We are in Guangzhou Now! 1/26/2008

At 4 pm, The Franz’ and Szalai’s we left our hotel and headed to the airport. The Murphy’s already left earlier this morning. At the airport, Jenny made a few phone calls. She called her orphanage and connected with her Big Brother and Big Sister. She was excited to tell them about her new family and said good bye to them. She also talked to them. She thanked them for being friends with Jenny and promised to keep in touch with them. Jenny also called one of the orphanage workers who often took her home at night and on the weekends or took her on family vacations. Jenny had talked very fondly about her. We have a picture of Jenny with her when Jenny was about 3-4 years old. Jenny was excited about the airplane ride. She kept herself busy with Legos.

Sue’s classmate, Hao Xing came specially to see goodbye to us at the airport and gave Sue a nice cashmere sweater. It was so sweat of him. At lunch time, two of her classmates called from distance. They were talking about class reunion in the near future. I guess we will have another trip to China soon.

We have had great time in Hohhot for these short four days! We will come back.

The flight was uneventful. She was very excited about going to a different place. Anna had a good long nap on the airplane. They both showed more of their personalities and they both get along well most of the time. We arrived Guangzhou around 10pm. Sue's sister and her niece was already waiting for us at our hotel. They arrived yesterday. Sue's brother in law and nephew will come tomorrow. They will stay with us until we leave for USA. We are kind of disappointed that the weather is not very good, but we really appreciated it that it is not -19F anymore. It was 45F at 10pm, wet and damp though. Hope we will have some good weather. We had to switch a bigger room so by the time we settled, it was way pass midnight. We will stay here for the next 7 days.

Mongolian Lunch - 1/26/2008

We had a wonderful day today. Sue’s classmate Hao Xing invited us to a traditional Mongolian Lunch in a Mongolian Hut next to the Horse Racing Field. According to Jenny’s paper work, she was found on the street near the Horse Racing Field. It makes more meaningful to visit the place. We were also joined by another Sue’s school mate from College who is a history major and has recently just translated a book about Mongolian History.

The Mongolian Hut is a model of the real Hut in the Glassland. It is not made of felt as the real one, but made of clay. Inside the Hut, it has a table in the center instead of just floor as the real hut. Surrounding the table, there is a circular brick bench which is heated by the smoke generated from a stove outside of the hut. The lunch started with milk tea – a traditional Mongolian Beverage. It tastes just like tea with milk. Then we were severed with many kinds of milk products like cheese – not a typical Chinese food, but a typical Mongolian food. In a short time, the table was filled with all kinds of food, like lamb steamed dumplings, meatball soup, beef jerky and some other food items that we even don’t know the name.

Near the end of the lunch, three musicians came to play and sing traditional Mongolian songs for us. At the end of each song, the guest was offered a cup of liquor. It is not polite or even insult to refuse the drink. It is also a tradition to do this three times. So Bert and Sue each had to drink three cups of liquor for each of the songs they sang for us. They are beautiful songs. The lunch could have lasted longer but we need to catch a plane to Guangzhou.

We took some pictures outside for Jenny so we can remember this place.

Tour the City -1/25/2008

At 4:30 pm, all three families aboard the bus we rented. We took a short tour of the city.

In less than two hours, we stopped by The Five Pagoda Temple, the Xilutuzhao Lamasery - (also called Xiaozhao Lamasery) and Dazhao Lamasery . We drove along a main street in Hohhot, the Danan Street toward north to Tongdao North Street. It is actually the same street with two different names. On the south of the intersection of Zhongshan West Street is the Mongolian section of the district. On the north of the intersection of the Zhongshan West Street is the muslin section of the district. We passed the Mosque on the right hand side, but we decided not to go out because it was dark. We then made a u-turn back to the intersection and turned left on to Zhongshan West Street to eat at pizza hut. The architecture here is just beautiful!

Sisters -1/25/2008

1/25/2008 –

Outside of our hotel rooms are elevators. Right there, kids found their play area. The girls love to do cartwheels or somersaults on the carpet there. That was what we did yesterday afternoon after the movies.

Visit Orphanage - 1/25/2008

It is 2 pm in the afternoon. It is a quite time for the family. We had been running around so much in the past few days. Everyone was so tired. Berthold is taking a nap right now. The boys are in their room alone reading and doing homework. Anna and Jenny are watching a movie – Fox and Hund. It is so peaceful.

We had a busy morning. We visited Jenny’s orphanage. Jenny has two best friends in the orphanage. One is a 16 year old boy whom she calls “Gege” – big brother in Chinese. Another one is a 14 year old “Jeje” – big sister. They both go to local schools during the day so we did not get a chance to meet them. Last night, Jenny prepared some special gifts for them. For her big brother she packed some of the bubble gums and chocolate we gave her. She also packed a family picture of ours. It was actually a picture card Sue made for Valentine’s Day for Joshua. It happened to end up in our luggage. Two days ago, Jenny found it and we told her she might keep it. For her big sister, she gave her a blanket. It was a blanket we bought one each for her and Anna. We had given her a small carry on suitcase. She had been keeping these and some other important thing she considers “hers” in that suitcase. It is so moving to see her willingly give her precious things to her big sister and big brother. On the way to the orphanage, Sue suggested that we should bring some candies and snacks to the children. Jenny protested. She said candies are not good for the children. We should bring fruits. So we did. We bought four cartons of sweet oranges.

We only saw less than a dozen kids in the orphanage. The director of the orphanage told us that they send all health children to foster care. The orphanage only houses special need child. There were more boys there than girls. We were able to take a picture of the infant room where Jenny spent a few months of her early days in the orphanage. We also visit her room and saw her bed. She shared room with two other girls. One is deaf and one is her big-sister who is severely handicapped. We meet the deaf girl, but did not see her sister. We were told she was in school. Her Nannies told us that Jenny is a very caring person. She always helps other kids, especially her big sister.

In the past few days, Jenny had been telling Sue stories about her birth mom and dad. She told Sue she has a big brother, not the one in the orphanage. All these stories were coming up randomly. For example when we had dinner with the Szalai’s who adopted an 18 months old boy, Jenny ordered a high chair for Jon and then told Sue that her birth mother put her in the high chair when they went out to eat. So Sue asked her more. Jenny then said her birth mom took her brother and left her to her dad and her dad sent her to the orphanage. In another occasion while we were eating again, she told Sue that she had to finish her food or her birth mother would be very mad of her. It sounds like she remembered her birth parents and how they sent her to the orphanage. It surprised us because her paper work clearly stated that she was found at 3 months of age in the horse racing field. Berthold thought that it could be that she was making up stories, stories she heard from other friends in the orphanage. But the way she said these things and how they randomly came up makes Sue think that these are real. Today, as Sue had some conversations with the orphanage director, Sue felt comfortable enough so she asked why Jenny keeping telling us that she remembered her birth parents. It turned out Jenny was in a foster care until she was 4 years old. Her foster parents had a boy who is older than Jenny. While still caring for Jenny, her foster parents went through a divorce. Her foster Mom took the boy and left Jenny with her foster dad. He then sent Jenny back to the orphanage. It all makes sense now. The foster parents are the only parents she remembers so she refers them as birth parents. It also explains why she is so comfortable with family life and so much looks forward to having family life again. As we leaving the orphanage, Sue told Jenny in Chinese that we are keeping her forever!

We are so glad we had this visit. We would never know what was going on with her story if we had not visited the orphanage. On the way to the orphanage, both Berthold and Sue were very emotional. But the visit was short and sweet. We left with great satisfaction and relieve. We thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and positive vibes to make this happen. We thank God for everything that has happening to us.

On the way back from the orphanage, we stopped by a folk craft manufacturer where they make cashmere sweaters, camel wool jackets and blanket and Inner Mongolian dresses. We bought the girls including Mom some Mongolian dress and some other souvenirs. We had to leave because we are now more brokeJ. But it is all worthy it. Jenny and Anna had great time.

Back in the hotel, the girls show off their costumes to the Murphy’s and Szalai’s. Mrs. Murphy was so nice to give all the kids a socks and yoyo, both having lady bug prints on them. When I ask Jenny to say “Xiexie” – means thank you in Chinese. Jenny responded with “thank you!” in English. Way to go Jenny!! What a quick learner!! I think by the time we are home, she will be fluent in EnglishJ.

Tonight, we will go to Pizza Hut for dinner for a group celebration. We got Jenny’s passport. We are ready to go. We will pack tomorrow and leave Hohhot in the evening.

Sue rent a minibus for later this afternoon. We will go out with the Murphy’s and Szalai’s to take a tour of the city before heading to Pizza Hut. It is the only way to see the city in this cold cold weather.

Sue and Berthold

Hohhot - 1/24 - Visit Museum and Having Hot Pot for Dinner

Today was just a day of waiting. We slept a little longer and then had breakfast late. During breakfast we got the good news from the guide that we may be allowed to visit the orphanage tomorrow. This is very unusual since there is an order from the province not to allow visits. We think our repeated asking and the fact that Sue is Chinese may play a role. Bert thinks the real causes are the positive vibes from the Anhui Family (our travel group from the first adoption) and prayers from all of you. So far they have always worked.

Our next stop was a visit to the "Inner Mongolia Museum" ( Neimenggu Bowuguan). We rent a minivan from the hotel. It is a wonderful museum covering all of the history, culture and tradition of this area – from the Dinosaurs to the present with 14 exhibits. Two hours was all we can do with the kids but it was great. The museum is very new and there is still building up some of the exhibits. Some rooms are still empty but the building is so huge that it really doesn't matter. We tried to find some picture on the Internet (the building is so big that we never got a good shot). It appears that the building is so new that all posted pictures (as close as 11/2007) refer to the old museum in Downtown. Inner Mongolian because independent from Mongolian in 1947. Many new things were added in 2007 as they celebrate the 60 years of independence.

In the museum there is no much marble; they builders must have used a whole quarry or more to use in this building. Besides the exhibits, the architecture is just marvelous.

Inner Mongolia is famous for their grassland and blue skies with beautiful white clouds. The best time to visit here is in August. As we tour through the exhibit, Anna described that the Inner Mongolian people like American Indians. She made a very good observation there. They live in Mongolian Huts and ride horses. Inner Mongolia is one of the autonomous regions of China, like Tibet, where they have their own government and language, though they are still a part of China. Everywhere you go, you will see both Mongolian and Chinese languages on signs, menus and directions. Mongolian language is always either on top or in front of the Mandarin language here. The city has about 2 million people. Majority of them are Han Chinese. Sue is Han Chinese with ¼ of Mongolian blood from her maternal grandma. If we were visiting here in the summer, we would have opportunities to visit the grassland, the ranch, huts and even have horse rides. But, Bert was unable to find any golf course for the annual Anhui Dad's golf outing. It might be a niche market to open a couple of golf courses here, but then the summer is less than three month in this region – last frost in May – first frost again in September or latest early October.

We bought some souvenir at the museum gift shop. Toby and Joshua bought these knives rangers carry with them on their belt. Sue and Berthold bought some music CDs. It turned out to be VCDs containing sounds with videos for karaoke. Jenny loved it. She sat on Berthohld’s lap, watched and sang along with the music. It was a very beautiful music and sight to see her getting so close and comfortable with Bert.

After returning to the Hotel, kids were tired. We ordered the room service for them – four cheese burgers. Jenny was so hungry; she could not wait because it was 2 pm, way passed her normal meal time. She loved the cheese burg!

After eating, Toby and Josh took care of Anna, Jenny and Leah, one kid from the Murphy family and both of us (Murphy and Franz) walked around the city. We visited some areas where the locals shop and where you can haggle. Sue was just in her element. It was so nice to get out of the hotel and something from the city. But we have to say, it was sooo cold here!

In the evening, the Franz family had a traditional Mongolian Hotpot dinner with an old friend of Sue. She hadn't seen him for more than 25 years (gosh why don’t we get younger with every day that goes by). They were college classmate. They had fun catch up and made some phone calls to other classmates. Sue was very happy to make connections with her classmates again. The dinner was fabulous and we had far more food than we could eat.

All in all it was a good day. Anna exhausted herself throughout the day and there fore we had another melt down during dinner. She actually slept through the most of the dinner. But, we think it is mainly base on the exhaustion from all the play and running during the day.

Jenny is just wonderful. She is happy most of the times and always shares with others. In the orphanage, she slept with another girl in one bed whom she called her sister. This girl was handicapped. Also, her best friend is a 17 year old boy whom she called her big brother. Now when she talks about her sister and brother she talks about Toby, Josh and Anna. We thought for a while she was still referring to her friends in the orphanage. But because of her being around other handicapped kids she is very caring. When Anna cries she is concerned, when Anna sleeps she covers her with a blanket or a jacket, she cares about other little ones around etc. Hopefully we can preserve some of these good habits. But she does have a temper. We have not seen it but you can feel it. And she knows what she wants. It is very clear that we all will have our hands full as she grows up.

Jenny had her first melt down too, but very short. She forgot to take her tidy bear with her on our way to the restaurant. As tired as or maybe more tired than Anna, she had small cry, but did not last very long.

And we still here the word "Mama" all day and Bert still enjoys it.

Hohhot - More paper work -1/23/2008

Today was a different day. It was supposed to be an easy day with mainly easy paperwork. The paperwork was easy – especially for Bert since he left everything to Sue. He signed a lot of things and hopes he did not order more stuff.

There were two families doing paperwork and a third one just to hang out with us. The kids had a lot of fun and it was quite loud at times. One of the documents had Bert's nationality wrong. They listed him as US citizen but his passport is German. We hope that this will be corrected soon. But, it requires a new document from CCAA – there is enough space for additional trouble – lets cross that bridge when we get there.

After the paperwork we went shopping. We ask the doorman of the (five star, Taiwanese owned) hotel if we can get a taxi. He exclaimed that it would be difficult at that time of the day. That was the end of it. This hotel does not make any efforts to get taxis for their guests or has a taxis stand. For such a modern and high standard hotel, that is kind of strange. We walked to a shopping mall about 20 minutes away in the cold of approx. -5 F degree temperature. It was coooooold! We were lucky to get a taxi on the way back. In the taxi Xinxin mentioned that we made there by "walking in this terrible cold for such a long way that her feet nearly fell off from the cold". We have to admit that her boots, as pretty as they were, might have been to tight too – but we bought her new ones right away.

We also bought a lot of snacks in a grocery section of the mall. Xinxin really enjoyed this and tried to buy a lot of things. We ended up with two bags of mainly snacks in all kinds of varieties. She also knows what she wants when it comes to shoes and cloth. We are deeply worried that this is another member in our family that is "born to shop". Daddy was already talking about a second job this morning at breakfast when he saw the amount of food that this girl can eat. After the shopping experience he might know that hard time lies ahead.

After shopping we spent the rest of the day in the hotel and the kids of all three couples played together, ran up and down the hallway, and did cartwheels, chased Toby and Josh, made necklaces, watched movie together…… and many more things. That led to the first problem with Anna. She was very tired and finally got real jealous of Xinxin. Xinxin acted real mature and cared about everybody. When we eat snacks, she first offerd one to all the other people around her and then she took a snack herself. (We wonder how long this will last??). Also she was really upbeat and as the new kid took the center stage. Pair this with Anna being tired and we had a real melt down which started right in time when we were having dinner with the Szalai’s. Luckily they understand the situation well because they have two girls too. When we returned to the room the battle lasted a few more minutes before Anna fell asleep.

At the dinner table, Sarah – one of the girls from the Szalai’s called Xinxin by her Chinese name. Xinxin told Sue to tell her “don’t call me Xinxin. Please call me Jenny!”. She really likes her English name now. She did not understand why Anna was not very happy. All we explained to her was that Anna was tired. We wonder how long this will last before she figures it out by herself. She can speak some English words already. We are sure soon she will speak and understand English.

By the way, Mama is real exhausted. She actually took a nap during the day. Lots of things are going on and Jenny calls "mama" about every 5 minutes or more – depending on what is going on. With Anna it was much easier she – called daddy all the time. As lovely and rewarding as it is being needed and chosen the first person be called in need, now Mama finds out first hand how exhausting this can be. Every time she sits down or tries to do something you hear this little sweat voice calling out "Mama?". J Daddy enjoys observing and tells Mama frequently: "now you know how this feels".

We now get more free kisses and hugs from her. She is still a good eat and tries everything. This morning, she broke her rule of not leaving food on the table. We are not surprised that this rule is the first to be broken. Now she knows, she has plenty to eat. It is a good thing, but also a bad thing because we wished she could have kept her good habit of not wasting food for a little longerJ.

Next two days will be “free days”. Tomorrow, the Szalai's will visit their son's foster family. We wish everything goes well for them. The Murphy's had already their daughter's orphanage director visited them today. Their daughter Leah is very close to her orphange director. She was very upset on the Gotach day. She was very upset when her orphanage director left. We will visit a museum and hope to visit Jenny’s orphanage on Friday – not being promised yet, but hopeful. Everything is central government controlled including if an orphanage is open for foreigners or not. Jenny's orphanage is not approved for allowing foreign visitors. Right now because the Chinese New Year, many political leaders visit local welfare organizations. They don't want us to show up to get them in trouble. However, this is a chance that no political visitors this coming Friday and because Sue is Chinese, they may let us visit. Keep us in your prayers. We think it is good for us to visit Jenny's orphanage so she can show us a little glimpses of her life in the past.

We hope that all of you are in doing well and hope that the snow in Michigan comes to an end soon. We all want to be home in time for the evening of the Super ball.

Here comes Jenny! -1/22/2008

Okay, here we go. This morning we had to get up early and pack. Yesterday evening the jetlag along with a whole day sightseeing just caught up with us and we had to start the packing at 5:00 am in the morning. At 7:30 we left for the airport. The trip was normal and without excitement. By 12:00 am we arrived in Hohhot. Hohhot is a nice city that seems to be in the middle of nowhere; surrounded by mountains and with a wonderful blue sky. It is cold but dry. The temperature today was about -20C / -4F. What we saw from the city was very nice. They had snow yesterday and that made the traffic real difficult. We settled in the hotel room and waited to get XinXin (Jennifer) at 3:30. There was quote some tension and nervousness in the air. After two days of tourist program we finally got to our original task.

When we left our room to meet her in the conference room, Bert said:" Life will never be the same. We leave this room with three kids and will come back with four.”

When XinXin walked in, we saw a smile. A smile no words can describe; a smile that instantly took all the tension out of the room. If we would send kids with such a smile into fighting our wars, nobody ever would get hurt. As we heard later on from the representative of the orphanage, she was excited about being adopted and could not wait to go to her new home. She came directly to us. She called Sue “Mama” right away. Then Anna and XinXin gave each other a big hug. I think we have a picture of this. Then she gave Bert a big hug. The boys were busy taking pictures and video taping the whole event. After a while, all the kids played together. XinXin was fascinated by the video camera and started using the camera. 10 minutes after she walked into the room, she said:" Mama, can we go home now" - in Chinese of course. The whole family feels so lucky and blessed. The boys are happy and Anna is very excited. They plays together, have fun and get wild. We feel so blessed and cannot thank God enough for the gift we received.

We did some paperwork and everything was in Chinese. Fortunately Sue can read it. Bert was not sure if he adopted a daughter or sold his house to buy a boat and move to China or something along these lines. He signed everything and fingerprinted it. There is no way back now in case the boat arrives at our doorstep.

During the paperwork she asked Mama a few times to go home - she is very impatient. She got the package we sent to her and knows we have cats. As soon as we got to the hotel room she asks where the cats are. She doesn't understand yet that we have some way to go. Sue tried to explain what is coming, but we are not sure if she fully understands everything.

We gave her a little suitcase for her few things she brought from the orphanage. She put everything in there and she really appreciates to have her little on space. She brought a notebook with a note from a 16 year old boy. According to the person from the orphanage who brought her, this boy is very fond of her and she calls her “big brother”. He helps her and protects her in the orphanage. He is very sad and happy at the same time to see her go. We have his pictures and plans to keep in contact with him. He gave her a good luck and safe journey necklace. A few times today, she called Bert “gege” (big brother). We think this is a male model in her life. There is also a photo of an older girl who has mental illness. They share a room together. According to this person from the orphanage who brought her over, she is the most beautiful girl in the orphanage. Everyone loves her. She is often being taken home by visitors for a weekend or shopping. Last year, she was chosen to go to Beijing and Climbed Great Wall with a group of foreigners who volunteered at the orphanage. We have some photos of her with these people on the great wall! It so good to know she is well loved and she knows how to love others.

For dinner we went to a restaurant in the hotel. It was a large buffet that was very good. Everybody, including XinXin, ate very well. XinXin liked the food. She had crab for the first time in her life and loved it. She got a little upset when a couple of us left small items on the plate rather than finishing our plates. She explained to Sue that wasting food is not good. Also, she cleaned up after she was done. Something our kids won't even think about without reminder. We had to send her and Anna upstairs with the boys before we pay our checks because Sue could not finish her noodle soup. She was afraid that her new daughter would think she was wasteful.

Later on we met the couple from Michigan in the hallway along with another couple who also adopted a 6 years old girl. Oh, by the way, if you ask these girls, they will say they are 7 years old because in China, you are counted as one year old immediately after your birth. Kids played for an hour in the hallway. We all had a ball.

Xinxin had told us that it is OK to call her Jenny. Jenny and Anna took a bath and shower together. They still could not sleep, so we tried to play some games and do some coloring. It turned out that both girls are very competitive so we have some trouble to deal it…..Finally Anna was so tired and she gave in. Jenny was too excited to sleep. We spent a few more minutes with her. Right now they both sleep and sleep on the same bed!

We also found out that she can speak a few words of English, like Bananas, Apples and count numbers and sing ABC's....She told me she plays computer games too at the orphanage.

Everything is just perfect.... We can't believe it. However, we are still prepared to some melt-downs to happen.

Now it is time to finish. We are all tired and still struggle with the time difference.

More tomorrow - best wishes to all our friends.

It is almost time to get Xinxin -1/22/2008

We arrived Hohhot around noon. It is cold here, -9F! The airport is about 30 minutes from the hotel. From what we see, Hohhot is a very nice vacation place in the summer. Its airport is an alternative airport for the Olympics because it is only less than one hour from Beijing. Everything is very nice.

We are going to get Xinxin in about 30 minutes. Time seems stopped for the last hour or so!! It goes so slow for us. Can't wait. I am posting this short message to kill time....It has been a long waiting.

We have two rooms again. It is a very nice new hotel. Kids love it. The rooms are much bigger. Many electronic stuff. Anna can't read so she tries every button - like "do not disturb", "please make up our room", "emergency" - luckily, sue caught her so no disasters.

We got up this morning at 5 am to pack everything up. We left our hotel in Beijing at 7 am. At airport, we had breakfast buffet, 18RMB per person. Very good food, but I am having stomach problem, not sure it is because the food is too greasy or I am just too nervous.

I also got a call from a college classmate whom I have not seen since 1982!! He lives in Hohhot. Right now he is on a business trip in Guangzhou. He will be back before we leave...that is exciting too.

Ok, we are going to the 27 floor's conference room now....time to get Xinxin!!!!
Sue

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.

A Fun Day in Beijing -1/20/2008

At 7:00 am in the morning, life returned to the Franz family. We had little sleep but our bodies seem to be confused. We felt well and were ready to get going. We would have left the hotel much earlier, but we had to wait for a representative from our adoption agency in Beijing to deliver our airplane tickets for Hohhot. While waiting, we had our breakfast in the hotel. It was not typical Chinese breakfast, but rather a mix of western and Chinese buffet. We had hard boil eggs, fruits, cereals, beacon, hams, cheese, rice soup, steamed vegetables with coffee and tea.

We decided to explore Beijing on foot. Our hotel is very close to the famous Wangfujing Street and Tian’an men square. Bert has the best sense of directions and seems to remember a lot from our last visit. He directed us to the Catholic Church which has been in the center of Beijing for a few hundred years. Unfortunately the church was closed during the day since the church members feel that tourist are not respectful enough and only visit the church for sightseeing. Their mass schedules are extremely early to our standards, 6:15am for Latin Mass and 7 and 8 am for Chinese Mass. We may come back tomorrow if we are able to get up that early.

From there we went down Wangfujing Street exploring some shops and a food court that we remembered very well from last time – oh oh – not to forget to mention that we stopped at Starbucks and they actually understood what we needed – that made our day. On our way to Tianmen Square and the Gate of Heavenly Peace, we strolled through a nice park. Kids had fun just jumping around.

Joshua was very excited about the Grand Opera House. Both Toby and Joshua had learned a lot fact about it through a program on Discovery Channel. It is an amazing architecture of egg shaped building. When Josh saw that the Beijing Ballet is playing Romeo and Juliet two days after we leave he begged and pleaded to stay two days longer. Who on earth would have thought that Joshua of all people would be interested in that. They are reading and discussing "Romeo and Juliet" in school, but Josh and classical ballet – the world never runs out of surprises. In the end, he gave up because adopting his sister takes priority.

From the Grand Opera House, we walked on the Tianmen Square. Tianmen square has a special meaning for Toby, here he took his first steps in early June of 1992 (he also left his mark on the great Wall – but this is another story that he has to tell). Anna was tired of all the walking – we think she was tired because the time difference. Big brothers are good at carrying her once a while to give her a break. She loves the attentions we give her. In about two days, she will have to share all of these with her new sisters. It must be tough on her.

We finally took the subway to the famous Silk Market – more famous to western visitors. It is a crazy place. Many counterfeit can be found here and most shoppers are speaking English or Russian. More surprisingly, most of the sellers, look very uneducated, speak English; some even speak multiple foreign languages to negotiate with the buyers. Toby and Josh had a ball trying to bargain for things they really don't need. It turns out that Toby is as bad in bargaining as Daddy whereas Mom and Josh can drive sellers to the point where they either jell or break out in tears. At the end we spent four hours there and only bought a few small things. We were looking for a PSP system but couldn't get the price low enough (less than $50 USD) and our pride finally stood between us the PSP.

We had dinner at a small noodle place where mostly locals eat. The whole meal for the family cost us less than $12. By that time, everyone was tired, especially Anna. The excitement of new pair of sneakers only last long enough for Anna to walk on her own feet. We went back to our hotel short before 7 pm – we think because Joshua was on the only one who had a watch – a new RolexJ. He tested every hour or so to see if it is still ticking.

Josh and Anna went to bed shortly after eight. Bert and Sue went out to the food market on the street. It is one of the best and most unique places to eat if you listen to Bert. After that we just want to talk (chat) to our friends and then update the Blog. No plans for tomorrow except visiting an office from Bert's company and possible the Olympic Village to see the Bird Nest. It is so nice to just go with the flow.

By the way, we are crazy, insane or simply ….. – we set up a wireless network in the hotel so we don't have to fight about who is getting the network outlet. Life is good with wireless!

Oh, yes, no snow in Beijing though everyone was expecting it last night – which was one of our determining factors to cancel our original plan to go to the Great Wall. I think Michigan took all the snow for us. I heard it was snowed in in Michigan.