Beijing October 17, 2008

Wow! What a first day. We are doing very well and can feel all of the prayers on our behalf. Thank you all! We finally got to bed at about 11:00 pm local time (11:00 a.m. your time). We literally fell into bed. We woke up about 8:00 am feeling pretty good. We went to breakfast in the hotel, where we met up with our social worker. She's more than that really, she's our friend. It was so wonderful to see a familiar face. She's here working for Bethany right now. We love her!! Talk about celebrity, she's 6 feet tall and thin with light hair. We then went to an orientation meeting and got the scoop on our itinerary. There are 9 families in our group and all of them are great people. Three couples have no children and are adopting their first child. They are amazingly warm hearted and I can't help but get teary every 5 minutes. But you know me!

We laid down for a while and then our adventuresome friend said "let's go to the open air markets". So, we went. There were 4 of us ladies and the token man, Aron. Thank goodness he was with us. I'm not a chicken, but there are a lot of street vendors who ask if you would like to purchase. I must look like the sucker of the group because I had 900 of them approach me. Don't look them in the eyes or you're a goner. A couple of them even touched my arm to get my attention. I was a bit freaked out, but Aron was my protector. The market was incredible. My sis would have gone nuts!! Aron bartered for a jade ring and pendant for me for 100 yuan, which is about $15 US dollars. We also bought gifts for family back home. We only had a couple of hours to shop so we will try to sneak back tomorrow.

At 4:30 in the afternoon we went to see the Chinese acrobats. They are freakishly flexible. They did everything from juggling to riding 12 on a bicylce. It was really neat. No pictures allowed. Oh I forgot, we also went to the grocery store for fresh water earlier in the day. That was an adventure in and of itself. I had my camera around my neck and our wonderful Joy had to tell me to put it away. No pics in the grocery store in case competition sees them. There is NO personal space in China. If you leave room for a little body to sneak in they will. So squeeze tight. I could count the freckles on the man behind me he was so close. Anyway, our little group all managed to get what we needed, yes Mom we bought bottled water, don't worry! and Oreos too! Well, our little Joy just ordered Pizza Hut for us. Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall and Forbidden City. 5 days until we meet Aron J. Xuyuan Palmer!!