A full day of touring

Today started early. We had to meet our guide Joy in the lobby at 9:00 a.m. This was really no problem at all as both Heather and I were awake at about 4:30 which is about 1:30 p.m. at home. I guess we're still adjusting to the time change.


We set out on the tour with all of the families in our group. Two of the families received their children yesterday. One family is adopting a 7 year old girl, the other a four year old boy. It was awesome to see these families with their new children. It made Heather and I really look forward, as if we weren't already, to getting Katie. We watched these two families adjust to their new kids all day. We watched the kids begin to adjust to their new parents. We were blessed as we watched.

Our first stop on the tour was a Coissione factory. We had no idea what this was when we started. Coissione is copper pottery that is hand painted in several enamel layers and baked. The process was very low-tech and primitive. The results were amazing. Really pretty, colorful artwork. The people creating it were very skilled artists.

 Next stop, The Great Wall. The pictures we took do very little justice to the awesomeness of this creation. The terrain the wall is built on is so steep it is nearly impassable already. It is unimaginable how someone could actually build a wall on top of these ridges. Some of the slopes on the wall which we walked on were at a 75 degree angle. We got a great calf workout. Words cannot descibe how amazing the wall was. There were also a ton of people there. On the way out Heather got yelled at by a vendor selling souvenier books when she used the wrong word for "no". The word she said meant no, but in a different context than this guy wanted to hear. We just kept walking as he called out to us in an angry voice. Oops

We arrived back at the hotel this evening at 5:30. We ordered pizza from pizza hut. Pizza Hut has great Chinese food. Tastes just like home. The only difference was that it was delivered by a woman on a bicycle who wouldn't accept a tip. The large pepperoni cost us 72 Yuan which is about $11. Not bad for Pizza Hut.

Tomorrow we see Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Then, we pack our bags for an 8:00 am flight Monday morning to Guangzhou. Katie will be delivered to us at 3:30 Monday afternoon!

One more day to Katie. We can't wait to meet her and introduce her to you. Until then...God Bless