February 13, Monday

I was up the other evening very early and have a long post to send but for some reason I am unable to send it. I will email it to my dad and have him send it. It is Monday morning at 3:40am. I am in the downstairs lobby sending this message to you. I know, what am I doing up? Can't sleep, my internal clock is all messed up. More about that in the previous post that you have not read yet.

I feel horrible not posting daily, but we have been going nonstop since we arrived. I haven't had a chance to upload any pictures yet but will make a point of doing that today.

Yesturday we climbed the Great Wall. What an awesome feeling to be there. While on the top ( as high as they would allow in that section) I spoke to Mom and Max. Can you believe I was able to get a signal? It was very cold and my battery on the still camera would not charge because of the temperature, so I was unable to take any stills. But Zac took lots of video! There are two ways to go up, to the right is the harder way, so of course that is the way Zac chose. Then will still had time ,so he wanted to go up the hard way as well. I had a hard time keeping up with him.

We had a group lunch, it was good but not as good as the lunch at the summer palace. Same set up though. Then we tourrd the Jade Factory and on to Hutong Lane. Hutong means alley in Chinese. This is where the "common" people live. We toured it on the rickshaws. You will see a picture when I can post them. We had a crazy driver. We always started in the back and he would race and past everyone else to get to the front. Zac thought it was great, I didn't. It was very comical to see the street vendors hop on bikes and follows along side of us trying to sell us their wares. We were invited in to a family's house to speak with them through the translator and tour their home. None of the families living there have plumbing. The woman was very simple but proud. She said it was her honor to have us in her home. I was honored to be there. I can't say enough about how gracious the Chinese people are.

We got back to the hotel at around 6:15pm, we left at 8:15am. It was a long day! I showered for dinner and when I was done Zac was sound asleep in bed. He can't seem to stay up in the evenings. I woke him up to have dinner. We picked at our food and went up stairs to bed. There was an acrobatic show we could have gone to, which I heard is wonderful but we didn't have the energy. Last evening was called Sleepless Night in China. It was the last day of the spring Festival, Chinese New Year. The fireworks and firecrackers were going off nonstop, even with that, Zac and I were sleeping by 8:30pm. I of course woke up at 2:30am again. Not bad to have 6 hours this evening. I think I had a total of 8 thursday thru saturday.

We have a meeting here in the hotel this morning. We will be seeing updated pictures of the babies. I can't wait. Then we are scheduled to go to the Forbidden city and Tienanmen Square. Zac and I are torn whether we will go. We have seen both from the bus and are exhausted. We think a day off might be needed. We will be flying to Molly's province tomorrow and receiving her in the afternoon. I am trying to rest so that I will have enough energy to tend to her needs. BUUUT, coming to Beijing and not going! I don't want to regret it. I guess we will make our decision after lunch.

When I spoke to my Mom yesturday she informed me that there were many comments posted. Unfortunatley, I am unable to see the blog from China. They have restricted many sites. I will see them when we return. I am very grateful that I am able to post to the blog.

Max, it was great to speak with you, I miss you lots.