We arrived in Beijing at about 3:30 pm, after a lovely plane trip of only 14 hours from Chicago and the additional benefit of our early morning flight from Nashville to Chicago. This day started out for us at 3:30 am in Nashville (at a hotel), we had to be at the airport at 4:30 for our flight out to Chicago at 6:30.
Trey and Dillon got up with us great and helped get our mound of luggage to the airport. We arrived in Chicago at approx. 8:30 and had a layover until we boarded the plane at 11:50 and took off at 12:20 pm. 14 hours later it was 3:30 in the afternoon in Beijing.
We had a neat flight over parts of Canada, the Arctic Circle, Siberia and Outer Mongolia. Our earth is one big planet! We went from bright sunshine leaving Chicago to a pretty sunset (that lasted for about 2 hours) at some point at the northern end of Canada, to nighttime over the Arctic and then a sunrise in Siberia and finally, day time over outer Mongolia and northern China.
Trey and Dillon did great on the plane, they finally slept for about 4 hours each towards the end of the flight and got down in the floor of the plane to watch their dvd players. They each have Ipods, DVD players, Nintendo DS Lites and books and games to play in their backpacks. Dillon pulled a tooth at 32,000 feet!
We saw floating sheets of ice in the oceans above Canada and the most other-worldly, barren landscape I have ever seen in Siberia and Mongolia. No trees for thousands of miles, just alot of nothingness for great expanses of time.
At the hotel, Trey wanted to sleep before dinner and he and Michelle took a "nap" beginning within 15 minutes of getting into our room, lasting until midnight. We were up from 12 -3, and then Dillon woke up at 2:30. Trey and I went back to sleep around 3:00, and Dillon stayed up for the duration watching movies and playing his Nintendo.
We all got up at 6:30 and got started with our day of touring Beijing. We began with Tiananmen Square, then on to The Forbidden City, and finished up with The Great Wall of China. The amount of people and buildings and construction going on (primarily in preparation for the 2008 Olympics) is AMAZING, as is the amount of pollution in this city. We have yet to see the sun and Terrell and I both are already beginning a lovely sounding smokers cough.
Words can't hardly describe the Great Wall of China if you haven't seen it. We went to one section today and walked up to one of the towers and it is an unbelievable place. Building the wall today would be a massive undertaking and doing in the time it was done is just unimaginable to me.
The Forbidden City is also a stunning architectural sight, and is immense in size. There were so many palaces and courtyards, we lost count.
Tomorrow is the big day!! We fly from Beijing to Nanchang at 11:30 am. Shortly after arriving and checking into the hotel, we will take a fifteen minute bus ride to the Center for Adoption Affairs office, where we will finally get to meet and hold Coee in our arms. Please pray for the best transition possible for her. We can't imagine how frightened she will be, but hopefully it will go as smooth as possible and she will warm up to us quickly.
For the kids at Lone Oak elementary, we will have a "question of the day" that you can answer in the comments.
Trey and Dillon's question of the day:
How long is the Great Wall of China?
