Today was a whirlwind of a day. Sorry I don't have enough space on flickr.com to post very many pictures and I want to save room for Gotcha Day pics and it's so late and we have an early morning tomorrow so I will just post a synopsis of our day.

We had our Beijing tours of Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City and the Great Wall. It was a national Holiday and there were sooo many people at all of these places. We started out the day with overcast skies and it was cool but as the day progressed it started raining and got really down right chilly. The Forbidden City is so much larger than I expected it to be. You just kept going deeper inside one wall after another. It was just beautiful. Our guide was really patient and told us so many things about each part. We had lunch at an authentic Chinese restaurant and it was an experience. Most of it was unrecognizable but we all found something that would satisfy us even though we walked away hungry.

The Great Wall is just that. Great. As we entered the part of China in the van where we were to start the tour we started seeing huge mountains and we were dropped off at the entrance and were told to go as far as we could and have time to come back down in an hour and a half. It was really raining by this time and we were a little dissapointed that it wasn't prettier. Dale and the boys are much braver than I am and I just got to the landing where the steps really get steep and decided I didn't want to walk up and down wet, anient steps just to say I did it, so I waited for them all to come down. The boys got really cold and Dale is regretting going as high as he did but he got some really cool pictures.

On the ride back to the hotel I got some really GREAT news. Our guide who will be going with us to Ella's province said he is going to try to get them to bring her to us tomorrow afternoon (Sunday here) instead of waiting for Monday morning!!!! I cannot wait until then. I don't know if I can sleep tonight. So in less than 24 hours we will have Ella in our arms. I can't believe it's real. This all feels like a dream. I will try to post as soon as we can. I guess it will be early, early in the morning when we get her and I don't know an exact time, but tune in often and I promise I will have at least a few photos to share. I know all of you are anxious and I won't leave you hanging any longer than I have to but it all depends on how she is when we get back to the room.

Love everyone,
Priscella

WOW! We are actually here. I can't believe it. Our trip here was good, long but good. Eleven hours on the flight from Minnesota to Japan was hard on all of us. It was crazy. We ate three times on just that one flight. We had a wonderful day today. We had a free day to relax and do what we wanted before we start the tours of the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We decided to be adventurous and we took the subway and a taxi to the Beijing Zoo. It was hard but everyone who spoke english was very helpful. The zoo was beautiful and the pandas were adorable. Saw lots of animals but we were the big attraction. Everyone wanted to take their picture with our kids. It was cute. Noah got a big kick out of it. The weather is wonderful. It's in the 70s and I'm luvin it. Of course the room is another story. They turn the air off after summer cause it's almost "winta-time"...go figure. We have the windows open but it's still hot. I can hear the sounds down below of China. How cool is this. I'M IN CHINA. Can't believe it. Well, we'll get Ella in three days. I'm counting the minutes until I have her. All the adorable little girls we saw today was torture. I wanted to have my Ella with me while we were there. She would have loved seeing all the animals. We're going to have to bring her to the Houston Zoo soon.

Well, that's all for now. I'll post more tomorrow.

Priscella