Whirlwind Days

It has been steamy whirlwind the past couple of days!!! On our first touring day, Saturday, we went to see Tiennamen Square, The Forbidden City, and the Great Wall!! There are two sides of the Great Wall that you can walk on. One is called the womens' side , or easy side the other is called the Men's side, or difficult side. Fred is proud to tell you that he made it all the way to the top of the Men's side! I made it a little more than half way. It is very steep with a few step hear and there. The hand rails leave alot to be desired. The poplation of Beijing is around 14million and I think they all showed up to tour with us!!! Luckily most of them took the easy side. The Chinese are not afraid of a little shoving and a LOT of cutting in line.

It was hot and very steamy in Beijing. We were all wringing wet. I know I had a river flowing down my back to a more southern location!!!! Toot's hair was totally soaked. We left at 8:40 and returned to the Hotel exhausted and smelly at 9:30. It was a very long day. Toot has been doing amazingly well. Our whole group has commented on how good she has been. I think (surprise) that she has charmed everyone. One of the families here to adopt a boy has been playing with Toot everyday and has already decided that they will come back to adopt a little girl. Good work Toot!!!!!

There are 7 other children traveling in our group ages 12-2. Toot has made friends with all of them. I think they have all been supporting each other.

Our second day of touring, Sunday, started with us having to be packed and out of our hotel room by 7:30am! After breakfast we boarded the bus to go to Chruch. It is a government sanctioned church and is only available for foreigners. No Chinese national are allowed inside, so our guides were not allowed to accompany us. After church we headed off for a nice "Western" buffet. I particularly enjoyed the "ham sandwich". It was a hotdog sliced long way between two peices of bread. :o} From lunch we walked to the Pearl Market to spend some American dollars. We went straight from the Pearl Market to the Summer Palace. And again I think all of Beijing followed us there!! We took a boat ride across the lake which was fun, but it is difficult to enjoy everything when it is so crowded. Toot had to use the "facilities" there. There was a sign outside the door that said that is was rated a 3 star facility by the Chinese tourism department. I would love to know how they rate their squatty potties! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

Makes port-a-potties seem luxurious.

We left soaking and smelly again to go straight to the airport to leave for our Provinces. We have 11 families heading for 8 Provinces. We won't meet up again until we go to Guangzhou on Saturday. On the plane we were told that we would meet our children the next morning. We were originally told it would be later in the afternoon.

And now it is Monday. This is the day that our family gets a little bigger!!! I had hoped to have those extra hours to get settled, but that is not the way things are happening. Yikes!!!! We are about to go down to breakfast and then go meet our SON !!!. I am feeling nervous, excited, scared, hopeful, petrified and nervous!!!! Be praying for us today. Pictures later.