Summer Palace & Great Wall

I'm falling asleep waiting for pictures to upload so I can send them on to Carla. It was a very busy day with a ton of walking. We went to the Summer Palace first and it was as beautiful as the first time we were there. We would have so loved to have seen it at different time of the year but it seems that just was not meant to be. All the same it was beautiful. The first time we stopped and posed for a picture we were swarmed with by a couple of young women who wanted to have their pictures taken with us. This happened a couple of times but a ton for the younger girls in our group. Taylor and Katie were stopped a ton. Not so much by adults but by girls their age. It was rather cute as they were shy at first and some were afraid to ask for a picture with the two girls. The little five year old that is in our group wanted nothing to do with any of it. Who can blame her?!?! We headed to the jade factory after the Summer Palace. Last time we were here we bought a jade bangle from them and it broke after a certain little girl dropped it on our tile floor. We did not buy another. They have however added on to the building making it look much more fancy. From there we went to lunch, it was very tasty. We were able to see how they made Colonaise items. There was a huge shopping area attached to the restaurant for one to spend more money. Straight from lunch we went to the Great Wall. It's always a beautiful sight as your driving up the mountain side. We were able to see some of the wall that has deteriorated. We decided to climb the harder side this time as well so Taylor could get a sense of how step and uneven the steps really are. Not to mention there are far more vendors on the easy side. We have some beautiful picture of some of the families within our group on The Wall. We had the famous duck dinner tonight. The last time we were here we did not like it. This time though it was rather delicious. I'm glad we gave it a try again. Our guides have been great. Maggie sang The Star Spangle Banner in Chinese to us and it was beautiful. She has such a lovely voice. Rosa remembers us from when we traveled two years ago as well as our travel mates! :) We feel so blessed to have them as our guides again. Tomorrow is another busy day. We will go Church, Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. We are tired but so excited to be here. Only one more day! Thanks for following along and praying for us. Please keep them coming as we are so close to meeting Evan. Bob, Cheri & Taylor

Crazy Day of Adventure

First if you do not see any pictures check back they will be added later. We decided today after breakfast that we would all go to the silk market. Mode of transportation was up in the air. Some wanted to take cabs, some walk, and some take the bus. The bus won out so off we went. It started out fairly easy. We were able to find the bus stop and bus with no problems. You boarded the bus from the back and we soon learned from watching everyone that there was one way off - the front. We along with one other family was near the front exit while the rest of our group was in the back. The group in the back had the directions so we were watching them to know when to get off. At one point we were told one more exit and that is when it got interesting. We moved to the exit and Taylor was the first out the door, suddenly before anyone else could exit, the bus doors closed. Our 14 yr old. daughter turned around on some street in Beijing to see us on a bus with the doors closed! It was at that point I started to panic. I let out a scream and the word that came out of my mouth was "WAIT"!!!!!!!  I think I was banging on the doors as well, it is all a blur. All I know is the bus doors opened and Bob and I were able to get off as well as one other family. We proceeded to walk with a map that our hotel had given us but we ended up making a wrong turn at some point. Our family along with one of the other families children made it to the silk market via a cab. The rest of the other family was going to catch a cab but they ended up walking the rest of the way as they had five other family members and the cab only holds four. It was maybe 15 minutes later when they arrived. We did not see our other travel mates anywhere at the silk market. It was rather crazy in the market. Everyone wanted you to buy something from them. If you paused or looked at something they were all over you. Needless to say we did not buy anything. Oh and we did take a quick and cheap cab ride back to the hotel just in case any of you are wondering. ;) We ventured out on foot tonight for dinner with our friends we spent the day with. They are great. Todd and Kim brought their four kids with them and their children are adorable. We walked to a local restaurant and ordered some interesting food. All tasted very good but some was very spicy even though they said they would only make it a little spicy. We ordered beef and peppers thinking it would be green bell peppers but it was green chili peppers. Very spicy but good. We fed nine of us for $35 US dollars and had a ton of food. Very friendly service as well. Tomorrow we will be with our guides so we will have a busy schedule. We see the Summer Palace, Jade Factory and Great Wall. It will be a fun day of our favorite places! Off to bed but only 3 more days until we meet Evan!  Hopefully we can sleep.  There seems to be a party next door and they are very loud singing songs etc.  Bob, Cheri & Taylor

Carla adding here: This LINK is to another family who recently traveled over Chinese New Year and took a video of the fireworks. This is the kind of fireworks they are hearing all night long! I can imagine how it is with the kind of debris shown here in the photo above.

We Made It!

The flights went smooth and we have made it to China safe and sound! Four other families arrived a day early so we already have quite the crowd. More will arrive tomorrow with the rest arriving on Sunday. China is still celebrating Chinese New Year and we are witnessing that. We have heard fireworks from the moment we stepped foot off of our bus. Not just little ones the really big ones!!! We arrived at the hotel at 4pm and it is now 7pm and they are going strong. Our guide tells us they will probably go most of the night. Tomorrow is a free day and we are not sure what we will do. I'm sure we will come up with something good though. Please keep praying, only 4 more days until we meet Evan! Oh for those of you getting ready to travel I wanted to let you know you could read other blogs in Google reader as long as you don't open up to Blogger. :) I won't be able to respond but when I have some down time I'll be checking on all of you! Bob, Cheri & Taylor Noah, Kera and Lia I sure hope your behaving for Michele. We love and miss you very much!

Itinerary

Adoption Itinerary
February 18th – March 5th

• Thursday, Feb. 18th Arrive in Beijing
• Friday, Feb. 19th Free day in Beijing 
•  Saturday, Feb. 20th Beijing Sight-Seeing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace
• Sunday, Feb. 21st Beijing Sightseeing: Church Service, Great Wall
                 Metcha Day!
•  Monday, Feb. 22nd Morning-flight to Chongqing
  Afternoon-Meet Evan LuBo
•  Tuesday, Feb. 23rd Civil Affairs Appointment
•  Feb. 24th – Feb. 25th Sightseeing & Shopping
•  Friday, Feb. 26th Flight to Guangzhou
•  Saturday, Feb. 27th Medical Exam
•  Sunday, Feb. 28th Free day in Guangzhou
•  Monday, March 1st Consulate Paperwork
•  Tuesday, March 2nd Consulate Appointment at 9:00 am
•  Wednesday, March 3rd Consulate Oath Taking Ceremony
•  Thursday, March 4th Pick-up Child’s Visa
   Depart from Guangzhou
•  Friday, March 5th Depart from Hong Kong

Our guides will be Maggie and Rosa in Beijing and Guangzhou and Michael in Chongqing. Ginny, I'm wondering if this is the same guide you had while in province. We should receive our travel items tomorrow via FedEx. :)

Testing

I almost forgot to try and do a test post and see if I would be able to blog while in China. See Blogger is banned and one must email their posts to their blog or have a great friend like Carla to update your blog for you. The picture is a map of China and you'll see a red dot where Chongqing is. That is Evan's province. Most know where Beijing is in the north and Guangzhou is in the Guangdong Province in the south. So this gives you a bit of an idea of where we will be going. To compare where we went on our last trip, Lia is from the Yunnan Province.

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Agency Closed.....Again

Our agency is really getting hit hard by this storm. It is expected to end tonight but I really do not expect anyone to be in the office tomorrow. Actually I'd be surprised if they went in at all this week. Which means we would get all of our travel items (passport, visas, and plane tickets) the day before we leave! *faint* Did I mention I'm feeling a bit stressed?!?! I'm trying to trust in the Lord but feeling a bit overwhelmed right now.

On a positive note we were able to fix our problems with Skype! I fix the problem on our main PC and a wonderful friend fixed it for us on the laptop! It was very easy but I had no clue what I was doing. LOL It will be great to be able to talk with our children when we are gone.

Please keep praying for us and our travel group.

2 Weeks

Can you believe it! In two weeks we will meet our Evan! Time is going by so fast and before we know it we will be on the plane flying to China. We are busy doing last minute preparations.

We will not receive our itinerary today as the agency was hit by that massive snow storm over the weekend and is closed for the day. We are praying we will receive it tomorrow. We know that at least two other families are arriving early as well as us.

We are having problems with Skype. :( I hope to have that fixed before we leave otherwise I'll be one sad momma! If anyone has any ideas or has BTDT let me know what worked for you. We leave in 9 days!