We are in Guangzhou

I survived yet another flight so I have to give thanks and praise for that. No matter how many more flights I have throughout my life, I will never get over this paralyzing fear of flying. We had no idea that Guangzhou was such a large city. Thirteen million people!! Our guide gave us our schedule for tomorrow and she is picking us up at 1:30pm to go get Anna. Even though we have been here a couple of days, it still seems very surreal that after all of this time, we will meet our daughter tomorrow. Please pray that Anna is O.K. tomorrow. I feel prepared, but I have no idea how she will react. Tomorrow night we will post pictures. We did not do much exploring today. I seem to hit a wall around 4pm daily (following van rides.) I know I said this already but driving is CRAZY here and since I get car sick, the van rides pretty much do me in. The Marriot is very nice so we are happy to hang out in our room and relax before tomorrow. The next time I post, we will new parents again and a family of 6!

Beijing pictures!

Beijing sightseeing

Day 1:
I'm going to let Brian write part of this post for Mrs. Heinicke's class so he can give some of the history we learned today. We met another couple from Nashville and we all spent the day with our guide at Tiennamen Square, The Forbidden City and The Great Wall. Our guide Cindy was fantastic and so knowledgable on the history of Beijing. It is so different and amazing to be around culture that is hundreds of years old. Everything here was built for a purpose and all words have so much meaning. The colors and architecture were beautiful. In downtown Beijing it feels much like any city but once we were out we quickly realized how drastically different this culture is from our own. Driving is a serious hazard. You make your own lanes-cars, bicycles and people all share the same road space- and somehow it all flows. Food is very different. I can't imagine trying to be in a restaraunt without a guide to order for you. We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day and I'm so glad we chose to come here first. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou for the duration of our trip.
Here is Brian's history lesson:

The Great Wall was built over 2500 years ago and is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. After several modifications and extensions, it now measures over 3,800 miles of actual wall (that is bigger than the distance across the continental United States). It was built to protect the Chinese people from invaders from the North as its height and watchtowers allowed the Chinese archers an advantage over the invaders.

The Forbidden City is the palace of the former emperors (rulers) of China. It contains over 900 buildings and over 8,700 rooms (which means you could live in a different room each day of your life from birth to age 27). Almost all of the buildings have roofs which are colored yellow which was the official color of the emperors. It is the largest surviving palace complex in the world.

We are here!!!

We made it. We are in Beijing and exhausted. Tomorrow we will head out for a full day of sightseeing including The Great Wall. I will post pictures tomorrow when we get back to the hotel. I wish I had more to write but we've been awake for 24 hours now and I can barely think.

Blessings and Prayers

I meant to post this before I left but I was so busy, it just didn't get done. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family that have been a large part in making this journey possible. We are blessed to have family and friends that will be watching our children at home, loving them, taking care of them, and making sure they are O.K. without Mom and Dad. Thank you so much mom for watching our kids. I am grateful to all of my friends that will be stepping in for playdates and carpool. I am thankful for my Sunday school friends who are providing meals for my family. I am eternally blessed to have such an incredible best friend who will do whatever it takes to make sure I am O.K. on this journey. Again, thank you to all. We can't wait for you to meet Anna. So many have told us how blessed this little girl is to be coming into our family. I wish I could say I feel the same way but the truth is that I feel that we are the one's blessed. Anna is our blessing.
Please keep us in your prayers these next 2 weeks. While this is an amazing journey for us, it will be a difficult one for Anna. She is leaving everything she has ever known and coming into a completely new life. Please pray that God is preparing her heart for this transition. Please pray that our children at home are happy. Please pray that I allow myself to take in everything about this trip and focus on my time here without being too heartbroken about missing my kiddos. Thank you for all your prayers and positive thoughts.

Countdown to China

One week from today, we will have met our daughter and officially become a family of 6. Instead of looking at the same 6 pictures of Anna throughout the day, I will be watching her, holding her, loving her and learning about her. Our children here will be able to talk to her on Skype and she will see them. Amazing isn't it!!
We started the packing process last night. Luckily we are both light packers and I am planning on doing laundry once or twice there. It's a daunting task but I keep telling myself they do have stores there right?
I've been working on a binder for my mom on the kids. I think I'm done- it's about 50 pages long. Every hour of every day for the kids is detailed. How to put them to bed, what they like to eat, how to get to all the parks, medical releases, phone lists...everything I could think of. I've sent a ton of e-mails to all the people involved with the kids on schedules and contacts. I know this is a bit overboard, but I need to do it for my own peace of mind.
I have today and tomorrow, then were off. Unbelievable.

Happy Easter

What a beautiful day. We spent the afternoon with extended family and the weather was perfect. We have done Easter egg hunts in winter coats but today was 83 and sunny. Thank you Jesus for this glorious day.

Decorating sugar cookies on Saturday afternoon with friends.

Easter morning. Breakfast menu: marshmallow peeps and chocolate!

Smile. Yes, Mom is taking pictures AGAIN.

Posing with our cousin Bryce. Aren't the boys cute? Carter and Bryce are 5 days apart in age.

The great Easter egg hunt

All the cousins together.