Beijing

Today was our first full day in China.  The 3 ladies are sharing one hotel room and we all found ourselves wide awake shortly after 5am.  We had all slept fairly well and decided to just get up and putz around our room until time to go.  

We had breakfast in our hotel and it was wonderful.  All kinds of comfort food from home (yummy waffles!) and traditional Chinese food (dumplings and steamed buns).  We loaded up on delicious food!!!  I also had an opportunity to talk with a couple from Texas who is adopting a 20 month boy through America World Adoption.  It was so fun talking with a family at this exciting stage in their journey!

After breakfast we headed to the Forbidden City.  It is a temple built for the emperor back in the 1400's. The history is amazing.  I wish I could step back in time to see how it would look back in the 1400's and 1500's. 

This is our team in front of the Forbidden City.  Jason, me, Lara and Miranda!

And this is our amazing guide Della explaining the details of the temple to Jason and Lara.

The details on these temples are just amazing.  I'm sure there is a great signifance to these animals that were on each corner of the roof.  I don't know what that significance is but I love the way they look.

Jason started his filming responsibilities and it was fascinating to watch him work.  Miranda has an interest in photography and she picked up several tips from him.  

Jason did talk our driver into allowing him to put his GoPro camera on top of the van.  I'm not sure the driver had ever been asked to do that before and we got some funny looks from people who noticed the camera on top of the car.

After the Forbidden City, we headed to the Great Wall and stopped for lunch on the way.  We went to the Juyong Pass of the Great Wall, which is about an hour outside of Beijing.  

The Great Wall is an amazing sight, no matter how many times you've seen it before.  It is such an iconic and well known image.  To see the enormity of it is just awesome.  Jason and Miranda raced to top while Lara and I stayed on more flat ground and people watched.

Dinner tonight was the traditional Peking Duck dinner.  The food was amazing!  Jason has kept us all laughing and our guide, Della, wondering just how to take him.  Jason invented a new game that almost got us kicked out of the restaurant.  The idea is to spin the lazy susan in the middle of the table while grabbing (with chopsticks) food off of as many dishes as possible. 

We decided stuffing food in our mouth wasn't the best idea so the game was modified to moving food to our plate.  Della took a turn and was remarkably well!  She assured us it was a new game she'd play with her friends.  

And then the waitress came over and told us we needed to quiet down.  Oops!

We've done a lot of laughing, which has really helped the team dynamics.  We truly have a great team and I can't wait to see how God is going to use this odd group of individuals in the coming week.

Tomorrow is another day of travel for us.  We leave Beijing and fly to our province.  It will involve 2 flights and a long layover.  We are all anxious to get to our destination city.  No one, not even our guide, has been to this area so the next few days will be new for all of us