Beijing

What a great day in Beijing! Angela made us a great breakfast of fried eggs, steamed bread, olive leaves, and peanut butter/nutella spread. She even got up early to get Shanda a Diet Coke!

Then we left to pick up another family, and then to the Great Wall of China. We traveled quite a ways out of Beijing to a less "touristy" spot. We took a ski lift up a mountain, walked on the wall, and then rode a toboggen down. What a hoot! The lower photo shows as at the base of the ski lift.

Lunch was amazing. All of us sitting at a round table with an enourmous lazy susan. Angela orders all kinds of dishes and we eat, and sample, and stop eating. We laughed quite a bit. Most of the food was delicious.

Back to the city for a rickshaw ride (see photo). Our "driver" was very crazy. When visitors to China say that driving is crazy, they aren't joking. So many near misses! Our rickshaw driver even hit a house with us in the cart. We even got a short tour of a typical China house.

Next came the acrobat show. Sorry mom and dad Petty, but this was better than the one in Branson. :)

Supper at quite the hole in the wall, but know for their Roasted Peking Duck. Angela insisted that we have authentic duck. To see them being roasted over wood coals with the heads still attached made me feel like I was living in the movie "A Christmas Story". I thought waiters might be singing "Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra" at any moment.

Now, we are back at Angela's apartment and repacking. We leave the apartment at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow to catch our flight to Chengsha. We'll be staying with a missionary family there. We get Simon on Monday.

Prayer requests
We praise God for a wonderful day, for a decent night of rest, for Angela (she is wonderful!), and for all the fun that we are having.
Please pray for our flight, for the other families who are receiving their children tomorrow, for Simon as he has his last day at the orphanage, and for our adjustment to living with the Reiger family.

We'll try and post again tomorrow, though we don't know if we'll have the internet or not.

Garrison and Noel, we love and miss you. . . though after traveling all day with two 5 year olds, we are very thankful that you are at home with fantastic care givers.

It is strange to think that many of you are just waking up to your Saturday, and we have already lived it. Isn't it great that our God is beyond time and space.

Shanda and Gary