We are in Beijing!

Yeah, we finally made it to Beijing after 25 hours of travel, luggage and all! Thank you for all your prayers. We just made it to our hotel, Park Plaza Beijing, it's beautiful. The airport was beautiful with all glass arches; it was completely renovated in 2008 for the Olympics. Beijing reminds us a lot of NYC, but with even more people in a hurry (14 million and 4 million cars). Our guide while we're here is, Jack, a very outgoing man. They have 5 highway circles that surround the city, and each one is called circle road, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. :-) Interestingly, none of the highways run east to west or north to south.
During our travels, we met a bright young man who's a poly-statistic student at UAB, who is returning home for a brief visit with his family. Bao has not seen his family in 2 years and will not, for probably another couple. Pretty impressive, to graduate in 3 yrs. with an honors degree.... :-) We also met a wonderful older woman who was our seat mate for 13 hrs., Sh Don (sh wayh). She is Chinese American and is visiting China with a group of retirees from NYC. She was so kind to give us some black tea wafer cookies to save for a snack later. I got a couple of good laughs. We had two wonderful meals on our Air China flight. I received mine first, because they were vegan. Unfortunately for Rob, he did too! As you all know, he is a Carnivore. They mistakenly got his meal ticket confused with mine, so he received the same meals I did, instead of the beef/chicken/pork. :-( He was not a happy camper, but I was... he's hungry.

We're just about to turn in for tonight, it's 13 hrs. time difference here from AL. Tomorrow we have a big day planned with Jack, so we need our rest. Please pray for my sinus infection, if you remember, it's still bothering me quite a bit.


We can hardly believe that in three days we'll finally hold our sweet daughter, Nara Josette. Please pray for her as she gets ready for a huge transition - leaving her 'home', her friends, caregivers, routine. She will leave behind the only life she has ever known, to come with 'strangers'. We pray that she is able to feel safe with us and bond with us soon. She has been in the Xianyang SWI since she was 1 day old. Please pray with us for our boys, as we miss each of them, and pray about how they will each accept and transition to having their sister home. James 4:13


Wo ai ni ~


Ginny & Rob