the wheels on the bus go, screeeech!

i took this picture out our hotel window this morning-just to show you what we ride around in. there are actually 3 of these taking us around everywhere; this is the largest travel group on record for our agency, which has been running for 10 years. there are 60 adopting families in our group, many have brought along siblings and grandparents; so the total number of people is over 100! anway, this picture was taken right before we left for our church service this morning. funny thing is, about 15 minutes after i took this picture, we had a minor crash with a taxi; i told you the driving is CRAAAAZY here! we're actually surprised this hasn't happened about 10 other times already. the driver was just getting ready to drop us off at the hotel where the church service is held, and BAM! everyone was totally fine, except the driver of the taxi couldn't get out of his car b/c we hit him directly in the door! thank the Lord, we were going super slow in the parking lot!

if tomorrow never comes

remember garth brooks' hit, 'if tomorrow never comes?' well, trust me, for you all back in america, it does (since we're 15 hours ahead here in this part of the world)! okay, i wanted to just tell you a few things here, without a picture and needed a catchy title. first of all, we are unable to actually view the website; don't know why, so every time i post something, i just have to hope it makes it...then we wait for kevin's mom to email us and tell us how many new ones appeared. having said that, that also means we're unable to read the comments many of you are writing. again, kev's mom and dad just tell us who actually sent one-so we apologize for not replying to any of your comments-but we simply cannot. oh yeah, please keep in mind how 'off' our bodies are with this new time change, and forgive my type-o's : ) and one other thing-THANKS SO MUCH for all the prayers! one of my biggest thing was not getting sick; and we feel AWESOME! praise God! last nite, we had another great nite of sleep and actually got 8 hours. and this afternoon, which was nite-time to our bodies, it actually didn't seem as bad as yesterday afternoon; so we're adjusting! thanks again!

work, work, work

these guys were working so hard at T-square yesterday. keep in mind the summer olympics is being held here in beijing in 2008, so there is a lot of construction/refurbishing going on all over the city. these guys are pulling up bricks, notice the lack of tools, and throwing them all in a big pile. once they're all pulled up, they'll lay a new layer with new bricks. and this area is HUGE! our tour guide said the actual floor of bricks is 14 layers deep-of bricks! don't worry, these guys are just re-doing the top layer. but still-the workers are so old andhaving to work so hard. it's really sad to see the faces of the older generation here. they're so wrinkle-y; it's hard to imagine all they've been thru in their lives, it's almost like their faces say it all. i keep thinking how neat it would be to bring over a team of americans and all our advanced tools/machinery-and show these guys how to use it. i bet they've never even anything like what we have. wow! God truly has blessed america!

beep, beep

i took this picture out the bus window yesterday-it's part moped, part car??? the driving here is absolutley crazy, and would be impossible without the horn. the rule is, as a pedistrian, YOU have to stop for them (cars, busses, etc) because they WON'T stop for you. oh my! i hope to get a picture of all the people on their bikes. no wonder why they're so little! they eat so healthy and most of them have only a bike as their mode of transportation!

typical meal set-up

after the summer palace, we went to a silk factory (very interesting) and then onto a peking duck dinner. again, yea for rice, coke and veggies. notice the fork as part of the place setting for us americans! after dinner, we finally came back to the hotel. this day was packed; we were gone almost 12 hours! they do this to help adjust us to the time change. but at about 2 o'clock this afternoon, you could tell the whole group was getting tired (that was 11pm, phoenix time, to our bodies). we were all a lot less talkative, we walked a lot slower and enjoyed the bus rides a lot more. they told us today was the most tire-some day. tomorrow we'll be back to the hotel at 6pm-ish and won't do nearly as much walking; altho-we'll be climbing the great wall-so i don't know which day will wipe us out more!? well, the tv is off, kev seems to be asleep and my eyes are stinging. good nite from beijing, and good morning america!

spring is in the air

the magnolias are starting to bloom in the summer palace.
this was the first time all day that we saw blue sky. until then, it was the typical hazy, brown-ish color; exactly like korea. much of china, so far, reminds us of korea. oh my gosh, i just looked up at the tv to see what kevin is watching-sumo wrestling! i guess it's only fitting since we're in china!

summer palace

after lunch, we visited a pearl factory where 'mom' and myah got a few things; we picked out a pink peal necklace to give her on her 16th birthday. then we went to the summer palace where the emperor and his family vacationed. it sits on this man-made lake and is made up of many old buildings. it was also a neat place, but was packed with people! it's so funny watching the chinese people watch us! at the forbidden city this morning, some chinese people wanted to take a picture with us and many chinese were taking pictures of a little blonde girl in our group.

first authentic chinese meal

after T-square and the forbidden city, it was time for lunch. oh my. let's just say, thank the Lord for rice! hee.hee. each meal is served 'family style' on a big lazy susan. on a few dishes, we all just guessed what they were. the soup and jasmine tea were really good; the fried pork was good and well, so was the sprite. p.s. we made sure to bring plenty of american snacks with us on this trip-it's a good thing!

Tian'anmen Square

we woke up this morning (to the sound of honking cars outside our hotel) at 6:30, which meant we had about 7 hours of greeeat sleep.
we had a huge breakfast and met more of our group, then we all set out at 8:45 for some sight-seeing. first stop-tian'anmen square and the forbidden city. this place is huge! T-square is actually the largest square in the world. it was windy and a little cold, but neat. the big picture of the man behind us is chairman mao. he is the one who established china's infamous "one child policy," which turns out to be the very reason why we are getting a daughter from here. interesting, huh?

big bird

here's our 'ride' for the next 11 hours. thankfully, kevin had called ahead and reserved our seats, so we were in the bulk-head. nice! well, it still was a looooooong flight, but at least we had a little more leg room and no one reclining back in our laps! we saw 4 movies, ate some mildly-scary-chinese stuff and slept for a total of about 30 minutes. ouch! it was fun walking around and meeting more of the families, but the most fun part of the trip was at 5:30pm china-time; we landed! going thru customs was a breeze and our agecny's "guides" were there to meet us right away. we got on a bus and they explained what our itinerary would be for the next two days then checked us into our hotel. we've now been up for over 24 hours and of course, now that we're here, we're wide awake!