Hello, this is Tabitha, once again. I received another e-mail from Tracy tonight. She writes: Good morning from Beijing, China. Yesterday we visited Tienanmen Square. The presidential brigade went through while we were there! It was a
beautiful day despite the heavy smog covering. We toured the forbidden city for hours. We went to lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant...we sampled many dishes: duck soup, steamed cauliflower, pork meatballs, sliced beef, sprouts, rice, etc. Jeremiah had a Chinese beer and I had a coca light - diet coke. We also toured the silk factory and watched how they spin the silk. I bought a watch from a "mosquito" street vendor for two dollars because we spent the first day not knowing what time it was because we are so used to our laptops and cell phones. We also experienced a rickshaw ride - very fun. We toured a traditional Chinese home...no bathroom! They have to use the public toilet that about 10 families share down the street. Some of the homes do have solar showers (I thought of my mom - she has a solar shower on her deck to shower off when you get out of the lake).
Today we will visit the great wall, the jade factory, the bird's nest and the
water cube (Olympic swimming). This is our last night in Beijing. Tomorrow we
will fly to Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan. There are 35 Americans in our group! We will all travel together and they will bring the babies to use at the
registration office. I say "babies" but some families are adopting toddlers, like us, and older children. There are a mixture of boys and girls being adopted, all with special needs, some very mild and some more severe. Many of the families have been here before and are returning to adopt their second Chinese child.
We have enjoyed getting to know the other families. We have been surrounded by some great men and women of faith. I will share more when we get back.
