Not only is the new hotel more comfortable and better situated, within walking distance is a McDonalds and a KFC!  Seriously!  Foods we don’t tend to eat every day as a family, but they sure are a welcome sign here in the middle of this busy city.

We had a chance to stop in a few shops today to see if Taylor can find earrings and Kelly can find a tea pot.

Nice eyes, Taylor.  That is how crazy people look.

Here is a picture of the new, better hotel! We made to move in order to have a pool available, and this place certainly DOES have a nice swimming pool.  However, they require that if you use the pool, you have to wear a cap and goggles, which they do have available for purchase.  The total cost for the five of us to be properly outfitted would be about $150.  Oh well … at least it is a better hotel.  I’m not sure our guide would appreciate another move!  One of the really nice things about this hotel is that they filter their water!  This is the first place we have stayed in China that has potable water in the room.  I don’t think we are quite brave enough to actually DRINK it, but at least we do not have to use bottled water for our toothbrushes.  THAT is a pain…

While the streets here are not NEAR as congested as those in Vietnam, you still have to play a little dodge-bus at the intersections.

This is the first place I have been where they have these little DJ stands set up.  I believe they are selling dance mix-CD’s.

Here is that beautiful sign that so symbolizes home!

We let Caleb have his first taste of McDonald’s ice cream.

He offered to switch cones with Taylor so that they could try the other person’s.  For some reason Taylor didn’t want to share!

Caleb tried Coke for the first time:

He had QUITE the reaction!!

We thought that we would try and get him down for a nap.  No such luck…

Tonight we are going to head out and get some pizza for dinner.  Even if it is awful, I think we will think it is wonderful!!

Tomorrow we head back out to the Great Wall of China.  One time just isn’t enough!

Cameron

Just a quick update.  We have moved to our new hotel and it is SO much better than the previous one.  The room is a little bigger and it is in a much better are of the city.  We look out on business district that seems to have a lot of places to eat and, much to Taylor’s delight, it looks like we may be right beside a mall.  There is always a risk switching hotels because you don’t know if the place you are going is going to be better or worse.  This time, it worked in our favor and should provide a pleasant rest of this week.  Thank you to our guide, Robert, how made this happen.  He has proved his worth!

Cameron

  We are getting ready to switch hotels, so I am making this quick.  The swimming pool is broken here so we are getting a different hotel.  Irritating forigners, huh????

Last night, Caleb was tired and ended up getting a little homesick for his foster home.  It was kind of sad, but at the same time comforting to see the emotions there.

But this morning, he was all smiles again.

Here are pictures from our walk around this morning.

Our hotel … the one we are leaving

Today we spent signing all the paperwork with the local government in order to get a passport for Caleb.  That passport will come on Friday and will allow us to continue on our journey.  I think we started the day a little frustrated when we went down to breakfast and found a huge number of choices, but almost all of them traditional Chinese and not much there for an American to eat.  Then, most of the document signing was confusing in that there were a lot of people talking a lot of Chinese and not much explanation of what was going on.

But, in the end, I think we are OK with things.  We looked at going back to Beijing for the rest of the week, since the area we are does not offer many “American” options, but the cost was very prohibitive.  We have decided, instead, to stay where we are at and make the best of it.  We are changing hotel’s tomorrow as we went down today to look at the swimming pool and found out that it is going to be closed all week.  That would have been fine with an infant, but I have a 10 year old and a five year old and I have to keep them occupied and tired!!

On positive note on the day was that Caleb has been pretty liberal with the kisses today.  I think everyone has received at least one or two throughout the day!

I am having trouble getting the Xanga photomanager up, so I haven’t been able to post pictures.  As soon as I figure out the issue, I will put up the pictures from today.

Cameron

Update:  OK, I got the pictures up now!

Here we are at breakfast.  Let’s just say Caleb isn’t used to eating in a restaurant!  He was VERY loud, at one point standing on his chair and yelling.  He is very happy … just loud!

Here are the pictures of us signing the paperwork, again courtesy of Taylor!

Caleb decided to climb around the furniture while we signed papers.

We had to take a family picture for one of the documents.

On EVERYTHING they want you to put your fingerprint.

Brittany can handle things!

Here was another of our guides whose name was Mae.  She was great and very helpful, but I think that there was something in her dialytic that made it hard for the people here to understand her.  She didn’t seem to have any problem understanding them, though!

Caleb CAN be a little rough!

Even he had to give his finger print, on in this case a hand print.

We left to go to lunch and they asked if Chinese was OK.  I tried to be sarcastic with Mae and ask what other choice their really was, but she didn’t get my humor.  Most people don’t…  or maybe I’m just not funny.  Anyway, eagle-eye Taylor spotted a KFC and we got them to pull on in!

It wasn’t quite like home … they used almost all dark meat instead of white which changed the taste a little bit, but it was still American and it made us happy.

Plus, they had a play area for Caleb!  Yay!  Although I did kind of have to keep him from pushing all the little kids around.  He is a little bit of a bully, but not a rude one.  Just a happy one!

Tonight, Caleb pounded some Ramen noodles.  He likes his noodles and his bananas!

  First, we went swimming yesterday morning at the Lido hotel swimming pool.

With travel comapions like this, I am the envy of most people here!

It is so nice to see Brittany smiling again!

Taylor felt the need to break the rules and sit in the fountain.  Whatever.  What a rebel.  And she is influencing MY daighter!  I’m hoping that she doesn’t get us into any trouble over here!

Here is the sign to the Shijiazhuang Social Welfare Institute, the orphange were Caleb was based.

It was an entire complex of administrative buildings, dormatories, a playground, etc.

The building in the background is the actual dormotory that Caleb came out of and we met in on the side walk in front with a very nice lady who was his caregiver and a young man who was the director of the orphanage.

The tall gentleman above is “Robert, ” our guide.  As of yet, he is no Ting Ting.  We will see if he proves his worth later today!

We had sent him a book with our pictures in it, and he brought that out with him.

Kellyh had brought a Thomas the Tank Engine backpack with several cars and toys in it.  As with any young boy, he loved the cars!

It was kind of sad.  He had a friend with him and we SO wanted to take him with us.

Brittany jumped in to play with him.

Several of the girls from the orphanage watched out the window and shouted encouragement.  Well, I’m assuming it was encouragement.  I am not so gaining much ability to talk in Chinese.  We were all a a restaraunt yesterday and Brittany and I were going to split BBQ Chicken Nachos.  I even pointed to the item on the menu and felt supremely confident that the order was correct.  Brittany did, in fact, get her BBQ Chicken Nachos.  I, on the other hand, received a 1/2 rack of ribs (sorry Jake!).  I have NO idea how that got ordered.  I digresse.

Here I am giving the director a box of toothpaste and toothbrushes that Todd was able to get for us to provide the orphanage.

Then, we were off to the aministrative building to sign our paparwork.  Imagine, a five year old boy making every effort possible to hit all the puddles of water along the way.  A half a world apart and he really isn’t much different than Luke!

Here we signed the temporary custoday paperwork until we can sign the office paperwork this morning.  Kind of a test-drive, so to speak.  Sad to think of it that way, but that is basically what it was.

Brittany helps keep Caleb occupied.

Kelly helps Caleb figure out a Yo-Yo that we brought.

Caleb had done pretty well up until now, but as I said yesterday, he started getting a little emotional on the trip home and it started as soon as he got in the van.  You can kind of see it in this picture.

He slept well last night.  We all went to bed around 9:00 and he slept through the night between Kelly and I.  He went to sleep very quickly, but he was pretty tired.  He wouldn’t take off his close and he LOVES his shoes and would NOT take them off either.  So, Kelly and I spent the night with him kicking us with his shoes.  But, he wasn’t very restless, so that was fine.

He will let me love on him without any problem, but he hasn’t warmed up to Kelly yet.  She gave him a kiss this morning and he batted her away.  Not the first time she has been hit by one of our children, so it didn’t phase her too much.  As with Mia, it does take some time.  He did just share an M&M with Kelly, so there are steps being made.

The girls have been playing cars with him this morning.  It is so nice to see him laugh so easily and seem happy, even when just being pulled out of everything that he knows. 

A really special thanks to Taylor for taking all the pictures at the orphanage today!  She did a GREAT job!  Today you proved your woth on this trip!  We love you!

Cameron

We were able to get Caleb this evening.  All things considered, it went pretty smoothly.  I have pictures, but it has been a long day, I am tired, and Kelly is not feeling well. 

They met us outside of the orphanage and Caleb came out with a smile, calling us Momma and Poppa.  He had his picture album that we sent with all of our pictures plus pictures they had added of his foster family.  Smartly, Kelly had brought him a backpack with a tiny Space Shuttle and some Matchbox cars in it.  That was a hit.  When it was time to go, he marched over to the administration building while we signed papers. 

It wasn’t until we got into the van and left to go back to the hotel that he started crying and became a little emotional.  Poor little guy.  But, as was the opposite case with Mia, he has taken to me pretty well and isn’t so sure about Kelly.

He has been playing and getting into trouble most of the evening.  He enjoyed waving to our family members that we talked to on Skype tonight and I believe he said “Hi Mia”.  It figures the two of them would hit it off.  Probably already planning their next caper.

The hotel is a 4-star hotel.  I can tell you that means about nothing.  It may be a little challenging to find food for the next several days.  We meet with an administration official tomorrow morning and then we will have to figure out some food options.

I am trusting that this little guy will go to bed in the not too distant future.  We have a buffett for breakfast so at least we will get ONE good meal a day.  Hopefully!

Cameron

While the day started out fairly well, Brittany lost ground quickly and had a really difficult day.  We still dragged her around to different places, but she threw up twice and was pretty much miserable all day long.  We started our day out at the Olympic complex.  Here is the seven star hotel that the dignitaries used.  We were told several times about where Bill Gates worked, where he stayed, etc.  He must be some sort of Chinese hero!

Next door to the hotel are some of the many, many, many, many condo’s and apartments that are everywhere in Beijing.  Our guide, Ting Ting, told us that Beijing is the largest land area of any city in the world and that it is home to 16 million people.  By the time the day was over, that wasn’t hard to believe.

Brittany and Kelly crossing over the busy street to the Olympic Park.

It wouldn’t be the Olympics without McDonalds, right?  Right?

Here we are in front of the Aquatic Cube where all the diving and swimming competitions took place:

And the gymnasium where all the gymnastics competitions were held:

No trip to the Olympic Park would be complete with out seeing the Bird’s Nest!

Notice how happy Brittany is to be here.  She had not started throwing up yet … yet…

This is the building that Microsoft had it’s headquarters in for the Olympics.  It is pretty cool because it looks like a circuit board, although this picture probably does not do it justice.  Like a lot of areas down in the Olympic Park, much of the building is empty post-Olympics.

All the streets in the park were blocked off, but the traffic signals and the pedestrian crossings were all working.  I found that a little strange. 

Anyway, we left there and started towards the Great Wall of China.  Our guide, Ting Ting, gives us a running dialogue on everywhere we go and everything we do.  She seems incredibly knowledgable, but at the same time she could just be blowing smoke and we would never know!  I believe this was around the point that I asked her if she had any brothers or sisters.  Seriously.  Hello????  She looked at me for a second and then send “one child policy.”  Of coarse … I’m sorry … I am just an idiot!

We passed a park and the people were all flying kites.  This picture shows none of that!

I guess it is some sort of Chinese requirement that if you go to the Great Wall, you have to stop at the Jade store first.  This place is ghastly over priced, but was interesting.  Here is the entrance:

Ting Ting is very sweet and has been concerned about Brittany the entire day!

They have an area where you can watch people carve and polish the jade jewelery.

The main sales floor looks pretty impressive … I’m sure that the pricing is reflected in that!

The sales lady went through and showed us all the different types of Jade and showed us how to differentiate between real Jade and counterfeit Jade.  We still didn’t buy anything!

Kelly and Taylor pose with one of the statues out front!

After we left, it was off to the real highlight of the day … the Great Wall of China!

Very cool, huh?  Kelly and Ting Ting talk through the plans as Brittany isn’t really up to making any long walks!

There are all kinds of support buildings at the part of the Great Wall that were used for barracks for the soldiers who worked on the wall.

Since Brittany isn’t going up the mountain, Kelly stayed down at the base and Taylor and I went for a walk!

Tay and I didn’t want to stay away from Kelly and Brittany TOO long, so we only went about half way up.  However, that was pretty high.  You can see the structure just to the left of Taylor’s head?  That is were we left Kelly and Brittany.  They were hounded by Chinese people who wanted to take their picture.  Even with Brittany holding her plastic barf bag!

Tay and I went into one of the guard outpost areas:

This monument that Taylor is standing in front of was written by Chairman Mao and it basically states that if you do not walk up the Great Wall, you are not a hero!  Taylor and I are heros!  Although Taylor did say that in reality the hero of the day was Brittany!

That is pretty cool, huh???  We learned a lot about Chinese history today!  Here is a picture of the entire group at the base.  Note the plastic barf bag that Brittany has!

On the way out, everyone had a partner but me!

After leaving the Great Wall, we went down to Tiananmen Square.  The ride there was enjoyable as we passed many different areas of the city.

Once we get down to Tiananmen Square, I was impressed with two things: how small the actual viewing area is that you always saw on TV and how massive the entire square area is.  Ting Ting said it is the largest city square in the world.

Here is the are with Mao’s picture:

I took this following picture because this is were the generals and political leaders would sit and watch the military parades come through.  The seating looks like hard benches.  I would have thought they would have had a little more comfortable seating!

This is the actual square and this is the part that was so impressive.  Apparently, it can hold one million visitors at one time.  In the background is Mao’s tomb.

Here is the National Museum which, if Brittany would have been feeling better, would have been a great place to spend a little time.

There are several monuments on the square:

As is the case everywhere, the police have a strong presence here.  We were told that there are more police in this area than anywhere else, so this is the very safest place to be in Beijing at any time of the day.

Here is the actual Tiananman Gate.  There were nine gates throughout China, of which only three are still standing.  The Chinese people believed that when you walked through the gate, it gave you good luck.  So there were different gates for different types of good luck.  This one is special because it was the gate that the emperor would pass through when coming into or out of China.

This is the Arrow House.  From here, the army would post it archers who were charged to protect the Tiananman Gate and it stands about 200 yards in front of the gate.

Here is another view of Mao’s tomb.

Here is the Chinese Parliament building.  It sits directly across the square from the museum.

There are more pictures of various buildings on the photo album entitled “China 2010” on this site if you would like to view them.  But, this post has probably gone on long enough!  It probably is going to take forever to come up on people’s computers!

We went swimming tonight and Brittany has been doing well.  Lets keep praying that continues into tomorrow.

There is something wrong with Taylor.  I think she has a little problem with nacrolepsy.  Seriously.  She slept most of the way to Beijing on the plane.  Then, last night, Brittany woke up hungry.  I was thinking it HAD to be 5 or 6AM, right?  12:45AM.  An entire night yet to sleep and I felt like it was morning and time to get up.  And yet, Taylor slept.  She was a little grumpy when we actually woke her up at 5:30 this morning.  The girl can SLEEP!

Brittany seems to be doing a little better this morning.  She has eaten and not thrown up yet, so that seems like a good thing!  Breakfast this morning was GREAT!  I’m thinking I’m going to stay here all week, and I’m not really a breakfast person.

Taylor questions whether something REALLY is pineapple?

Brittany and Kelly look at the bacon presentation.

My personal omelette cook!

You HAVE to love a country that has sushi for breakfast!  SWEET!!

And, for those that don’t believe it, Kelly likes sushi, also!

We are heading to the Great Wall in about an hour!  See you later today.

Cameron

OK, so if you are reading this, that means that I can blog from China, which I wasn’t sure we would be able to do!  I do know that while we can received emails, we cannot send them through Outlook.  We will try tomorrow from the email web-site instead of relying on Outlook.

We made it to the airport with only a minor distraction.  SOMEONE forgot to bring their contact case and glasses.  No comments on who the offender is, but sufice it to say that it would have been a REALLY long week of Kelly leading a blind man through China.

Here we all are at Dayton International:

From Dayton we went to Chicago with a FOUR hour layover (did you know that Chili’s serves breakfast?  It wasn’t First Watch, but it was pretty good.)  Then we were on our way to Beijing, 13 hours over the North Pole.  Here are the happy travelers:

Understood that was at the BEGINNING of the trip!  It was a VERY long trip … it felt much longer than the trip to Vietnam did.  Part of it might have been because we were traveling during the day, but part of it was that the movie/video option was pretty unimpressive.  I had never seen “Young Frankinstien” so that held my attention for about 1 1/2 hours of the trip, but after that I was pretty bored as was the rest of the crew.  Add to that the fact that about a half hour before the flight was over, Brittany started throwing up!  Then we hit turbulance on the way into Beijing, so it only made matters worse!  See the lady in the background of this picture in the grey shirt?  When Brittany started puking, SHE started puking also.  Nice ….  Somehow we cleared the heath desk on the way through the airport.  As of the writing of this, she is STILL throwing up, so please pray for her.  We have a busy day tomorrow and she needs to be a part of it!  We prayed for her before she went to bed and with a full nights sleep, we are believing she will be much better tomorrow. 

When we landed in Beijing (here is the Beijing airport):

We were met by our guide.  She really is a lovely young lady, although maybe just a might TOO helpful????  When Brittany was throwing up in the van ride to the hotel, our guide was throwing back baby wipes like she was on an episode of Minute to Win It!  But, she has been very helpful.  Here, Kelly and she are getting to know each other:

Beijing, quite frankly, is no different than most American cities.  Feels like you have never left home.  Sure, it has it’s typical Asian store fronts and people riding bikes:

But there is a lot of really pretty new construction going on and everything is significantly more “organized” than Vietnam was.

We are stayin in the Holiday Inn, Ledo, which isn’t a bad little place.  Here is the lobby:

the hallway to our room:

and our room:

Note Brittany already under the covers!

Since Kelly wasn’t feeling good and Brittany was … well … you know, Taylor and I decided to head out and spend some time on the streets.  Here is a cute little news stand right up from the hotel:

Along with a rather run down apartment building that is right up the street from us:

I’m not sure why Kelly went by the Croc’s outlet store before we left because you can buy Crocs right off of the hood of people’s cars!

While I was looking at the local frut and vegitable stand …

Taylor was, imagine, looking at earings!!

She and I ate in a nice little Irish Pub across the street from the hotel (she IS 18 now, remember!  Although, don’t worry mom and dad.  She had Orange juice.  She was angling for Sprint, but we had some communication issues with our waitress).  I almost had to sell Taylor at the pub as the didn’t take a credit card and I had left my money in the hotel.  Luckily, eventhough the staff may not have been overly fluent in English, they were VERY nice and let Taylor and I run back to the hotel and get some money.

Overall, we are here and things are going pretty well.

COMMUNICATION

Just one note on communication here from China.  I had set up multiple ways to communicate back home and so far, all but one of them has worked perfectly.  Skype is a dream and how any of us lived before Sykpe is beyond me.  This evening we video called our kids and Koreen’s house and spent all of one penny.  Beautiful.  While our hotel’s version of “high-speed” and Skype version of “high-speed” are miles apart, it did work and was great!

I am also using www.ipipi.com to text back and forth.  It, too, worked JUST as advertised and I am very happy to have an extremely low cost option for texting back and forth when we are out with just our cell phones!

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Cameron

… which is repeated like a segment of Groundhog Day as I forgot my contact case and my glasses and we had to turn around and pick them up!  Nice.

We are at the Dayton Airport, getting on our flight to Chicago.  So far, so good!

Cameron