Beijing Arrival!

We arrived in Beijing after a 14 hour flight! The kids were bummed when the TV's on the black of the seats didn't work! Thankfully, we had our own electronics along and the ride didn't go so bad! 

When we got off the plane our guide Tom was there to greet us. He then took us to our hotel in this van! The weather is nice, it is in the low 80's. However, the smog is very bad. The cars were covered in dust and dirt. 

We checked into our hotel at about 4 in the afternoon China time (4 am at home). We changed into shorts and went for a little walk to a grocery store our guide had told us about. We had to get bottled water for brushing teeth and drinking (the water here is not safe enough to drink). This takes some getting used to! The store was not like a store back home. It was very small and authentic. The meat was not in packages, it was out in the open with no wrapping,kinda freaked me out!

 Brock found pig ears and chicken feet! While on our walk to the store we stopped at a KFC for a snack. Brock was excited to try the "Chinese chicken". While walking around I realized what a difference we are making in Braelyns life. I have been struggling with the fact of are "we really going to be giving her a better life" . my first impression of seeing how everyone lives here proved to me why God had called us to do this almost 4 years ago! We didn't see many children, more boys than girls. They are stinken cute!  Because of only about 3 hours of sleep on the plane we had a few "crabby DeWitts!" I'm pretty sure that comes from me because Jim doesn't require much sleep, so most of the kids take after me! Yikes :) We came back to hotel and showered. Blaire was the first one to sleep, she crashed out by 7! Brock was going strong(he slept more on the plane). He actually did some homework because everyone else was sleeping. We all were sleeping by 8! Jim had warned me at home that we would wake up during the night because we we wouldn't be used to China time! Of course I didn't think it would be me b/c I can always sleep. Well, he was right, I hate it when that happens. We were wide awake at 1a.m. So we popped a few tylenol pm and fell back to sleep! We could not get blog or facebook access last night but Jim was able to send a few emails. Our great friend Jane was able to help  us out with what we needed to do to get on the internet this morning! Thanks so much Jane :) Everyone was awake by 5 am this morning, certainly not like at home!  So off to breakfast and see what we want to do today. Brock had been looking on the internet at home and found a Panda house at a zoo that he would like to go to . We will see how far away it is and if it works for us to go! Thanks for everyones prayers. I can't believe this is really happening only 4 more sleeps and we get Braelyn!!! Yahoo :)