Day 2--Busy, Busy, Busy

Our second day we met up with three more families and did crazy tours of Tian'amen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Silk Museum as well as an evening performance of the Beijing Acrobats. Every place we went was wall to wall people as this weekend there are probably 10 million visitors to Beijing for a holiday weekend...all wanting to see the same spots we were touring.

We started with a group picture in Tian'amen Square and after some more photo op time, we proceeded to the Gate of Heavenly Peace which serves as entrance to the Forbidden City, the home of the emperor. We managed to get inside only through succumbing to the pushing of a mass of humanity. Because of the extra time it took to get inside we made our tour an abbreviated one. We moved on from there to lunch and a visit to the government run pearl factory.

From there we proceeded to a side entrance of the Summer Palace. We were pleased about this shift since this gave us an opportunity to see a side of the Summer Palace we had not seen before. We crossed the Marco Polo Bridge ,took many photos and Andrew became an instant celebrity as many people asked for him to pose with them in pictures (Oh the joys of being a towhead in Beijing!).

From there it was just a short trip to the silk museum and store. We were able to observe how silk quilts are made. Quite impressive. "Quilt" is a bit of a misnomer since the silk threads won't bunch and therefore the usual quilt stitching is not used. It is the Chinese equivalent of a down comforter without the allergens or baffles. Alan decided this might be a good thing to have.

As the afternoon wore down we returned to the hotel for a very short respite before setting out for dinner and the Beijing Acrobats. They were every bit as good as I remembered them.

We returned home very exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep!

Day 1--Hutong

Friday, May 1

Since we are here a day prior to most of the other families, at our guide Sherry's suggestion we joined the Wilcox family for a morning tour of Hutong--otherwise known as Old Beijing and is located near Tiannamen Square and Forbidden City. Hutong is the Mongolian word for water well. The word has come to be the name for narrow streets. The streets in this part of the city are populated mostly by rickshaws. Our families took several rickshaws around the area which was nice because it was raining lightly.

As part of the tour we were taken into the home of one of the residents. All homes in this part of the city are one story since only royalty/emperor had homes taller. The home we saw has been in this family for four generations which is a bit unusual. Most of the homes are government owned and occupied by poor workers. A few of the homes have been purchased by the very wealthy and may have as many as 20 rooms that open onto a large courtyard. The home we saw was smaller, had a small courtyard and about half as many rooms.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant that specialized in Shezhuan food. We had much more than we could eat: lotus root, kung pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, fried pumpkin, crunchy sesame rice, fish flavored eggplant, other things that are not coming to mind now, and fruit (watermelon and orange slice) for dessert.

This afternoon will be spent mostly relaxing. We may meet up with the Wilcox's (who are from Idaho) for some exploring and swimming later.

Safe Arrival in Beijing

We made it!!

We had two very good flights. We left Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, flew to Chicago, and had a direct flight from Chicago O'Hare to Beijing (13 hours and 13 minute flight). Andrew did amazingly well the entire way. The movie highlight of the trip was watching "Forever Strong." We all really enjoyed it.

As is usually the case, didn't get enough sleep on the plane and felt like we ate constantly. It is warm--low 80's. We thought that one piece of luggage had been lost, but Andrew found it. Now it is off to buy some bottled water, probably eat some more and then to bed--looking forward to that.

Thanks for the prayer support everyone. Ruth is feeling better than she has for weeks. Keep praying for her, especially that she would deal with the air quality here well.

We're all missing Kirsten already!!

More Encouraging News

As we get set to head off to China and ultimately Guangzhou to meet and fold Jadon into our family we have been anxious for any information we can get. We heard from the family who are also adopting an 8 year old son from Shenzhen Social Welfare Center that Jadon is indeed a friend of this family's Chinese son. She also discovered that Jadon is involved in all English learning two days a week in the school that Half the Sky Foundation runs. This hopefully means that he will have a fair amount of English and be able to interact with us. It also hopefully means that he is somewhat accustomed to "western" school and will have fewer problems adjusting to school here.

We also discovered that the English name he has gone by at the school is York. We are wondering if this is so that the children will get practice using "r" and "k" sounds since they do not exist in Mandarin. Perhaps he will learn to speak without an accent (other than a Midwest one).

He has expressed some fear of storms (and tornadoes in particular...who isn't afraid of tornadoes?) which seems pretty normal. We were pleased to hear that he is not afraid to express fears. He should fit right in to our family!

Travel Meeting

Thursday was a big day. Things become more real every day.

Our agency holds a conference call that includes all the families who will be traveling in a group prior to departure. That call revealed to us that our group consists of 9 families and 30 people. The information shared during this process included our guides, hotels, some specifics about itinerary, and what to expect in the process. We will receive our official itinerary by FedEx today sometime, but they shared with us the general pattern.

Due to pricing and flight availability we will arrive in Beijing a day before most of the remainder of the group. We do know that there is at least one other family who will be arriving early as well. During that day we will be free to do what we would like. Once everyone arrives there is a packed schedule. First day will include visits to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace. It will be interesting to see all these things again without scaffolding since the last time we were there they were in the process of preparing for he olympics. Day 2 will include an international church service (passport required for entrance), the Great Well, and a Beijing Duck Dinner.

Then comes the big day. Early on Day 3 we will fly from Beijing to Guangzhou since Jadon is in an orphanage in Guangdong province. That day the orphanage director will bring Jadon to us and in the eyes of both the US and Chinese governments the adoption is finalized. Many have asked recently why we need to stay in China for so long. Once this occurs the process becomes a preparation for traveling home. We will need to get Jadon a Chinese passport and visa (along with the completion of many other paperwork steps for the adoption materials). Jadon will become officially a US citizen when he first steps foot on US soil. Until then he must travel by his Chinese passport and visa with his Chinese name.

We will post more about the itinerary when that arrives. Please continue to pray for all of us as we make preparations to leave. This weekend is a big one since it is really our only time to pack. In typical fashion, Alan is not sleeping well now since he is thinking about this pretty constantly. Ruth is still fighting some respiratory things--doing much better, but still not out of the woods. Kirsten's leg has good days and bad days. Andrew is very excited and a little nervous about the whole process. I can't even begin to think or know what Jadon is experiencing in this time. In all of it God is good. Pray that we would remain confident in that goodness and trust Him in all the details.

Encouraging Possibilities

It is beginning to feel very real!! We are traveling very soon.

In an attempt to become more prepared to welcome Jadon into the family we sought out a Yahoo Discussion group of families who have adopted children from the same area from which Jadon is coming. It is amazing what can be learned in such a short time through connections with like-minded people. Through this group today we were contacted by another family who is anxious to receive their TA to go and get their 8-year old son from the same Orphanage. There is even the possibility that Jadon is friends with this family's son. Wouldn't that be incredible. We don't live that terribly far apart either.

The orphanage in which Jadon has lived for the past 3 years has programs run by Half the Sky Foundation (see picture along with classroom from inside). For more information about that group you may visit www.halfthesky.org. Since he has almost certainly been in their program we are excited because they are commited to preparing children to go to forever families. They are set up in a family atmosphere, use Chinese and Western educational methods to provide the best enrichment possible, help prepare children by using English names and helping them to write them, and we have reason to believe that he has at least been exposed to English--which would be great for his sake (and ours). In addition, since he is in their program once we have returned home we may request that we receive all the progress reports and information that they have on Jadon. It will be great to help make sure that these years of his life don't just disappear.

Stay tuned for more.

Colds, Colds, Colds

Kirsten came home earlier this week with a doozy of a cold. Unfortunately the rest of us have picked it up as well. Alan has done pretty well--his voice has been affected, but other than that not much. Andrew has had a headache and a runny nose. It slowed him down a little bit, but not too bad. Ruth on the other hand has been really hit hard. The cold was compounded by some mold in some leaves and yard things that we bagged yesterday. As a result she has been in bed much of this day and has had some trouble getting good breaths. One thankful aspect of the timing is that we do not need to get on a plane this week. We are hoping that we will all be in great shape when we leave.