CHINA May 19-20-Travel Days and Hit the ground runnin' in Beijing

Welcome to our adventure.  You'll have to go back a few posts if you want the full story, but the short story for those just joining us now, is we are adopting 2 kids age 11 and 12 from China who were friends of our son Lucas when he lived in China the first 7 years of his 11 year old life.  He advocated for us to bring them home and prayed them into our family.  

One year ago on May 25, 2014, Peter, my husband heard the Lord say to him, "Do You Believe or not?" And exactly one year later on May 25, 2015 we will be bringing them into our family on their "Gotcha Day".  

So

We headed out on Tuesday, May 19---packed up and ready to go.  (thank you Jon Sanders for driving us to the airport). The flights went well--total air time about 15 hours.  We met Lilli, Peter's sister, and Isaac, our 20 year old in Dallas for the long flight over.  

We all have been filled with anticipation, and butterflies, and hesitation, and wonder, and joy and craziness.  So Here we go...

We met our guide Susan for the first time, at the airport in Beijing waving a sign and found out after spending 3 days with her that she was THE most AMAZING guide EVER!  She's been involved with adoptive families and tour guiding for 19 years.  She knows adoptive families and kids like nobody's business and she is fun and extremely knowledgeable about Chinese history, and adoption.  Just amazing.  Here she is with Lucas, who she had by the hand most of the 3 days we were in Beijing.  Laughing, and being goofy and loving on him so well.  We miss her already.

As soon as we arrived in Beijing we freshened up and hit the road for an authentic Peking Duck dinner.  Jet lag caught up with Lucas who slept through the entire meal.  Poor sweet boy.

Guess who showed up at the Peking Duck dinner?  Anyone else think this is funny?

We were fed A LOT of food.  And the Duck comes at the end of the other 6 dishes you order, so it's completely crazy...

All of us were about to lose our cookies when our guide explained the significance of eating the head of the duck...lol.   Our first meal in China and they split open the duck head...ok....

After dinner, which Lucas didn't eat, we strolled the streets close by and found a cotton candy maker who sold this to Lucas.  Yes, that whole thing is cotton candy and yes he slept through dinner.  Wow are we great parents.

A little bit of the street life.

  

And then we went back to the hotel, Novotel XianQiao Beijing, and crashed.  With all that activity, the days and nights all blur together.  But, we woke up bright and early the next day to go to The Great Wall....