First stop, Tiananmen Square.
Right there with Tiananmen Square, was the Forbidden City. This place was HUGE! We moved very fast through our tour due to the weather, so I missed most of the commentary about this place. But, it was built for the Emperor, to glorify the Emperor. I would love to go back on a better day weather-wise and be able to take it all in. But, here are some pics:
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| For the Emperor, to glorify the Emperor. So sad to think this was all build for just 1 man. |
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| Every building had very detailed and beautifully painted rooflines. |
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| The picture is very dark, so it's hard to see how detailed and ornate the ceilings are. |
As you can probably tell from the photos, weather was not on our side. We woke up to below freezing temperatures and freezing rain. By the time we were done with our tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, we were all so cold and wet that we didn't want to continue with anymore out door sightseeing trips. So we had lunch and headed for an indoor tour of a silk factory. Unfortunately, the actual factory was outside the city, so we didn't get to see the actual making of the silk for which China is so famous, but we did get a lesson on the life cycle of a silk worm and how they take the cocoon of a silkworm, unwind it to get one very long strand of silk, combine it with several other strands to make silk thread, then weave it into silk cloth. It was pretty neat, and, of course (as was becoming a pattern) we were given the opportunity to buy. :)
After the silk factory, we headed back to the hotel to get a head start on the repacking process. Then dinner at the Peking Duck restaurant, then back for the night.
Right before we left the US, we received a new video of Caleb from our agency. America World has a missions department as well, and there had been a missions team (most of them from Georgia) at Caleb's umbrella orphanage for the week prior to our arrival. It was so awesome to get this video and only made us more eager to get to him. Well, come to find out, this team was flying back home on Sunday, but had an over-night layover in Beijing Saturday night, so they were staying at our same hotel. So after dinner, we were able to meet the team, along with 2 other families from our group also adopting from that orphanage. What a blessing! We were given new pics, new videos, and heard all kinds of new tales concerning our kiddos. Then the team prayed over us, our children, and our families. It was such a sweet time of community with our sisters in Christ and was such a wonderful gift from God.
Sunday came, and it was time to fly to Caleb's province. We woke up to chilly temps, but so far so good. We got to the airport, checked luggage, paid for weight overages, got our boarding passes, said good-bye to our guide, Eve, then boarded our plane. By now it was snowing pretty good, but things were moving forward, so we stayed hopeful. We ended up needing deicing before we could take off, but take off we did!
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| Snow piling up on the window of our plane. |
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| The deicing machine getting our plane ready to take off! |
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| More deicing going on. |
Thank the Good Lord!!! We heard later that a crazy number of flights were cancelled that day. We were so very thankful to get off the ground and get to Guangdong! We arrived at the airport and were greeted by Helen - the most phenomenal guide in China! She has been doing adoptive family guide services for more than 30 years. She has it down to a science and knows what we need to do, when to do it, and exactly how it has to be done. Add to all of that the fact that she is an absolute mess! She has us in stitches constantly. I already wish we could pack her up and bring her home with us! Helen took us to our hotel, went over a few specifics, then took us to lunch at a Noodle shop downtime street. Oh! My! Word!!!!! These noodles! They were soo good!!! Plus, it was so cheap! Jodie and I could've shared because it was so much food, but even without sharing, we ate lunch for less than $7! Yes, I do see more of this in my future! We will, after all be here for 10 days!!!
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| The best noodles I have ever had - evah! |
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