Catching Up....Sunday, March 13, 2011

We arrived in Beijing around 5:00pm. Our guides from CHI (Melody & Jenna) met us at the airport and presented Gabi & Mollie with a big balloon, and Connie & I with beautiful flower bouquets. We collected our bags & loaded the bus to head to Tiananmen Square. After we walked around there for a bit, we went to the hotel (Radisson Blu) and met David Trask & Mike Shook from Show Hope. We checked in and then ate a light dinner at the hotel restaurant. By this time, we were all completely worn out. Most of our group didn't sleep much at all on the long flight. We had been up from 4:30am Saturday morning to 8:30am Sunday morning at home (28 hours). Steve & I had just dozed off when my Panda phone rang. I forgot to let Bruce Yee from One Hope know that we were at the hotel! We quickly dressed and went down to meet Bruce & his wife, Lillian. They brought us some more of The Book of Jesus to give as gifts at the orphanages. Thanks, Bruce! It didn't take us long to get back to sleep, thank goodness! We had a jam-packed week ahead.

Being at the Radisson Blu reminded us of our trip to China four years ago. We spent our first 2 nights there before. I remember that Grace fell asleep in the floor of the bathroom after I bathed her. I went to get her jammies out of her suitcase and came back and she was fast asleep. : ) Grace was 6 years old the first time she came to China. I recall that the last time we were planning to visit the Great Wall, I really just wanted to hurry and get through it so we could go get our baby.