Sunday, February 8th, 2009

WaMArt!

Dryers at Wal-mart?

Sunday, Feb. 8-09

We have experienced a piece of heaven today.

This morning after breakfast we headed out for the day by ourselves. We got in the taxi and gave the driver the piece of paper with the name of the hotel where the church was located. We were so happy when we arrived because we thought our drive was going to be a little longer. We walked inside the hotel and asked the lady where the church service was located. She said, “Oh, in the business center.” Carlton and I went over to the business center which was about as big as my living room. “Hmmmm…”, we thought, “doesn’t look like church is going to happen in here.” We asked the lady in the business center, “Is this where church is?” She got on her phone and made several calls. Then, she went over to a cabinet and handed us a box. It was a converter for an outlet. I almost started to panic because I knew something was not right. They thought we were saying, “charge”. Oh, dear, where is Helen when we need her? Oh, yes, she is just a phone call away. We asked the hotel to call her. The hotel clerk spoke to Helen for a moment and then handed me the phone. Helen then said, “I am so sorry to tell you this, but your taxi driver took you to the wrong hotel.” We were on the wrong side of town! I really tried not to freak out..but a small part of me wanted to just cry! We got into a new taxi and this man was very nice and took us to the correct location. To enter this church, you must show your foreign passport or ID. It is a Christian church. They have service in a huge auditorium, there were well over a thousand people there. Most people did not look like us. We were definitely in the minority. I loved it, I really, really loved it. It made me think about heaven. We really enjoyed the early service and were able to sing praise songs in Mandarin. WE have some video we will share later. It was really amazing. We would like to share more of our heart about today’s church experience, but right now we cannot. I can tell you that it really impacted us on a deep level. We hope to share more later.

After church, we took a taxi to Wal-mart. Let me tell you , that was an experience. Thank you, but I’ll pass on Wal-mart in Beijing!! The food section was interesting. The smells were really strong and a couple times I got nauseous. The meat was lying out, it was not wrapped up. Ugh. I told Carlton I can’t imagine being pregnant in China and having to deal with the smells. Some smells are OK, but others are really strong. We walked around for a little while, but we didn’t buy anything. We couldn’t read the packaging so we didn’t know what anything was! There were not a lot of American things. I saw some cosmetics that I recognized, but that was about it.

We came home after Wal-mart to rest. We are trying to get some rest before we have our little one running all over the place!!!! (ooh, I just got chills typing that!) I can’t believe we are getting so close. I have waited so long and now the time is drawing near. Its very surreal. The excitement is almost too much to bear!

Tonight, we will eat out. I really want to find a place with some yummy dumplings!

Tomorrow, we will be checking out of our hotel at 12:00pm and our driver will take us to the airport!! Our fight leaves at 3:10pm and we will arrive about an hour later. We will be staying at Shanxi Grand Hotel…not sure of the room number. This is it guys….this is the place where Lily will lay at night all snuggled up next to her mama. Carlton promised me that I can “hog” her. He even told me I can be the first to hold her on Gotcha Day. (Like he had a choice?)

Love you all,

Thank you for your encouraging words that you are leaving for us...we love to read them early each morning!

Aimee and Carlton