Another Great Day in Beijing!

We've had another great day in Beijing! This morning we visited the Living Hope Orphan Training Center and the Great Wall of China. The training center is for kids who are not legally eligible for adoption. They live in a group home and are trained in the arts. Kids without family and education do not have many opportunities here and the training center gives the a much needed leg up. After the kids performed a couple of songs on their violins, we made our way to the Great Wall and Pete made it past the fourth tower! I, on the other hand, needed a defibrillator before I made it to the second tower. Sophie jumped the wall like a mountain goat, but was ready to go down and look in the shops! That's my girl! We saw many different types of people negotiating the Great Wall, some in better shape than others, but my personal favorites were the ladies from Germany hiking the wall in high heels! The pictures do not do this wall justice...it is STEEP! After my CPR session, we went to lunch at the Friendship Store, a state run restaurant and cloisinne factory. By "Friendship" they mean come in and hand over your money! We were content to look around and save our buying power for Guangzhou, where the prices are cheaper and I can buy another suitcase! After lunch we drove to the Olympic Venues and took pictures of the Bird's Nest where the Opening Ceremonies will take place. Then we went on to the Silk Market, which was more like a Flea Market. Pete had to sit down after only two floors of "Hey Lady..come in and lookie lookie." That's just not his cup of tea! Sophie, however, loved it!

So tomorrow is the big day...we will finally meet Lily! We will go to the airport at 6am and catch our flight to Xian. After we check into the hotel we will get our papers together and go to the Civil Affairs Office where Lily will be united with her Forever Family! I hope she doesn't scream and run away when she sees us! I'm sure there will be tears because she will be leaving all she has ever known to go off with some goofy looking strangers...I'd be scared of me, too! I just hope the bonding is quick and lasting.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers...we are really enjoying our time here and so far have had no ill effects from food or water. (No Mao's revenge yet!!!) Of course we will post ASAP tomorrow so we can report on the introduction.

Tonight we attempt to pack everything back in the bags that are only supposed to weigh 44 pounds...Good Luck on that!