In which we get jelly legs and updates on babies!

Today started off rather early as David and I were both wide awake at 5 in the morning. David went to the exercise room (good boy!) and I stayed in bed. We went down to breakfast and had some time to kill so we took a walk around the block. It was really interesting. I need to find a new word. Everything can't be interesting. It was really FUN. How's that? Even at 8:00 in the morning on Sunday, people were out sitting and talking, smoking, sweeping the sidewalks and waiting for stores to open. We walked through a big mob of men who were apparently workers at the nearby expo center. The streets here kind of remind me of Paris as they are somewhat narrow and have many trees throughout. We also saw a nice park/playground and what we thought was a school.

We returned to the hotel and headed off to church. The church was called Beijing International Christian Fellowship and was held in a very large auditorium. We had to show our passports to get in because due to governmental rules, Chinese citizens are not allowed. There were a TON of people there. The music was very pretty and the service was bilingual--the minister would preach in English and then a man would translate into Chinese. The seats were SMALL and I felt like my legs were crammed into the space. We also took communion, which was nice.

After church was over, we went to the jade factory. They taught us about lustre and how to tell quality jade from not so great jade. It was EXPENSIVE. I did not get anything. Sorry, Maggie, you can get some not so great jade in Guangzhou. I found some cards with Maggie's full name on them in Chinese so I got those. When we got back on the bus, Amy had some exciting news for us! She had updates on all the babies! Here's the latest dirt on Lian Si Qi, aka Maggie! She is 27.8 inches long and weighs 17.5 pounds. She's still small! (Mom, we might be able to shove her in that bunting this winter after all!) Her head circumference is 16 inches and her chest circumference is 16.7 inches. Her feet are (get ready) 4.5 inches long! HEE! She has ZERO teeth, still! She eats 5 times a day--formula and rice cereal combined. She also likes fruit juice and egg yolk. They said she is a good eater. She wakes at 7 am, goes to bed at 9:30. She takes a nap from 11am-1pm and sleeps with the light off. Yea for that. They say that she is active and likes Legos and rattles with sound. She likes to play with other kids outside. Here's the best part: SHE IS STRONG MINDED. Um. David thinks karma is about to pay me back.

Then we headed to the Friendship Store for lunch, which is owned by the government so everything is certified. To be honest, it looked like a lot of crap to me. But, it was kind of fun to look around. Lunch was very good. We had these potstickers/dumplings that were DELICIOUS. David and I tried to hog the whole plate but our table was having none of that. They also had a kind of wine that was 56% alcohol. You drink it in little shot glasses that look like wine glasses. Jeff, Danielle, Lynn and I toasted our daughters and I slugged mine back. WHEW. It was STRONG. It burned all the way down to about my feet. Then we were off to the Great Wall.

The Great Wall of China is absolutely phenomenal. I don't know if I can even describe it. The area that we went to was beautiful with large mountains and green hills and trees everywhere. It was also rawther chilly and I had on a tank top. Later on, I was glad that I did because I was about to croak climbing up. Jackie warned us to use the restroom at the Friendship Store because the bathrooms aren't so great at the Great Wall. Guess who had to go to the bathroom when we got there. Shew, that was the skankiest bathroom I've ever been in. Let's just say I was glad I had some Kleenex in my purse. Okay, enough of that discussion. David and I planned to climb as high as we could so we set out. The stairs were incredibly steep and all uneven. Some were very short and some were higher than my knee. I was dying by the time we got to the first watchtower. We continued on to the watchtower right below the highest one. I couldn't go any farther and we were running out of time. David wasn't even out of breath. This old Chinese lady laughed at me because I think she was waiting for me to keel over. Going down wasn't that easy either. I felt like my feet were getting out of control and I was about to tumble down all the steps. I know my legs and and shoulders are going to be killing me tomorrow.




If any of you ever have the chance to come to China and visit the Great Wall, I would highly recommend it. It's indescribable, huge and absolutely beautiful.

Then we drove back towards Beijing and Amy started to talk to us about tomorrow and what to expect. We leave the hotel at 7 am and our flight to Guangzhou is about 2 1/2 hours. We will get there about 12. We will go to the hotel and leave for the Civil Affairs office at 3. We will meet the babies at 3:30. I'm starting to get scared. It's like the first day of school and all those kids are staring at you and you know that it's your job to teach them. They're going to hand me Maggie and it's going to be David's and my jobs to raise her. It's a lot to think about. Tonight is our last night as a family of two. (and David is dead asleep on the bed, still in his clothes and running shoes. BWA!) I just listened to Amy talk and looked out the window at Beijing. We headed for dinner which I was NOT hungry for. We had some good conversation and laughter at dinner though so that was fun. There were also these steamed buns that I could have eaten about a hundred of. That's mostly what I ate for dinner. Then we came back to the hotel and our luggage has to be outside our door at 10 for the bellboys to come pick up. David and I need to pack up all of our clothes and stuff and get our suitcases organized. (I just woke David up. He is not happy.) I guess we'd better get on that so I'll close. Keep us in your prayers.