August 19th

1 Corinthians 2:9

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Hopefully we are all tuned in ok now! It appears that some people, no names mentioned., are a little computer challenged, and did not get the whole concept of the website. Click on each day! oh well, we love you all anyways! And it was WAY more than 1 of you!

Last night we had dinner at the Outback Steakhouse with 5 other families in our travel group. It was fun spending time with them getting to know them better. And of course the comfort food of home was nice to! I had alice spings chicken w/ a baked potato, how funny is that in the middle of China!

Today started early for me again. Up at 3:45 AM. But my sleep is sweet and starts early so I can't complain. We headed out at 830 for Tiamen Square. Today instead of the small Chinese looking bus, we got the big grand tour bus since we are now our entire Hunan group. We knew when we got off, today was MUCH warmer than any other day. And crowded, there were SO many people. So we walked around the square w/ sweat rolling off of us. Then headed to the Forbidden City. I have to say, today, I was just not into the tours. I feel I have seen what I wanted to see, and now I am ready to go for the whole reason we are in China. I am VERY thankful we had the extra tour days. I enjoyed those days so much. We had great weather, I was so excited to be here... Today, my heart was just not into it. I am just ready to hold Sage. So as for what we saw, I have no idea! Thankfully we have a book that gives all those details. It was hard to concentrate as the sweat rolled into my eyes! It is hot. I would say it feels very comparable to a hot day in St Louis, but the only reason I hang around outside in St Louis is if I am in a pool. Things were better after lunch. We ate lunch at the Roasted Duck Restaurant. It was 300 years old and it was served family style. Yes, I ate the duck. They made these little taco things out of it and I just convinced myself it was turkey, looks very similar! They did have really yummy egg rolls! After lunch we toured the CHI office here in Beijing. That was very neat to get an idea of where they all work. Oh one neat thing about our guides.. We were able to meet Sabrina today. She will be our guide the entire trip. She flies w/ us, stays in the hotels etc.. VERY sweet girl! First thing she says is, I am a Christian! Now what are the chances that you come here to this land, and hear those words? I am VERY excited to get to talk w/ her more about her faith. We consider it a TRUE blessing and answer to prayer that we would end up w/ her.

I did have to use a squatty potty today at the Roasted Duck. Do you know what those are? You can go back and look through our first days pictures to see one. It is a womans toilet. they are in stalls, and it is flat on the ground. They do flush. I don't get it, I really don't. Why would you want to use that? Everywhere else we have been, they have had both types of toilets. I guess when the place is 200 years old, we should be happy to get a toilet! Anyways, it was an experience I will never forget, and I hope one to never repeat!

After the CHI tour we went on to the Great Wall. I am going to have to admit here how I failed at the Wall! I did climb part of it, and from what I am told, I climbed the hardest part of it. But WOW!! I had heard the stories and knew it was steep, but I did not imagine how steep and uneven it was. Mark made it really far. I probably could have made it farther, after I could pick myself up off the floor and breathe again, but pain for tomorrow had me worried. Lets just say I climbed far enough to buy a tshirt that says I climbed the great wall, I saw some beautiful views, and I happily sent mark up farther to get more video and pictures! What I wanted was the trolley that would drive me up and the toboggan to bring me down, but that was no where in sight. Besides me being a failure, it was really amazing to be there. That is the one sight that I was most excited about. To stand there on that wall, and to look out and see God's creation, it was beautiful. Knowing we stand there under that sun which He created and is ALSO shining over our baby's head. (well at least over her orphanage, who knows if she has even been out in the sun!) Just a sweet thought! So it was neat to go, though I did not climb the entire thing.

They did drive us past the Olympic Park, where there is lots of construction going on for the upcoming Summer Olympics that will be here in Beijing 2008. It is amazing what they are building. We got alot of neat pictures. One guide told us that the government would be giving people free vacations to STAY HOME during that time, because it will be so congested here. I can only imagine. It is congested now!

For dinner we walked to Pizza Hut! It was a very fancy pizza hut. We had dinner w/ Vinnie and Lori who live near Tampa, Florida. Lori and I have been chatting online for awhile now so it has been great to finally meet her. Their daughter Emily is the same age as Sage! The pizza was good, pretty much the same to me. We paid $8 for a large pizza and 2 sodas, and they do not accept a tip. Ordering was quite fun. You can tell they are totally making fun and laughing at us! Oh well, we probably deserve to be laughed at!

While walking out of our lobby for dinner we met 2 families w/ babies! They are from Holland and their consulate is here. Beautiful baby girls and they looked very happy! Had fun chatting w/ them for a few minutes. To think here we are w/ people from all over the world for the same purpose.

The highlight of the day for me was getting the rest of our schedule and just talking about the babies. We are supposed to meet Sage on Monday at 11am. That would be 10PM Sunday for you all, but I will not be able to post probably till later that day, so when you all get up on Monday morning, you should see her! Tomorrow we fly to Changsha. She is in Chenzhou, which is 5 hours from the hotel. It does not sound like we will be able to make the trip to her orphanage. I had hoped so, but Sabrina said w/ the flooding, it would be very difficult and we do not really have any free days. I am hoping that I can get some pictures of Chenzhou from other families who have been there, as I really want those for Sage. We leave here tomorrow at 11. Sabrina said she will have updates on the babies and their schedules, we are very anxious to have that! She said she would take us shopping to get formula etc. So though I had hoped that we would get the babies tomorrow, (it is Sage's 9 month birthday), it will give us the day to unpack again, get supplies ready, etc.. Do you think we will actually sleep tomorrow night? Please continue to pray for Sage as she makes the journey to us. I can't imagine 5 hours of travel for them. And if we can't get to their orphanage, how do they get to us safely? So if you would, please lift her up as she travels, I am sure she has NEVER traveled before. Pray for us as we fly again tomorrow. And just pray that our transition goes smoothly.

I have neglected to update on our kids at home... We have not had the chance to talk to them but one time. Between the time change and them being in Branson all week, I knew it would be hard. But yesterday I did call, and we talked for a few minutes, but they were in such a hurry to get to the Dixie Stampede, they were rushed. It is good to know we are missed and they are crying their eyes out over us! They are now back from Branson and will be going to 6 flags w/ Mark's parents this weekend. I know that Makenna made the right decision to stay home. She would be starved, hot and bored to tears here compared to the fun they seem to be having!

So much to tell, one last thing.. My aunt wrote and asked about the pictures and the air being cloudy. It has been somewhat cloudy, but I do think it is the smog. I have not noticed that I have had any trouble breathing or w/ allergies at all. But I know there air quality is very poor.

And one thing our guide Lillian (another Christian who was our Beijing tour guide only) kept saying was "time for Lillians Blah Blah". Mark said he thinks that is probably how you all feel by the time you get to the end of my books each day, Shannon's blah, blah, blah!!! We know all you really want to see are pictures of Sage, and believe me, we are ready to show you those to!