informed me that my envelope was on a truck sitting on their lot and they would not be sorting through it until tomorrow morning.  After speaking with several people and much crying, I finally spoke with a sweet manager that was willing to go to the truck and find it for me.  We now have our visas/passports in hand and are ready to go.  A big thank you to Tim at FedEx for following God's will and helping us in this journey.  I am amazed at how God works out the details and who He puts in our path!

Our plane leaves at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.  Thank you in advance for the many prayers and sweet comments.  Our friends and family have been so supportive and uplifting.  I know that we are being covered in prayer, and you cannot imagine what a comfort that is to me.  We will meet Katie for the first time on Sunday.  In that moment, our dream of adopting this sweet girl will become a reality and so many prayers will be answered.

Packed and Ready To Go

It's not an easy task packing for a trip half way around the world.  The last minute details are coming together.  We still have not received our visas, but I'm picking them up tomorrow at FedEx.  That's got me a little nervous since they were not scheduled to deliver them until Tuesday afternoon.  That just didn't work for us since our plane is leaving Tuesday morning.  So hopefully they will be there at the FedEx office.  Then everything will be ready to go to China!

WalMart

If I have to go to WalMart one more time, I might scream!  No matter how many lists I make, I still forget something when I'm there.  And I have bought one of every kind of medicine we could possibly need for this trip.  I look like a walking pharmacy.  I'm so afraid we will get over there and not have something we need.  I know they have a WalMart there, but I'm not sure I trust the medicine they have.  We wouldn't have had to buy so much if the items in our medicine drawer were not expired.  I found one in there that expired in 2005.  That just shows you how often I clean up around here.

We are counting down the days.  The small details are still not finalized yet.  I've really had to let go of my control issues and trust that things will come together.  We purchased plane tickets yesterday, and all of our tours for Beijing have been arranged.  Our agency is planning the rest of the trip for us and we should get those details tomorrow.  My visa is still not here, but I'm trusting God knows what He's doing and it will make it in time.