Hello From Beijing!

We landed in Beijing at 1:30am US time. Chris never slept, once.  Jim and I dozed on and off but it was hard to sleep.  They had TONs of movies, tv shows and video games in each seat back to keep us occupied.  I couldn't concentrate, and only really watched one movie from beginning to end... it wasn't even that good! We met 2 other families that are adopting and one I had chatted with on RQ.  Emilysmom, in the blog. She remembered me. They were really nice and I have contact info for them when we are in GZ together. When we met our guide Helen, she told us that Forbidden City and Tiennemen Square would be closed on Saturday (today) and if we would like we had time to see it "quickly" if we wanted to go right then.  So we decided to go right from the airport to our first Beijing tour... It was interesting, and we got to say we were there but frankly we were tired and it was the 'quick' tour!  The Forbidden City was beautiful and the history is astounding.  The moment we walked through the gate at Tienemen Square and turned around to see the all so familier giant picture of Mao, I knew I was in China,  it was real... we are here! By the time we got back to the hotel Chris was dead and we were all hungry.  We decided to take a short nap and then find some dinner.  It was really hard to get up once we layed down... I felt really bad for Chris.  We did find a very good restaurant close to the hotel and had a FEAST for $25.  We didn't even finish it all.  Dumplings, steamed buns, sweet and sour chicken, a pork and taro root dish, pumpkin cakes and Jim had his hot and sour soup.  When we got back to the hotel, Chris and I CRASHED  I don't even know what time it was but all we wanted to do was sleep! I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.. so here I am!  So far everything is going well and we love our guide.  She is very sweet and full of information about China. Our hotel is beautiful and the beds were fine.  Nice and firm but not hard. Today we see the Great Wall, local Jade, Peiking Duck dinner and a Kung Fu show!  THEN we can sleep one more time.... before we go to Changsha and maybe get Hope on Sunday! Love from Beijing, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 Follow along as our family tree blooms, blossoms and grows! www.waitingforhope.blogspot.com