Beijing, Day 1/2

Well we made it and I have to say it's surreal to be here! The flight was great- I loved relaxing and resting, enjoying the alone time with my husband. I was blown away by how nice the plane was. All 3 meals were delicious (sea salt caramel gelato... yes please!), and the tv's on the back of the seats made the trip bearable for me. I watched 3 new releases, and enjoyed playing solitaire, too. I wish I could've napped a bit, but am prayerful that I'll get some great sleep tonight and be ready for sight seeing tomorrow!

Right now, it's 6:45pm. For those of you in KC, it's 5:45AM. I wish I could call my kiddos right now, but they are sleeping. Am hoping to connect with them in the morning, but they might be out and about with Grandma and Grandpa.

After landing in Dallas, we had a 1 hr and 45 min lay over- this was the perfect amount of time to grab a starbucks and hit the big bathrooms! After landing in Beijing and getting our bags and going through customs, we were met by a man and woman who took us to a van and drove us about 30 minutes to our hotel (it was a bit strange just getting in the van with them, fully trusting that our agency hired these people...). The traffic here is pretty crazy. We saw all kinds of things- I couldn't believe when I saw a family of 3 on a motorized scooter- the 3 year old boy was standing at the front, holding onto the handle bars as they weaved through traffic. Lots of honking around here, and pedestrian crosswalks don't mean much (Nathan and I got through 1/2 of the street on the way back to the hotel after dinner and just stood in the middle of the street because no one would let us go! It's just a different way of thinking as far as I can tell- I'm going to have to be more aggressive I can tell. No more Mrs. nice Kansas girl! Haha!

So, the nice people checked us in at our hotel, showed us how to trade in our money and told us that we'd find the convenient store across the street from the hotel (you can't drink the tap water here, so getting bottled water was a must). Nathan told me not to sit down- we needed to keep walking so we wouldn't fall asleep too early- for us, we've been up now for 24 hours... we're hoping to get on China time after a good nights sleep. We walked around our hotel a bit (I found a Starbucks that I can visit first thing in the morning, too), and then ventured out to find that convenience store and somewhere to eat dinner. Right across the street is an Irish Pub. We will try Chinese food while we're here, but it was comforting to get some good old pizza! The coasters that they gave us were Boulevard Brewing Company, which is a beer brewing company out of Kansas City, MO. Nathan got a kick out of that.

I really was just feeling so tired and in need of a shower, so we got our water bottles after our dinner and headed back to the hotel (this is when we got stuck in the middle of the road). I took a quick shower, and when I got out I found Mr. Nathan snoring on the bed... hmmm so much for trying to stay up for another hour. So, to bed at 6:30pm for him. I tried to tell him to wake up, but he ignored me. We'll see what that means for tomorrow!

Our room is nice, but it smells like smoke pretty bad, so I'm super glad that I brought my essential oils diffuser and oils to make the room smell better.

We are meeting our guide and the other people hanging with us in the morning at 8:30am (6:30pm central standard time) to head to the Great Wall. I hear it's a 3 hour ride. Not looking forward to that, but I'm enjoying the sights of our daughter's birth country, so am determined to take it all in.

Here are some pics from today:

We put a gift and note on each of the kid's beds for them to find when they got home this morning from sleeping over at Grandma and Grandpa's. I love giving gifts!

Our awesome neighbor, Kim Lewis, took us to the airport bright and early!

The first leg of our journey- flying to Dallas!

This is the journal I got to write to Scarlett all about how she came to be our daughter and the journey to get her!

The Starbucks lady at the Dallas airport spelled my name "Jennie" and I like it. Think I should change how I spell my name. Random, yes. I'm going on little sleep!

 This one is from when I facetimed the kids while we were waiting to take off for Beijing. This was right when they'd gotten to the house and saw their first gift!

Our route- loved watching this on the screen on the plane.

Our first plane meal. This was yummy!

I played quite a bit of solitaire, too!