First, here's a facebook like to photos from this morning through about 4pm. Make sure you view the photos individually so you can read the commentary. My brain is tired so I bet they'll be ... interesting.
CLICK HERE
Last night we went to bed around 6pm. I tried to stay up later but failed. We both woke up around 12:30 am local time but snoozed off and on until 5am ish and just decided to stay up. Erin went running at the workout room. I showered and went to the hotel front desk for a few questions / things we needed.
We had a great breakfast at a hotel restaurant that is included with our stay. Really good buffet. We went back to our room to video-skype with Jack and Erin's folks. Thank God that skype worked. It's going to make being away from Jack bearable. He's doing great and loving the time with Nanny and Pawpaw. He actually stayed in front of the computer and sang and talked and it was so good to see him. Yay technology and especially VPNs.
We then met our guide Forrest (yes named after Gump) who had our cell phone that we wanted for emergencies while in China. Then we were off in our little white van to Tiananmen Square. I won't list everything we saw (I kinda did that on the facebook photo page) but needless to say it was FREEZING. I've not been outside in cold like that for a long time. It's one big flat cobblestone space. The wind whipping through there made it crazy cold.
We went from there to the FORBIDDEN CITY or the Emperor's palace. Now all museum, it's dang impressive. It's been rebuilt twice due to fires but it is amazing. When the people think you're the son of the gods, you get a nice house apparently.
From there we did what has been my favorite thing so far. We ate with a local family and had some typical food. It was great to talk and eat and see how a typical Beijing family lives. They had a coy pond built into the floor with plexiglass over it so you could walk on it. They say it's to help with the Feng shwai (no idea on spelling). But we got to meet and hang out with locals. Loved it. We then saw one of the few homes that is close to original architecture. It was like a walled in mini-palace. I could seriously enjoy it.
We went into the silk museum next and it was cool to see how a little silk worm could produce such amazingly useful thing. We got Jack and Eme some silk P.J.s as they weren't too expensive. Jack's has dragons on it so he'll love it.
One unique thing that happened today was that while David, Valerie and Erin were in the restroom, Forrest and I had a chance to talk a little. He asked me why we were adopting. I told him that we'd always thought about it and how we came to decide on adopting a little girl. I then said, how special I'd hope she'd feel when she realized that we chose her and came all the way across the world just for her. That we wanted her to be in our family. I'm hoping to have more talks like that with Forrest. Who knows how that could go. A seed is a seed.
So now we've gotten back to the hotel and it's 4:3o. I'm gonna take a nap. We're meeting Forrest and the others for dinner and a Kung Fu show! On our itinerary it said Acrobatic show wich apparently, Forrest felt was lame so we're the first group he's bringing to the Kung Fu show. I'm excited and tired. But what an awesome day so far. We're just trying to enjoy the time before we get Eme as we know it'll totally consume us and take every bit of energy we have. This day or two of touring is really important or we'd be climbing the walls. I just CANNOT wait to hold her.
Thanks for praying. I can really see God doing stuff and taking care of things.
I'll add more later tonight after we get back.
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