More pictures of the Great Wall

A local man on the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall

 The squatty pottys...most tourist places have a western toilet as well as squatty pottys.  But none of the restaurants we have eatten at have had western toilets.  So, I am actually getting used to using the squatty potty! LOL!  The one above is NOT one I had to use...thankfully the ones at the restaurants have been cleaner. :)

 See how steep this part of the Great Wall is??  Man it was a workout.  The other couples with us went the opposite way on the wall as is was the easy section. 

 Angela, our guide, going up to the Great Wall

Beautiful views from the Great Wall.

The Great Wall...

Our first glipmse at the Great Wall!

It was AMAZING!  We rode up on a chairlift and honestly it didnt look that much different from the Smokies in East Tennesse except for the massive wall atop it.  Parts of it were SO STEEP!  Almost like climbing a verticle ladder and some of the steps were over 18 inches tall. 

 This picture was taken on top of a guard tower.

It was very warm today.  I wore short sleeves after the hike.

 Going down on the tobaggan.  If you pushed forward it would go faster but, it wasnt too fast and was alot of fun! :)

 The Millers are from North Carolina & have their adopted daughter from Vietnam with them.  Her name is Sydney and she is a hoot!  The other couple are the Downer's from Colorado & the chinese woman is our guide April and the Chinese man is our driver.

We had so amazing food!  Peking Duck was my favorite and I think might be a good alternative to turkey for Thanksgiving Day! :)  So I hope we can find some in Lanzhou!

This was in the middle of an intersection in Beijing...beautiful!

Song...

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Be sure to turn the music off on the bottom first.

I LOVE this song!  And it is exactly how Jason and I are feeling right now.  We have come so far....thank you Jesus for orchestrating it all!

We are in BEIJING!

Man I can't believe we are IN CHINA!  The birthplace of our daughter! 

We made it to Beijing about an hour and half ago.....I was SO VERY GLAD to see land!  There wasn't much to see on our flight over because we went north over Canada and the Siberia.  But to sum it up let's just say the airplane ride was interesting!  I think there were only 20 Americans on the plane and 500 Chinese. :)  seriously! They were all nice but, we couldn't communicate.  One woman kept trying to tell me something but, I never did understand her.  :) 

Occasionally I would get up and stand at the back of the plane just to have more room.  There were 2 ADORABLE little Chinese girls on the plane and one little girl would play peek-a-boo with me.  :)  She would laugh out loud and was just so cute!  It made me even more excited to get Charlotte!

So what was so bad about the plane ride?  Well the seats would barely recline at all....I was sitting between Jason and a Chinese woman and I started to get claustrophobic & just couldn't get comfortable. I think God knew what He was doing when He gave us 2 weeks here because it will take that long for me to want to get on a plane like that again!   The good thing about the flight back is that we will have the whole row to ourselves.

Beijing is very foggy today so what we have seen so far wasn't that impressive.  It had rained before our plane landed but I also think some of it it might be pollution.  I hope it clears some tomorrow....we are going to the Great Wall tomorrow and I would love some good pictures.

Well I am going to sleep...I promise to try and post an update atleast once a day.  We really appreciate everyones prayers for us during this whole journey & process!  Our God is an awesome God indeed for having selected just the perfect daughter for us 7,000 miles & half a world away!  It blows me away!

Love,
Kendra

Our last picture as a family of 5...right before we left for Nashville.

Our hotel in Beijing

Looking down the street from our hotel

Coming into Beijing

A tired Jason in Beijing....he just had the FUNNIEST  "conversation" with a woman about our room air conditioner! LOL!  Neither one of them could get the other to understand. :)

WE ARE LEAVING on a jet plane.....

YEP!  There were some times I never thought I would get to say those words!  We are leaving tomorrow! Here is what our 2 weeks will be like:

Tomorrow-Nov.15
4 p.m. We are driving to Nashville to stay the night so we can catch our EARLY flight

Wednesday-Nov. 16
6 a.m. Our flight leaves Nashville International Airport
Arrive in Newark at 9:08 a.m..
11:40 a.m. takeoff for Beijing
Midnight-(CST) we will arrive in Beijing-(it will be 2:35 p.m. in Beijing when we land)

Sunday-Nov. 20
9 a.m. (7p.m.CST) Flight to Lanzhou China
Noon-Plane Lands in Lanzhou
2 p.m. ?? WE GET CHARLOTTE (it will be around midnight Saturday night CST)

Friday-Nov. 25
Fly to Guangzhou China

Tuesday-Nov 29  (CHARLOTTE'S 2nd BIRTHDAY!)
3 p.m. -We will take a train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong (takes about 3 hours)
We will stay in Hong Kong for the night

Wednesday, Nov. 30
11:25 a.m. Flight from Hong Kong to Newark
(upon setting foot in Newark, Charlotte will be the newest American citizen!)
Arrive in Newark at 1:50 p.m.
6:15 p.m. take off from Newark to Nashville
We will arrive in Nashville at 7:30 p.m.!

The next post will probably be from China....unless I get some time on my hands once we get to Nashville tomorrow night.  I have alot of emotions right now and I would love to have a chance to write more but, my to-do list is long and I want to spend time with the boys.  Man it's going to be hard to leave them tomorrow.  The Lord has been with us through this entire process and I know He will strenghten me for the trip and that He will comfort my boys in the coming days. 

P.S.  I got the boys each a new cross necklace today to wear while we are apart(well just Drew & Ben-Will is way too cool for that!) and every time they miss me they are to hold onto their necklaces and pray. :)  The necklace that Ben picked out actually had a cross within a cross and they come apart.  So one you could give to someone else....he gave me one and he kept the other one....so sweet!