Travel Blog

Hello from Beijing, China!!! We arrived safely here last night. WE had no problems going through customs or getting our baggage. I give Northwest an A+. The flight from Detroit to Tokyo was terribly LONG!! We were on the plane about 13 hours. Carlton and I drank tons of water and got up every couple of hours and walked around. There were several movies to watch and I listened to the IPOD some (thanks Annalee). We sat next to a precious young lady from China. We got to talking and she helped me with my Chinese. I didn’t realize that I was pronouncing so much stuff wrong!!! I feel pretty confident with it now. We were also pronouncing Lily’s name wrong. Her Chinese name is YuanYuan. It is said, "whuan, whuan" Its really hard to say, but she helped me perfect it. Carlton on the other hand….well….bless his little country bumpkin heart. He told me he would just let me speak the Chinese language around here!!! Speaking of country bumpkins….boy I never knew what a small town girl I was until now!! Um…I think everybody knows we are tourists, we just stare at everything with our mouths wide open!!! Beijing is incredibly beautiful at night. There are so many lights. It kinda reminds me of Vegas. Everyone is so sweet. Our guide, Helen, had our driver waiting for us in baggage claim. He was holing a sign that said, "AIMEE". Do you know how good it felt to see that? He was instantly my best friend. When he saw us, he got on his cell phone and called our guide Helen. I talked to her for about 10 minutes. She is simply precious!!! She was giving me all kinds of tips, like Don’t drink the water!!!, and don’t exchange your money until I can help you! She is going to take good care of us. We checked into our hotel about 10:30pm and all went well. Our room is stunning. Its so modern. We couldn’t figure out how to turn the lights on. Seriously, ya’ll, someone should be filming this….this is good reality TV. I slept OK. My body is totally confused…its hungry and sleepy at all the wrong times. I slept about 3 hours and then woke up for a while and then slept another hour. Carlton snored like a baby. I know my adrenaline is still running high. We can’t stop thinking about the fact that our baby girl is less than 1 hour plane ride from us. When we were about to land, I happened to be listening to the IPOD and Stephen Curtis Chapman’s song "When Love Takes You In" came on. It was so surreal, like this is all some kind of dream. Yes, I did start bawling like a baby. I couldn’t help but think of Lily and how her life is about to change. When love takes you in….and tells you that you belong. I am still amazed at how marvelously adoption parallels with the gospel. I think I will let Carlton do a post on that soon. We are so happy to be here, in this amazing country. We love China and this country will always hold a special place in our hearts. They have given us an amazing treasure, our daughter…
Today (Wednesday, Feb.4th), we will be meeting our guide Helen and start sightseeing at 1:00pm. I am not sure what is on the agenda today. Maybe Tiananamen Square, Forbidden City?? I think we might see a show tonight. Who knows!! We apologize for not posting last night. We are having some computer problems. Carlton is going to be calling home today to get the problem taken care of! For now, I am using his computer and copying images and word documents to a Jump Drive. Then, I take it to the hotel’s computer room and upload them there.
Hannah Grace and Noah,
Hello sweet my kiddos! We miss you so much. Hannah Grace, how is your school work coming along?? Have you started reading your new book? I miss giving you kisses and hugs! Noah, are you being a good boy? I hope so! I miss snuggling with you in the early morning hours. Please email us and hopefully we will have Skype working soon and we will be able to see you! We love you both so much.
Mommy and Daddy

Well, we are off for a big day...love you all.

PS. Jess, can you call Granny? Thanks.