Monday morning

Breakfast at our hotel before we go get Braelyn!! We are pretty emotional. I started praying but immediately started crying so we ended with AMEN! We meet Paul(our guide) at 8:30 in lobby then off to civil office building to meet orphanage director and Braelyn. Then off for official family picture and Braelyns passport. Paul said a lot of paperwork today. We will post pictures when we get back! 

Forbidden City tour and travel day

 This picture was taken at the outer circle of the Forbidden City, a city palace built for the Emperor back some 600 years ago.  This site was massive and took 27 years to build.  Many thousands of Chinese visit this place daily.

 The group took a rickshaw ride to a Hutong village just outside of the city.  We got to see how they live in these small street homes.  Not enough room for our kids to play!

 Blake having fun bargaining with the vendors.  He said he felt like Nels Johnston buying this stuff much cheaper than they were asking.  He does a better job than his dad.

 This is Brock during our 3.5 hour flight to Kunming City, where Braelyn will be spending her last night at the orphanage/foster home.  As long as Brock has a movie player he could have traveled all the way back home and not of cared.  They all have been traveling terrific.

Arrived at the hotel about 9, and the kids were HAPPY to have American TV, not Chinese speaking TV.  All cleaned up and ready the the big day tomorrow.  Paul our guide will be picking us up at 8:30 tomorrow to go to the civil affairs office to meet and receive Braelyn.  We will have a busy day of paperwork, Braelyns passport and emotions.  Praying at breakfast this morning myself and Jim got very teary eyed and were struggling to hold it together.  We are packing the diaper bag as we type, have not done this in quite some time.  Hope all is well back home and will be posting some terrific pictures in the next 24 hours.  

A Day of Touring

 This was a lady in the Cloisine shop painting vases by hand.  They would also lay all the copper designs piece by piece.  Took 4-5 days to complete one.

 This was a photo taken in one of the lookout towers on the Great Wall.  Very steep steps up and down.  We walked all the way to the top of the wall to the last lookout tower.  Length of the wall is 4000 miles of wall and it took 200 years to build.  

 From the top of the side we climbed looking back to the army base and back up the other side of the mountain valley.

 Brock was a hit with all the ladies.  Maybe Blake should take him with more often when he goes out with his friends back home.  Several times the Chinese would want us to have their picture taken with us.  Brock was a good sport and did it quite well.

 This was the lookout tower at the top

 On the way back from the Great Wall, we stopped at the 2008 Olympic Village.  We walked around and took this picture of the water cube where Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals.

 Next to the cube was the Birds nest where the track and field and opening/closing ceremonies took place.  We remembered watching this with the McMahons back in 2008 at the cottage.  The Olympic village was enormous.  Many newer looking buildings and parks near by.  Different than other parts of Beijing.

 Guess what we had for supper?  The picture kind of gives it away, Duck.  Dad had to make the kids eat it, but after they did they said it was good.  I thought is tasted like Beechwood chicken.

 This was the first meal we ate without silverware, took us a little longer than normal, but very fun.  We still need some work with the chopsticks!

The entrance to The Roasted Duck Restaurant.

We had a very busy day, but it was Awesome. We were up by 6, breakfast and downstairs by 8 to load the bus. We had a 1 1/2 hour bus ride (traveling with 9 other families from Bethany) to the Cloisene  Factory. Very interesting how labor intensive the process is to make each piece. Then it was off to the Great Wall. Before splitting up as group to walk different sides we had a group prayer in the parking lot for safety and all our adopted children. We have met some great Christian families.   There are 2 sides to the wall our guide informed us. A steeper side and a not so steep side . Yep, you guessed it Jim said "we are going BIG and doing the steeper side".  So this mom of almost 5 tried to keep up with the 4 kids and Jim!  Lets just say my legs were burning and shaking but we did it!  The steps were very steep and uneven in certain sections it took about a hour to get up and half hour to get down.  With it being 90 out we treated ourselves to ice cream at the top!  The bus then took us to lunch with a Jade shop attached to it, a tourist trap.  The lunch was authentic chinese food it was very good, even the kids liked it. After some shopping we had a half hour bus ride to Olympic village. We walked around and saw the Birds Nest and Water cube and many other Olympic buildings. The area seemed very large and very busy with chinese visitors. We got  back to our hotel at 5:30.  We cleaned up and went to dinner. We pointed to pictures on the menu to order.  

Jim and I have been waking up during the night thinking about our little Braelyn and the adjustment we will all have including her leaving her foster family.  Shiyan from Bethany informed us that it is sometimes harder for a foster child because they have attached to a one family life vs. many caretakers.  She explained it is usually a rough couple of days at first but then the attachment will be stronger after that period.  We will leave tomorrow afternoon to fly to Kunming City 3 1/2 hours from Beijing, after a morning of sightseeing.  Our guide will pick us up and tell us what time we will get her on Monday morning.  So needless to say we have a lot of emotions right now.    Good night! 

Meeting other families and Acrobat show

This was at a McDonald's we found. These were delivery men! They had helmets and bags that they would take on their bikes to deliver the food!

The menu was a lot like the menu in America. We ordered chicken nuggets, burgers and fries. The food tasted a lot like at home! We also had McFlurries, they were very good too! 

On the way back from McDonald's we walked through a flea market. There were many many people there trying to sell us their goods. When we walked through everyone was staring at us! 

These two pictures were at the acrobat show. The first picture is a man that was balancing on chairs that he stacked. We sat on the second floor and he was as high as we were! In the second picture two performers balanced and did tricks as the "contraption" spun around!

Brock went for a swim today! He had to wear a swim cap in the pool.

This is the laundry that we had done by the hotel. Thankfully we got it back!

Early start today were off to the Great Wall (about an hour and a half bus ride) so we'll update you more tonight when we get back.

Busy day in Beijing!

 

We took taxis to the Beijing Zoo where the Giant Panda house is that Brock found on the internet back at home.

Ice cream at the zoo, it was super hot out , mid 80s.

There is an aquarium inside the zoo. We watched a dolphin show, narrated in chinese, didn't understand anything.

The Chinese people stared at us and a couple families asked us to have their pictures with us.  We saw less than 5 american families at the zoo. There were several children at the zoo, which we don't see around our hotel. They all were so cute. Made us wonder what Braelyn will look like, since it has been so long since we have received pictures.

While waiting for our Kung Fu show to begin we took a walk down the streets. Jim ("Clark Jr."- DeWitt family members you know what were talking about!) wanted to show the kids how good we have it in America. We saw how some of the people live.  It was very sad to see, especially when we saw a little girl playing with her grandma on a dirty bed on the side of the road. The houses were in very poor condition, there were poorly constructed homes and tents. It is hard to believe that they live there in the winter when the temperatures can drop below freezing. 

This was us in front of Red Theatre where we saw a Kung Fu show. We took taxis to the theatre to meet Tom's dad, (Tom is our guide). When we were walking around by the theatre a Chinese lady tried to sell Brody and Brock some lazers to play with. She wanted 400 yuan for two of the lazers at first, but Blake bargained and got her to sell them at 130 yuan (approx. $20). The show was very interesting. It told the story of a young boy joining a martial arts group and how he reached "enlightenment". The show lasted around an hour and a half. The kids were very tired and if it wasn't for the loud drumming and yelling they might have fallen asleep. On the way out the same lady that sold us the lazers wanted us to buy two more for only 100 yuan! They make up prices as they go. Good lesson for us :) We took public transportation (bus) back to our hotel.

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 :)

The Day Has Finally Come!

Left the house around 5:30 this morning! We have seven suitcases, one for each of us! :) our flight from GR was a good warm up for the big one to come! Our flight out of Chicago leaves at noon. It will be around a 14 hour flight, taking us to Beijing!