Day 1 in China

Sunday, 10/24/10 at 12:45 am (China Time)

We arrived in Beijing 3 days ago. Our last two days have been extremely busy, which is a good thing. We walked the Great Wall, have been to pearl, jade and silk markets, stopped and took pictures at the 2008 Olympic Stadium. We shopped and ate lunch at the Friendship Store, visited the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square and the Temple of Heaven. Had a delicious and interesting lunch yesterday at Peking Duck, my mom tried the duck, I passed and Kalista ate her bag of Cheeze Its. Followed by a wonderful Hutong Tour where we rode in a rickshaw and toured a real Chinese families home. It has truly been amazing.

The downside to the trip is that I ended up with a sinus infection, I am having trouble sleeping. My eyes have been blood shot red since Thursday and my stomach is full of nerves. I am scared to death and miss Thomas and Jager so much! It is so overwhelming, but nothing constant praying won’t cure.

All 10 families will fly to different Provinces today. Five families are going to Changsha with Zhou. Two families are going to Guangzhou, one family to Chengdu, one family to Shanghai and we are going to Nanning.

We will arrive in Nanning early this evening and will meet up with David and Belinda, our new contact local people. Tomorrow will be our “Gotcha Day”, and we can’t wait! I can only hope that once I see her all my anxieties and fear will disappear.

I am so proud of Kalista! She has been a true trooper! The 12 hour time change has been difficult on all of us, but at least she sleeps soundly at night. I am so blessed that she and my mom were able to make the trip and complete this journey in our life.

We have taken many fabulous pictures and hope to share some of them with you soon. I am not able to get to my blog or facebook. I’m going to have Thomas cut and paste this posting to my blog with more to follow. Please keep the prayers coming and check back soon.

Hugs!