Hockey and Hairbows

 

 

 

 

Hi All,

Today was our official first full day in Beijing. We have a great tour guide, Mei, who is awesome and is VERY informative. She has filled us in on a ton of Chinese history. First we woke up this morning around 6am and I started making phone calls to everyone back home via Skype (awesome service—love it to death—gotta have it in China). We then went down stairs and had breakfast (very good buffet—strange items) and then met Mei in the lobby at 9am. We then went to a jade factory which was totally cool and I bought the GENUINE jade bangle that I have been wanting for years and we got Mia a charm for a necklace that many Chinese parents give their daughters. After the tour and shopping we went to the Great Wall. It was amazing and truly a great wonder of the world. I was surprised to see not many Americans there and mostly saw Chinese from other parts of the country visiting the wall. Kevin did a great job and was able to climb quite a way up the wall. It was VERY steep and slippery so Kev did a great job on crutches. It was so funny because so many of the Chinese people looked at Kev so strangely when they saw him walking the wall. I think they thought he was crazy.

After the great wall we went to lunch at the Blue Copper place that makes famous blue copper. It was the most detailed craftsmanship I have ever seen. The labor that goes into these pieces is phenomenal and truly a work of art. I have pictures on our web album to check out the process—AMAZING!!! After lunch we went to The Temple of Heaven in the center of Beijing. It was cool but we were so tired and jetlagged by that point we were not as into it as we should have been.

After the temple, Mei took us to a Yunnan type restaurant that had dancers and great authentic food. The food was great and we enjoyed ourselves but then the most AMAZING THING HAPPENED!!!!! We were walking out of the restaurant and saw a couple with an Asian baby and I knew they must have adopted her. I asked them about her and we began talking. They said they were from Canada and they were in a group of 6. They said their log in date was 10-18 and I told them about us being skipped. She then said, “No way, I know who you are! You are the Christy who was skipped.!! I totally have been following your story and I know who you are.” I think I literally jumped up and down when she said that and I think Kevin was even more shocked. I then asked her if, by a small chance that one of the members of her group may have been Elizabeth from Canada who is on the DTC board and RQ with me (she had the same LID as I did and we chatted online often) and she said that there was an Elizabeth in their group and that she was down stairs at the restaurant. My heart just jumped!!! We went with them to the rest of the group and she introduced me as the Christy who was skipped and her whole group knew who I was and Elizabeth screamed—CHRISTY!!!!!! We hugged and were just laughing at the coincidence. It was just the coolest thing. We talked for a while and I got to meet the babies and they were ADORABLE!!!! Every one of them was doing well and just as cute as can be. Everyone in the group was so nice to me and we even took a picture together (I’m posting the one of the group as well as with Elizabeth). The whole experience just put me on cloud 9. It was surreal to be half way across the world and to meet someone in person that you have known online for years. I was just so happy about the whole experience!!
So, now we are getting ready for bed and we have another busy day sight seeing tomorrow. I will write more then. I have created a web album. The link is the picture on the left. If you click it, it will take you to the album and you can see all the photos for the day. I’m only going to post some of them on the blog but to see them all, just click the picture on the left.

Ethan and Owen, we miss you so much. We bought you some cool stuff today so we think you will like it a lot. WE hope you are doing well and we will call you after you get out of school. We love you tons!!!!

Mommy and Daddy