Noelle Nightly News Network from Nanchang

We had been having a hard time getting Noelle to take a bottle. She only drank a whole bottle one time. Often she would only drink an ounce or less since we have had her. We bought the formula and rice the orphanage said to use but she wouldn't take it. They also told us to make the milk hot, not warm, but hot. We had been making it warm. Well, we made it almost "coffee hot" this morning at 7:30am and she drank ALL of it. It was amazing! She has had another bottle since then and she downed all of it. We're making progress! On another note we gave her, her first bath today. The orphanage just gives sponge baths - when we put her in that water you should have heard her scream. Oh well, she'll like it someday.

We wanted to tell you a little about Noelle's personality, habits, and whatever we thought might be interesting. First of all, she is very curious. If you are holding her and someone behind her even coughs she has to check it out. She is so actively curious it is hilarious. What is funny as well is that Jamie and Maddie are known to be extremely curious - they are major people watchers and love to "get the scoop". I can hardly have a full conversation with them at a restaurant because they are looking around and seeing who is there and what is going on. Noelle is just like that. It is cute and sweet that the Lord matched these personalities up like that.

Did I mention that she is a cuddler? We had hoped she would be a cuddler and she is! She loves to be held. She also loves it and smiles or laughs when she is bounced, flown around like an airplane, swung, and anything else goofy I can think to do with her.

A doctor just visited us in our hotel room. Noelle had been pulling on her ears so we were worried she had an ear infection and we actually have her on antibiotics. The doctor said her ears were dry, her lungs are clear, and she doesn't have a sore throat. On a side note Noelle's sniffles have been fading so it looks like normalcy is near with her! Jamie and I are beginning to feel better as well.

Final word on Noelle for a little bit- we went to a park today with the entire group and there were several locals that we met who were very friendly and were talking to Noelle, laughing, and smiling at us. I have only seen sweet, positive reactions from people who see us with her which is a blessing.

I hadn't mentioned it yet but yesterday several of us went to Nanchang's 2-story Super Walmart. It was awesome! I looked like William Perry "the Fridge" (he was a linebacker right? I'm not a sports guy but I remember he was big) from the Chicago Bears to these people- I had a lot of people staring at me. Funny! The store has some of the things we are used to like Cokes, typical produce, etc and some of the major brands but many Asian and Chinese brands as well. You can buy a cool electric motor scooter suitable for slow speeds in the city for only $200 U.S. dollars which was amazing. There is too much to tell but I'll list a few things I saw which were unique. In the prepared foods meat case I saw some unusual things: whole cooked ducks with the heads on, I saw two large bowls filled with worms (it HAD to be worms.... fine if you push me I suppose it could have been snails), another type of whole cooked bird but without the head, cooked chicken feet, cooked goose necks, fried whole herring, and more I can't remember.

Hey, while I'm on the topic of unusual the city of Nanchang is unusual. You will have a beautiful skyscraper business office next to 30 or 40 tall highrise apartments that are old and falling apart. China seems to be all about building things tall- it makes sense with their population size. You will have a fun, quaint shopping area and look down the alley and there are delapidated dwellings with clothes hanging on clothes lines out the window and right there on the clothes lines are various types of carcases drying on the line such as ducks, geese, chickens, and parts of four-legged farm animals. It is really unsanitary and quite strange. As you drive through rows and rows of 20+ year old high rise apartments almost every window has these clothes hanging out and a lot of meat hanging and drying. I'll show you a picture of this. There will be beggars with no legs on roll-platforms and then there will be a stylish couple holding arms looking very well put together. There are cosmopolitan shopping areas but if you look up... there you go again with the bad living conditions. Nanchang is a place of contradictions and surprises but the people have been nice and everything is fascinating to take in and frankly we vastly prefer Southern China over Northern the more we stay here.

A word on the beggars. Its hard to know what to do with them. You want to be generous obviously and Jesus said, "Give to everyone who asks you without expecting anything in return," but you also want to avoid situations that are scams. It is tough and yet you are moved by the poverty and you want to be a light for the Lord. I had a situation when I left Walmart where there was a 40-something lady holding a 4-year old child on one arm and an empty bowl in the other hand so she could ask for money. They were dirty, poor, and I believe homeless. Next to them I saw a lady with some type of a monkey on a rope- also dirty, poor, and probably homeless. Both were begging for money. I wanted to get some video with the monkey for Madeline so I told the lady to let me put my groceries on the bus and to wait there and I would give her something. On the way back the lady with the child met me first because I had been friendly to her and through my smile and nod on the way to the bus had indicated that I would do something for them. I decided to give her something and pulled out 20 Yuan which isn't much- about $2.50 USD which isn't a lot to you and I but is actually the price of the personal doctor visit we just had in our hotel room to give you some perspective. The lady with the monkey watched all of this and waited for me. Well, all I had left in smaller bills was 16 Yuan and she had seen that I gave the other lady 20 Yuan. She was very upset with me and was really berating me for this and making various gestures about the other lady and the child. I could easily tell the comparison she was making. I cradled my arms and swinged them showing her that I had given her a little more because she had a child and she totally blew that explanation off. She had no value for the life of that child- zero concern. She didn't even really hold up her end of the bargain on videoing the monkey and gave me a hard time and kept asking for more. It turns out that I deleted that video when I got back to my hotel room and watched it because it was so negative and upsetting to see. On the video in such a nice voice I was patiently explaining why I gave more to the other lady and she was just terrible about it. There was no way I could show this to Madeline now. It was a tough view of things to see and I don't really have any conclusions for you right now other than when people don't have Jesus Christ in their life they think they have to be heartless and dishonest sometimes to protect themselves, feed themselves, help themselves, etc. The Believer in Jesus has the ability to weather all circumstances in faith because although we may endure challenges we know that the Lord is faithful and he will help us. I've seen it with my job for years and the Lord has proven himself to both me and those that work with me. We have had constant change, constant challenges, and plenty of conflict but through patient prayer, trusting the Lord no matter what things look like, and doing the right thing when circumstances seem to require otherwise he has rescued us and will continue to do so. This is one of the reasons I try to be open about my faith but not pushy. I want people to know that although eternal salvation is the main and most crucial reason to accept Christ- there is much to be gained in the present time in terms of peace- and REAL solutions for all problems.

Tomorrow we get to take a little trip to the surrounding countryside and get to meet a local farmer and his family. Then, we get to go to a porcelain store. Porcelain was invented in this province and that is a major thing the area is famous for.

Adoption Day Part 2 - its done!

Well, today she is officially ours!!! Yesterday we were only "guardians" but as of today we have adopted Wei Fen as "Noelle Wei Fen Howard"! First, we went to the civil affairs office and answered questions for a judge and signed our names. Our guide had us fill out some paper work the night before so it had sped things up today. Then, in the same office we went into another room and counted out $3,000 in crisp $100 U.S. bills as required for the orphanage donation to keep things running. Then, in that same office we counted them out $1755 in U.S. bills for the provincial government's adoption fees. Finally, we counted out $450 Yuan (divide by 8), which is $56 to pay for a newspaper or similar search to give us the abandonment notice for when Noelle was found. If anyone is interested in adoption we will tell you the other fees and expenses involved as well as process information, etc (for example if your income qualifies there can be a tax benefit to adoption and some companies have adoption reimbursement benefits you can check into).

Finally, after correcting some errors in the paperwork that had been done at the civil affairs office they got it right and all of us left for a cross-town trip to the notary public. (right as we were called in Noelle did a "number 2" in her diaper which was so stinky- it was really hilarious, we actually had to go in there like that- you should have seen the uncomfortable look on her face) In about an hour we went into the notary, answered her questions, signed our names, and received our beautiful little red adoption notice and certificate. It was SO exciting that she was officially ours! Prior to all of this you get approval from the U.S. Federal government so we know that we are all set with that side of things.

The government requires that we stay here for 5 days so we have a little ways to go before we go to Guangzhou where the U.S. consulate is so we can get Noelle's U.S. paperwork and entrance requirements completed.

A few comments on Nanchang- for one thing the pollution is much, much less than Beijing- its no worse than Dallas which we can handle. Jamie has noticed the people here in Southern China look a bit different which is interesting (she thinks they look better but hey, we're partial now) - our guide in China had mentioned to us that each region tended to have a different look. Also, although Nanchang is the provincial capital it is much smaller than other major cities with only 3-4 million people and another 3-4 million surrounding rural areas. This is also a poorer city. There is some big business but not as much and there is a lot more poverty. When we flew in we were shocked at the living conditions. Noelle was found and taken care of up to this point in Nanfeng which is much more rural and poor than Nanchang. It is about 3.5 hours away so it is doubtful that any of us will push to make the journey since that would likely turn into a 9-10 hour trip with babies. (having said that its not ruled out yet since there is an obvious desire to know as much as we can, our guide is at a minimum going to try to find out more about Nanfeng)

Notes on the pictures- we went to a Chinese McDonalds today- it was a great break from Chinese food- I took a picture of the menu.

Love you guys, your posts and emails have made us cry with joy and appreciation. Your prayers have lifted us up. Much thanks and love to all of you!

Adoption Day

Well, it is 5:45am in Wei Fen time, 3:45pm in Texas. Jamie is feeding Wei Fen a bottle. I had been playing with her. We had her sleep in between us in the bed last night. When Wei Fen woke up she reached over for Jamie, and was pawing at her arm, and woke her up. Jamie and Wei Fen had a really sweet and intimate time of connecting. Jamie said, "Wei Fen, say 'Mama' and she said it!". That woke me up and it was a touching moment. Wei Fen is ok with me now after she fell asleep on my chest last night and was happy to see me as well. She was really cooing and pawing at us and playing with our fingers. The nannys had told Jamie that Wei Fen likes to say "Baba" and she kept saying that in different ways to us.

We're having a tough time with our bottles but we'll work it out. Pray for all of us as each of us are sick- Jamie is really sick.

Here are some pics of Jamie feeding Wei Fen a bottle and then playing with her and making her smile.

"Gotcha Day"!

In the China adoption world today is called "Gotcha Day"- the day we got Noelle (her Chinese name is Wei Fen and we are going to call her that until we get home- I'll refer to her that way at least in today's blog). We traveled from Beijing to Nanchang, the capital of the Jiangxi province in Southern China on roughly a 2 hour flight. What was so touching was that the 737 jet on China Eastern Airlines was about 90% full of Americans in different groups coming to adopt. This province is one of three popular provinces for adoption: Jiangxi, Guandong, and Hunan. It felt SO great seeing that the word is really out on this and people from all over the place and varying agencies are coming to adopt. It was fun both in our travel group as well as in others to see some couples bringing 4 year old girls that had been adopted previously as well as other ages of girls who had been adopted previously as they picked up their second Chinese girl. This is common in probably 70% of the people we know who adopt- they go back and do it again. What a gift these little girls are to all of those excited people! Jamie said, "there must be a million angels around this plane".

We basically got to the hotel and got to our rooms and it was time to go pick up Wei Fen. We went to the Civil office responsible for adoptions with our eight families. The procedure was that our guide and translator "Sampson" who works for Gladney in China would read the family name from a list. Then, you simply go up and get your child from the waiting nanny who is holding her. Jamie and I worked it out that she would take delivery and I would videotape. They called our name probably sixth and Jamie went over, presented our passport and our travel letter, and picked up Wei Fen. It was so exciting and emotional. We could barely handle the moments leading up to this. Our baby was wearing a pink hat, pink coat, and several layers of clothing as prescribed by custom (and right now, by the cold wind). She cried a little from the shock and change of things but Jamie held her, talked to her, and settled her down. It wasn't until I got close to her and said the Chinese word for "Father" that Wei Fen lost it. I said, "Baba", she took one look at me and lost it- but it was ok. We kind of expected she would go to one of us at first. We left the Civil affairs office at approximately 4:15pm China time on Sunday.

The next step was for one parent to attend a one-hour meeting with Mr. Lu the orphanage director and with the nannys to ask questions about whatever we needed to know. Although Wei Fen was crying when I held her I knew Jamie had to go- she would ask the right questions- its practically a gift with her and I knew I would miss some important ones.

We had noticed that Noelle did well if you stood up and bounced her around and patted her. My back is a little sore from the Great Wall climb but I thought I would try it for as long as I could and then I would have to work out something else. Jamie left for the Q&A meeting and I got to work trying not to terrify my new daughter. She had been acting tired so I thought I might be able to bounce her to sleep. After 30 minutes of trying different things I actually prayed for help and within 10 minutes she was asleep. (why do we wait so long to ask for help)

I needed rest too so I ended up putting her on my chest and kind of leaning back on several pillows in the bed and I was able to cat nap. She woke up a few times and changed her head position and even looked at me and did not flip out- this is great stuff.

Jamie got back and told me about what she learned. Wei Fen has 2 naps per day, wakes up at 5am (Jamie said, "that isn't happening"), loves toys, loves people, loves to smile, and is curious. I'll let Jamie tell you more depth, right now she is sleeping and exhausted- unfortunately she got a cold yesterday and it is in her sinus, head, and throat and she is miserable. Also, she can't stop crying - partly from exhaustion and mostly from her being worried about this enormous change Wei Fen is having to endure and the fear she has been having. We have worked really hard to console her and it has been difficult because this has really been traumatic for her as you can imagine. Ok, I'm going to post some pics and try to take a nap (its Sunday night).

Hey, how did I get the big white guy?

Wow, tomorrow is the day we get Noelle! She is 9 months old this week and she is going to go from zero to sixty in the family department tomorrow. As we look at the poverty, pollution, and hopelessness for especially the poor in China our passion to hurry up and bring our girl home has increased in the last couple of days. We had to see and experience all of this to feel that urgent "mission" feeling again like we did at first.

I can imagine what happens to orphans when it is time to leave the orphanage because we have seen glimpses of the challenges of poor and disadvantaged people. We see people begging on the streets frequently. I saw one older man with his blind Down Syndrome young son begging on the street and saw that there was just no hope for them. We gave him something and tried to tell him about God loving him in the few seconds that we had but even giving a little love and money you just feel such compassion and urgency for them and you worry about them when you realize they have no one to help them. Those at the bottom of the social and economic ladder even if they do have a job often find themselves in menial labor under difficult conditions. There are many difficult circumstances these people are facing. The pollution is so toxic and visible in the air that it is a fresh surprise when we wake up each day. So, for a young girl leaving an orphanage with no family name, no education, no support, no skills, and the challenges of these surroundings- what is she going to do? What can she do when there are 1.3 billion Chinese to compete with and the majority of them have had a family to love, guide, teach, and help them? The orphan girl may be little more than a statistic to this society.

So, we are feeling pretty emotional right now about going to get her and take her to her new home. However, the "rescue" feelings are just a temporary reaction to what we are seeing. We really have just viewed this for a long time as picking up our sweet daughter we have prayed for and thought about for 16 months! She is much more of a blessing to us and her big sister than we could ever be to her! I wanted to communicate the above to share some of our recent emotions and paint a picture of what is going on in China to provide possible opportunities for others to consider China adoption.

Today we had our big trip to the Great Wall. On the way North of Beijing to the Wall we stopped at an awesome jade factory. These factory owners are smart because they educate you before you go shop so you know the value and background of what is being sold. This raises your interest in what they are offering- works every time. I'll post a picture or two of some jade items that were hand-carved and really just amazing. Jade comes in more colors than green which you will see.

Then, it was on to the Great Wall. Construction on the Great Wall began around 1400 A.D. and took 200-300 years (can't remember exactly) to finish. At one point of time during construction there were 5 million people in China and the Emperor had 1 million people working on the wall. Human life was not valued and many people died while working on the Wall. They were not even buried so the workers actually put many into the wall making it the world's longest graveyard as well as the world's longest wall. The wall is full of stairs which right now for me is a "painful" subject if you get my meaning (this may be an even more "painful" subject in the morning..). The stairs are strange in that they are uneven. One stair will be a huge 15 inches high and the next will be 8 or 10 inches high. The Wall is full of defensive towers that are built right into the wall with large square windows archers could shoot arrows through. The Wall runs straight up the side of the many mountains it spans so while you are climbing it almost feels like rock climbing at moments because it is so vertical - and can be a little scary (so I never looked back). It was exhausting but rewarding as I climbed higher and higher and near the top looked down the thousands of stairs and down the mountain and took pictures. The colors of the Wall are mainly hues of grey and white and they contrast with the grass and dirt colors across the mountain ranges they are built into. Jamie climbed a little but has been battling a cold so she decided to not push things too much. That's good- she can help me walk tomorrow. :)

There is a historical protected area in the old city center we were able to tour today called the "Huotong" area. In this area people live as they have for hundreds of years in extended family homes of a unique style. They are all one-story which is unusual nowadays in Beijing and they have ancient looking grey roofs of some type of artfully crafted interlocking hoop-like tiles. All Huotong dwellings are joined by narrow alleyways and have a private courtyard with a single door to enter and exit. When you enter from the alleyway through the door into the private courtyard there are various rooms for people to sleep, study, congregate, cook, and eat in all around the center courtyard in a "U" shape. An extended family will live there with parents, husband and wife, children, etc- multiple generations. These are regular people who have jobs and bicycles or sometimes a car and simply live in this traditional setting in this special historic district and pass their homes on to the next generation and keep the dwelling in the family. As part of a tour we got to visit with a Huotong-area family in their home. It was a really rich experience.

Also as part of the tour I got to ride in a real pedal-powered rickshaw through the Huotong alleyways. It was one of the most unbelievably cool things I have done. However, as I walked up to my rickshaw my driver who did not speak any English smiled and was nice but I was sure he was probably thinking, "Hey, how did I get the big white guy?" I was just sure he was going to go over to his supervisor and clutch his heart and pretend to have a heart attack to get away from having to cart my big tail around. It was 30 degrees outside and I swear he broke out into a sweat when he saw me walk up.

enjoy the pics, you can see me in my rickshaw- tomorrow we will have pics of Noelle!

Jamie, I'm NOT showing them the fish head!

We are starting to get caught up on our sleep and acclimated to this timezone which is a great thing. We're glad we had this time in Beijing to recover from the flight and to get over the tremendous differences in culture and customs. I feel weird saying this but aside from the constant sore throat and stench I barely notice the pervasive fog of pollution!

We started off today going to the Lama Temple which is affiliated with the Tibetan Buddhist sect of the Dalai Lama and another Lama whose name escapes me. (Lamas are major Buddhist religious leaders and there are only two of them) It is a very beautiful Buddhist temple site though smaller than most historical sites we have visited. We could take pictures of the buildings but not indoors because it is actually an active worship site. We saw incense burners and several bowing worshippers. We saw many Buddha statues being worshipped including one that is 54 feet tall. All these statues were wooden and covered in gold paint. I felt sad for those people - I mean when you serve a living God who guides your steps daily, actively answers your prayers, and speaks into your life it is a tragedy to see people bowing three times and laying incense sticks at a carved wooden image that cannot help them. We said a little prayer for them. We certainly respect their spiritual hunger and pray they find the Lord.

After this we went to the Government Silk Factory which was an amazing experience. We first had a tour and learned about the silk growing and weaving process. One interesting fact we learned is that each silk cocoon is made from 1 strand of silk. They find the end of the strand, connect it to the silk string-making machine and it basically unspins and becomes thread. We were able to see this in practice. We then were able to see a demonstration of a young lady weaving a silk rug. Persian rugs are more common and commercialized abroad but are made out of cotton and are not woven very densely. Chinese rugs are woven from 100% silk and have between 300 and 1700 knots per SQUARE INCH! A weaver can only weave 3-4 rows per day and it takes 2-5 years or more to weave a rug depending on the density they are going for and the size. What you pay for is density. The Chinese rugs are woven tightly and each row is tapped down with a wooden device into the previous rows so tightly that no air is between the strands. They are so airtight and dense they actually resist fire. Our factory guide put a lighter to one rug and it would not light. A Chinese rug is actually an investment and can last generations. The official showed me a 300 knot floor rug the size of a coffee table someone spent 2 years of their life on and he quoted me $1500 USD which was wild (..again just that rectangular coffee table size here). He showed us an amazing trick that can be done with a Chinese rug- if you pick it up and shake it the color changes from darker to lighter and back again- like magic- and its beautiful. We bought several things at this market (no rugs thank you) and can't wait to show everyone.

Next we went to the Temple of Heaven which is a site four times larger than the Forbidden City. This Temple was an Imperial site built so the Emperor could worship "the god of heaven" as well as lesser "gods". It is open year-round to local residents if they buy a pass and there are nice parks and ancient stone walkways everywhere with trees and even a children's play area. Under one outdoor walkway it was fun to see many older Chinese people bundled up in the cold and crowding in small groups along both sides of a long flat railing playing cards, chattering, and laughing at each other. It was a warm and cheerful sight to see them throwing their playing cards down and really getting into their card games and conversation. In that same corridor there was a married Chinese couple doing a ballroom dance right in the middle of all of this while a man played a traditional Chinese instrument. There were several musicians playing and trying to make tip money. There was also a young woman dressed in a silk multi-colored dress with gold embroidery dancing to the tune of the musicians for tips. It was some type of formal Chinese dance full of rich engaging movements and a graceful elegance. I saw she had a tip plate so I tipped her $10 Yuan and she acted surprised in a thankful way and raised her voice and said something to her friends who were watching her dance as we walked off. It wasn't a big deal because it was only a little more than $1 US Dollar. The exchange rate by the way is 1USD=8.21 Chinese Yuan.(hope I spelled that right but that is how you pronounce it) The Temple of Heaven site was impressive. There were ornate temple buildings, carved white rock columns, raised platforms, traditionally painted Chinese arches, rock paved imperial walkways, and ancient white and grey marble stairs everywhere. The stairs are a little taller than standard and Jamie was extra careful and cautious and braced herself on me as she walked down a few of them. I have had the scripture going through my head for a few days "he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." I have quoted that to Jamie a couple of times as it has popped into my mind if she seems nervous or like today when we were walking down a marble stair. Well, we had a short break at the hotel and I hadn't read my Bible in a couple of days so I decided to read Jamie a Psalm or two and just give the Lord some time in our day. I opened up to Psalm 91 kind of randomly and began reading out loud to her. Suddenly in verse 11-12 I caught my breath and so did Jamie because that verse above about angels watching over us was in this first Psalm I chose out of the thousands of verses in the Bible. In response to the prayers of many family and friends the Lord just wanted us to know we were being taken care of and he wants you to know he is hearing you. It was so touching for this to happen and an example of what I am talking about above when I say he "speaks" into our lives. What a real, active- and kind God we serve. Thanks Lord.

Ok, after the break we went to an acrobatic show. It was really many shows in one. Young Chinese girls and guys did many amazing feats of strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, and team work while dressed in what often looked like ancient Chinese costumes with many colors and especially a great deal of red and gold. We saw maybe a dozen ladies in red and gold Chinese dresses spinning several plates apiece on long metal poles. Some of them did tricks while spinning the plates. We saw many other things and we'll show you pictures and video when we get home and I will include some here.

I am including above a picture of our group after dinner. The two Chinese people in the picture are our guides "Rocky" and "Jennifer"- they choose American names to do their tour jobs to make it easier for us. Jennifer has 3 American names and her real name is Jian something.

Miss ya'll! (that is the only time someone will say ya'll in China today)

Don't eat the watermelon

Well, it was our first full day in Beijing. Our sleep last night not only rested us but it taught us some new wisdom which was a real bonus- it really is true that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! The beds were hard and the room was 84 degrees but other than that it was a perfect night's rest.

We woke up and had a terrific asian+american buffet in the hotel- they did a really great job. The Plaza Hotel is only 2 years old and it is 4-star. It is really quite nice. Our guide Jennifer picked up the 6 adults and 2 kids who have arrived so far out of our adoption party in a giant pink motorcoach which my daughter Maddie would appreciate. The tour company rented a big coach since in the next day or two we will have 21 total in our touring party in Beijing.

We departed for sightseeing at 9am and went first to Tianamen Square. This is a famous site in Beijing that everyone has heard of and everyone sees. It was 30 degrees or so but we bundled up and were fine. The square is apparently the largest in the world (our tour guide told us at least 3 things we saw today were the largest in the world and I was the largest guy in Tianamen Square so that kind of worked out well.). This area is a site for government offices and historical monuments. Chairman Mao is buried in a crystal casket and preserved in one building we did not go see. Across from Tianamen Square is the national museum which is also a 2008 Olympics planning site. We did start seeing a lot of military in that area and at the other national monuments for the rest of the day.

We then went to the Forbidden City which is only a short walk away. This is where emperors lived for 1400 years. This is a huge site next to Tianamen and right in the heart of this enormous city of Beijing. It is really a throwback to a different time. Emperors ruled in China until 1911 and they lived at a level that we wouldn't understand today. When you enter the forbidden city and look from high vantage points you see a sea of golden rooftops with dragons and animal characters on the corners of the roofs. Under the eaves of all the buildings are miles and miles of special designs, carvings, and paintings. Carved rock bridges and stone pathways you can look down on and see special pictures and characters in are common. The emperors apparently lived off the people vs living to help their people. You should hear how the emperors treated some of the people. The history we heard was fascinating to learn though sometimes bittersweet. However the history we saw was breathtaking everywhere we turned. I kept saying "unbelievable" all day long and I took over 150 pictures to try to preserve some sense of it. Literally sometimes taking the picture of just a section of a roof because I wanted to try to capture some of the detail that was done. It is really amazing that though it is faded there is a lot of original paint. There is also a lot of original gold. We saw throne rooms, bedrooms, original furniture, clocks, and much more. Everything was beautifully designed and painted and many things had gold on them and some had jewels. It was truly a wonder to see and to imagine that time.

The emperors lived well and they created dynasties and built big things but at the end of their lives no matter what they built and no matter how powerful they were they still died and had to face a holy God and were accountable for what they did. This is a reminder to all of us that though we work hard and build things we need to slow down in this short life and make peace with God through Jesus Christ - because the paint fades, the bricks disintegrate but the one who repents and believes in Jesus lives forever. (feel free to inquire on that via email)

The Chinese seem to have symbols for everything- our guide was really quite good with the historical details. Yellow was only allowed to be used by the emperor- anyone else who used it without permission was killed. Red was a common color for happiness and it is to this day. Today even the bride wears a red dress. The crane bird is a symbol of longevity, the bat is a symbol of good fortune, and the lion is a royal symbol found in front of perhaps every building we saw in the Forbidden City or any historical place.

After the forbidden city we went to lunch at a fancy restaurant full of fish tanks, and various demonstrations of water and flowers. We were served several selections and you always eat "family style" and share everything. The food is placed on a spinning "lazy susan" in the middle of the table. The food bore a similarity to Chinese food in the U.S. with a few differences- but it was good.

Then, we went to the Summer Palace which was absolutely spectacular. We saw the longest corridor in the world (there we go again) apparently which was alongside a lake built by the emperor. The long corridor was painted with hundreds of unique paintings that told stories or accounted historical things. There were many breathtaking scenes but one of the most amazing is a huge all-marble imperial party boat. It doesn't float but it is a boat in the water, attached by a dock, and used for parties.

Oh yah, you can't drink the water in China - everyone buys bottled water and the "Don't eat the watermelon" title of this blog entry came because after lunch they brought out watermelon and we all felt it might be a risk to eat it due to the high water content - so we didn't. We're probably crazy but it sounded like a good blog title.

Thanks for the encouraging comments and the prayers of many. We get our baby girl Sunday! Maddie, we miss you and pray for you every day.

We made it to Beijing

Well, we left this morning for the airport and Maddie had a pretty hard time- ok so did we. We will be away from her for 16 days but fortunately Grammy and Poppa are taking care of her.

Its 24 hours since we left for the airport at this moment. As I write this it is 9:30pm on December 7th and it is 8:30 am on December 7th in Central Standard time in Texas. It was really almost more travel time than we could handle. We flew American from D/FW to Tokyo and then Japan Airlines (JAL) from Tokyo to Beijing (hey, don't miss the irony that we are Americans and we flew on Japan Airlines on December 7th- Pearl Harbor day, bet that won't happen again) From D/FW to Tokyo was 13 hours and it was pretty ok. The only challenge for me was when the stewardess told business class cabin to "please raise your foot rest" for landing. I was thinking, "yah, and please dispose of your martini glass in the receptacle next to your massage table". Oh well, I guess if they want to pay $8,500 for a 13 hour chair rental they can have their footrest- just don't announce it to the rest of us in "baggage"- oh, I'm sorry "coach".

One nice bonus however is that one of the 8 families we are traveling with was on the same flight as us and sat in front of us. They are adopting their second little girl from China and their cute first Chinese daughter was fun to talk to during the flight. (especially since we miss Maddie)

After we landed in Beijing and went through customs our English-speaking guide for Beijing "Jennifer" met us with a sign after we left customs. She had a van and driver ready for us so things went very smoothly.

I was fascinated by the elaborate Chinese paintings throughout the airport and was interested in all the various uniforms the officials were wearing- I paid attention to that because at some point I do expect to see soldiers in the military uniforms that are so famous and that we all see on television. In the airport and on the way to the hotel I saw most major global companies we are all familiar with. Everything appears to be very commercialized and very industrialized in China now. Unfortunately as a result the smog is so dense you wince your eyes and run inside to avoid it- I wasn't expecting that.

I have a photo of Jamie and I standing in line at customs but you don't get to see it because we look so "nuked". So, here is one of the customs sign. :)