Beijing, Day Three

Today was amazing, beginning with the church service. I couldn't believe I was actually in a "theatre" (by order of the "police station," they are not allowed to call it a church) where the Word of God was being taught, and people were worshipping freely in CHINA(!), however it was only because this place was designated for non-Chinese citizens. I believe most were tourists. Not even our tour guide, Maggie, was able to go in. She sat out in the bus and waited for us. Worship songs were sung in both Mandarin, as well as English. The message was delivered in English, then translated into Mandarin. I've never been to church where I was frisked, had my bags searched, had the wand thingy, had my bottled water confiscated, and had to show my passport in order to be allowed in.

After church, we were taken to a Jade Factory, where we saw many beautiful hand-carved works of art. The men carve; the women polish....hmmm, sounds familiar. ;) Also, we went and saw how the Chinese cloissinne is made, and had another chinese lunch. After lunch, we went to The Great Wall. Thankfully, the skies were almost clear, so we could see a long way. When we started up, there were 2 paths you could take..."Left" was the steepest and hardest to climb, but there was hardly anyone going. "Right" was not as difficult, but most of the crowd was going that way. Well, of course, we chose the "Road Less Traveled!" And the air is thin! Our ears were popping enough just on the bus ride up the mountains to where we began our climb. Where there were actually steps, they were very high. Other parts were just a VERY steep walk. Let's put it this way, if someone was only 5 or 6 steps ahead of you, they were ABOVE you. The pictures below do NOT do it justice....We had a great time and were in awe of the scale, history, and the scenery you could see from the highest point that we climbed.

We finished off the day with another traditional Chinese Peking Duck dinner. Another great day!

A funny note: Peyton now has 2 new buddies from our travel group, Eli and Mason....."Eli and Peyton!" And Mason's nickname is "Mater," so they are "Mater and Tater!"

NOW, to WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR: "Gan Li Ming!" This day is over. Phillip and Peyton are snoozing away, and this very "pregnant" mom is pacing the hotel floor, labor pains are very close together, I'm packing my little bag of baby stuff for the "hospital," and wondering what tomorrow will hold... Will she like us? Will she hate us? Will she scream her little head off? Will I be in a puddle before we even get there? How long will it take us to get that first giggle out of her? Is she well? Is she sick? Will her caretaker grieve as she hands her to us? Will we get it all captured on video? What do we do next? I'm kind of a wreck at the moment....Exhausted from the past few days, but wide awake with wonder. We have to check out and head for the airport early in the morning. We've been told that, upon arriving in Jiangxi, we will probably be taken straight from the airport to The Civil Affairs office of Nanchang, where we will receive our babies. We don't know yet if the government is going to allow us a visit to her orphanage... but boy do we all want to go! We plan to beg tomorrow.

Well, that's it for now...here is some of our day today: