Beijing - Great Wall - 1/21/2008

Our day in Beijing started at 4 am. Anna did not comprehend the concept of time change yet. After going to sleep to early (Beijing time) she got up in the middle of night. Well, she watched TV while Mom and Dad tried to catch another couple of hours of sleep. But, this is difficult when they have to entertain questions or requests for help about every ten or fifteen minutes. Since she is Dad’s little girl, Dad got all the privilege as a helper.

So far our time in China has been under the theme "Anna first return to her home country". We purposely chose to stay in the same hotel we stayed 6 years ago in Beijing so we can re-experience our first adoption trip. Anna is very aware of this and observes very well. But, it is obvious that despite the fact that she likes China and everything related to it, she is still not at home here. She is American first and then Chinese – at least that is how we feel. It will be interesting to see how she will process this issue as she growth up. She is very comfortable going to places with us and gets excited seeing things related to what she knows about China, like the Fuwa dolls of Olympic symbols. These are five dolls symbolize luck with their names together spell as “Beijing Welcome You” – Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini. Her favorite one is the Panda – Jingjing.

Slowly we are coming closer to welcome XinXin into our family and we are getting slightly nervous. We are all very eager to change this and welcome XinXin into our family. However, it is just like getting a child by birth. It comes with feelings of excitement with nervous. Anna mentioned that she is nervous too, but she would not go back home without Xinxin.

This morning we visited the local office of LECO, the company Bert works for. It was very nice to see some familiar faces and meet some of the office stuff. They treated us like special guests and invited us for lunch in a well-known old and traditional Restaurant, a place where important political leaders like Mao and Zhou Enlei had dined with important foreign guests (we saw the pictures). This restaurant is famous for its Peking Duck and we can attest to that. This meal and their hospitality are something very special to us.

After lunch they took us to the Great Wall since Anna had asked for this repeatedly. Anna fell asleep during the drive and when we arrived she was very unhappy to be waken up – to say the least. She even accused us of dragging her to the Great Wall against her will. What can we say – she is truly a girl. But it took only less than a minute for her to decide to have a race with her brothers running up the wall. In no time, they reached one of the top points of the wall. She was worried if her parents could have the strength making to the top. Mom and Dad didn't want to go that far but finally did it too, with no sign of running or highly energetic behavior. They were just happy to make it without getting a heart attack. At the top of the wall, Anna got a certificate to proof what she did. Now everybody in the family, except XinXin, has such a certificate. Oh well, we have to come back for her some day. On the way down, Anna blamed her parents that she couldn't get further up the wall. She wanted to go "all the way up". What a change in mind. Not to mention that it was quite cold and there was snow on the ground. Joshua was so cold that Joshua decided to buy a rabbit fur hat. The fur is real; Josh found the bone to poof it in the hat.

On the way back we stopped at the official "Olympic Stadium", called the "birds nest" and the “aquat square where the swimming events will take place. They are still under constructions so all we can do is to take pictures.

We were back to the hotel because Anna slept again on the way back. We are now really struggling with the time change. Everybody is exhausted and tired. It was very difficult to get up and eat in our favorite place – a food court in an underground shopping mall on Wangfujing road. This is a great place where one can buy all different kinds of food and look how it is prepared right there. Our minds would not let us miss the opportunity to eat there, but it took some time for our bodies to cooperate. However, once we were there, we were happy we did. On the way back, we stopped by the street food night market - another attraction we enjoyed on our trip adopting Anna 6 years ago.

Now we have to pack – do we have the strength – can we do it tomorrow – Our flight leave Beijing at 10:20 am - time to shut down – good night and god bless.