Thursday, July 3, 2014

IN BEIJING CHINA

We have arrived and are safe and sound.  We are exhausted to say the least but safe.  We have been up for 36 hours now but are trying to stay up a little longer so that we can get acclimated to China time.  

Our flight was long but overall good.  It wasn't as smooth as I had prayed for.  There was a lot of turbulence but at least it wasn't major turbulence.  Halainah is a rock star traveller.  She was in all her glory on the airplane with a TV all to herself.  She never complained once.  We all slept around 1 hour on the plane and was up for the additional 13 hours.  

Halainah must have said, "this is the best day ever" about a bazillion times.  She has already fulfilled one of her special wishes for China and that was to buy an authentic Chinese fan.  And she found one with rainbow colors on it.  She's in all her glory.  She is absolutely amazed by the bright lights of Beijing!  We get a lot of stares from locals which is something we are very used to when we first adopt a child while in China.  It's weird this time around though because Halainah has been our daughter for almost 6 years.  We don't see her as being different at all. But with the stares comes a lot of thumbs up which is sweet.  

Once we landed our guide took us to our hotel.  We checked in, exchanged some money which is a lot different than the last 2 times we have been here.  Who would have known.  Travelers checks are not common here any longer and most hotels and banks won't exchange them.  Which is very ironic to me since I had not 1 but 2 dreams prior to China that I forgot to bring money with us and was stranded here without any money.  Hmmmm.  Anyway we did find a bank thanks to our guide and now we have some Chinese currency.  

Once we did that, we returned to our room and took a 2 hour nap.  We forced ourselves up and ventured outside to find something to eat.  Since it's our third trip to Beijing we knew which restaurants were our favorite.  I am LOVING showing Halainah her home country.  Her excitement and awe brings tears to my eyes.  She ordered watermelon juice with dinner and loved it.  Which is no surprise since that was her absolute favorite when we adopted her.

We are back in the hotel now and are going to call it a night very soon.  We will be touring The Great Wall of China tomorrow.

Oh....and when we checked in at our hotel there was a book waiting for us from our agency with an update on Colton.  It was so nice to see 2 new pictures of him and some more information about him. We are so excited to meet our little man.  He looks huge in pictures so I am praying that the clothes I brought him will fit him.  

We miss our little Ava terribly and struggle with our decision to leave her home with Grandma.  I know in my heart that this trip would have been a huge struggle for her.  But I also know that she would have loved China too.  Grandma...please tell Ava we love her to the moon and back and can't wait until we are all together as a family.  

Thank you for all of your prayers...we certainly felt them on the plane and the rest of our journey.  We love you all!!

Sorry...not a lot of pics today.  But here's one of Halainah relaxing in our hotel room trying to stay up.


The view of Beijing from our hotel room.

5 comments:

Aunt Ann said...

so excited to read your posts and know that half of the flying is over!!! Woo hoo!!! will keep you all in prayer ....
Love you!!!
xox
Aunt Ann

Anonymous said...

Glad you guys are safe & sound !!!

Anonymous said...

372633200So happy you guys have arrived safely in China !!!Enjoy your journey to bring Colton home. Stay safe & keep blogging. Love You -DAD

Anonymous said...

Have not had any luck yet getting thru to your hotel yet. Will keep on trying. Love you -DAD

Pablo said...

Glad to hear you guys arrived safely. I am very proud of you Halainah, I told you the plane would be awesome. We spent the night in Evanston, Wyoming. Not as fantastic as Beijing, but part of our journey to Portland. Enjoy your time in Beijing and order some fried bananas and apples to enjoy. Also liang ban huang gua- cold pressed cucumbers that are amazing.
Love,
Jiu Jiu and Tia Crystal