We made it!!!!

We have been here almost 3 days and this is the very first time I have been able to sit down and update you all!  I'll give you a brief recap:

Monday 10/24

We woke up at 3 am (me at 2 am)  to get ready for our trip.  This is after going to bed around midnight because packing early is for people who are just not like me.  Procrastination is how I roll.  The kids were more than a little disoriented to be getting up mere hours after going to bed.  Julieta (who never complains) stood in the middle of the living room floor and cried, "I AM JUST SLEEPY."  Bless it. 

We arrived at the hotel around 4:30 am to begin the check-in process.  My parents and my sister met us at the airport to take Julieta and Jude with them after our departure.  It was a seamless TSA experience but it was heartbreaking to leave the J's behind.  Our flight departed at 6:20 am and was only a couple of hours to Detroit.  Since we had a 6 hour layover, we took advantage of sitting down and eating our last American meal for a while.  Then we boarded for our 14 hour flight!  It was long.  Oh, so long.  I realized just how old my knees were on this flight.  Because of my oldness and my excitement/adrenaline, I slept a grand total of 1 hour on this flight.  By the time we claimed our luggage, went through customs, met our driver, got to our hotel to eat a little and grab some showers and fell into bed, I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep in the previous 49 hours.  Zombies. We were mere zombies.  Despite all that, I was restless all night.  Excited?  Nervous?  Or just because Brant and I had Gavin and Reese in the bed with us all night?  I'll let you decide. 

Last photo as a family of 7!

How Reese spent out Detroit layover

Renaissance Beijing Wangfujing - Can you even believe we are staying here for FREE????

View from our hotel window in Beijing

Wednesday 10/26


^^See what I did there? It was Tuesday when we arrived in Beijing which is 13 hours ahead of you guys back at home in Central time. So you don't get a Tuesday recap except:  flying, then flying and some more flying.  Wednesday morning we woke up and had a great breakfast at the hotel.  We are staying at the Renaissance Beijing Wangfujing which is stunning, clean and modern.  We were able to book our room for free using points we earned on a credit card (which we paid the balance on in full.)  Then we added on executive privileges (full breakfast, afternoon snacks, dinner and drinks) for only $60 per night for all 5 of us!  It is saving us a fortune on food. Our driver and guide arrived about 9:00 am for us to head off to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China.  It is a further drive than some of the other areas we could have visited (1 1/2 hours), but has more of the original structure, less tourists and has a toboggan ride down!   By the time we had listened to quite a bit of the history of the wall, Reese was done so the adrenaline rush from the slide was much appreciated by all of us!  Our guide then took us to a nearby restaurant and it was just simply delicious.  The Bigs are so good about eating adventurously and tried everything put before them.  It was all served family style, and they are becoming pros with their chopsticks.  Reese is subsisting on white rice and Sprite outside of the hotel.

Gavin and our guide, David, riding the chair lift to the Great Wall

Simply stunning

On the Great Wall

My boys!

After battling the traffic in Beijing for several hours, we arrived at our next destination: an acrobatic show.  It was obviously a local attraction as we were the only non-Asians in the entire theater.  Before the show began there was some sort of live infomercial/auction/game show or something on the stage. We were seriously lacking some context which made it hilarious for us :) The acrobatic show itself was nothing short of spectacular.  Reese was enthralled and it made for a good evening before we returned to the hotel for another night of trying to reset our body's clocks.  We end up going to bed early and waking up WAY early, especially Brant and me. 

Thursday 10/27


We breakfasted again and then were picked up by David (our guide) at 8:30.  Today's first stop was the Temple of Heaven.  It is a 600 acre park originally built in the early 1400s for the emperor to worship.  It is also a place where many people...mainly retirees during the day....come and play games, exercise, socialize and bring their grandchildren.  Grandparents provide the childcare for the grandchildren while the parents work.  It was one of my favorite places so far.  I am SO impressed by the physicality of these grandparents and have decided this is why the Lord did not make me Asian.  They are IN SHAPE!  Seriously impressive. 

Tai Chi in Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

At Temple of Heaven

They don't joke around with their games.  I'm certain I heard "boo-yah" in Mandarin.

Exercise and massage park in Temple of Heaven

Ribbon twirling in Temple of Heaven

Brant and Reese at Temple of Heaven

After the Temple of Heaven, we headed off for a tour of the traditional Chinese hutong.  This is a system of homes built around a courtyard that historically several generations of the same family would share.  All but about 2 - 3% of the hutongs were destroyed during the cultural revolution so it was something special to see.  Our guide arranged for us to eat in the home of someone who lives in one of these hutongs.  It was, yet again, an amazing lunch and such a unique experience.  I felt so blessed that they opened our home to us.  The daughter of the man who cooked for us is a local artist who has carried on an ancient art tradition of painting (from the inside with a tiny brush) glass bottles that used to hold the opium for the emperor and his concubines in historical time.  She was so talented and kind.  She even let the children try their hand at it.  From their hutong, we travelled via pedicab to look around the hutong area a bit more. 

Lunch at the hutong

Our Beijing guide, David.



Local artist painting snuff bottles

Traditional hutong courtyard

Gavin and David in pedicab

Next we went to the Imperial Garden to get an aerial view of the Forbidden City which was impressive to see.  Then we went on to Summer Palace.  I truly wish we had more time to spend at Summer Palace.  It was a quick visit because it started raining heavily and was extremely cold.  We took a dragon boat back to the other side of the lake and met up with our driver to head back to the hotel.

Brant and I on the dragon boat

View of Forbidden City from the Imperial Park

After dinner in the hotel, Brant took the boys swimming in the pool while I helped Dakota with some laptop issues so she could get some school work accomplished.  I think I crashed out at about 8:00 pm. 


Friday 10/28


So while I have been able to get to bed early each night, sleep alludes me around 2 am.  That makes for a long day.  I think last night it was simply the anticipation of MILO!!!  Because today, yes today, is the day we get to hold him in our arms.  We are all beside ourselves.  While we are excited, I need you to pray with us.  Because Milo won't be excited.  He is 18 months old.  He is not going to understand why his beloved ayi (nanny) is handing him over to some strangers and walking out of his life.  He will be scared.  I ask you to pray for his heart to heal. For him to attach well to us.  For the grieving to come but be a healthy grief.  Pray also for his dear ayi and his friends who will miss him.  Their day will also be difficult.  We are to pick him up at 2:00 pm.  This will be 1:00 am your time.  So you should wake up to a few pictures if all goes well.  This evening we will board a sleeper train to head over to Nanchang (Jake's hometown.)  The train ride will be about 12 hours.  We are hoping Milo will settle down enough to sleep for a good portion of it. 


We love you. . We covet your prayers.  We will be in touch soon!