Hi Everyone,
It's Sunday morning here and we're off to Changchun this morning. I can't view the blog for some reason but I'm assuming these posts are getting on. Can't remember what I wrote last...On Friday we went to the Great Wall. We took a cable car up to the Wall and climbed from there. Unfortunately, it was rainy and cloudy so visibility was only about 20 feet! Oh well.
Yesterday we visited Tiananmen Square and got accosted by vendors. We did get some cool stuff at great prices though! Margaret, Jake, and Maria were very popular. One young couple asked Margaret to hold their baby and took a picture of Margaret and the baby together! Jake and Maria were also photographed several times. A few days ago at the Forbidden City Jacob even got a kiss from a 20-something Chinese girl! We also went to the Temple of Heaven yesterday. It was very busy so much of the cool stuff about it we weren't able to do. For example, there is an echo wall but there were so many people trying to get it to work we couldn't really experience it. I guess now everyone has another reason to return to Beijing someday!
We will meet Joe tomorrow morning at 9:00 at our hotel in Changchun. That's 9:00pm Sunday night for you Michigan people so send some prayers our way then if you can!
I'll write more later....

Friday night: After an extremely long day we are all safely back at the hotel. It has been cold and rainy all day long. We went to the Great Wall but it was so misty and cloudy we couldn't see much. Bummer but I guess that leaves a reason to go back again someday! We visited a cloisonne factory to see how it is made. Very labor intensive! Now we know why it's so expensive! We also visited an old neighborhood in Beijing called Hutong which was cool. We even had rickshaw rides. The traffic was terrible on the way back so it took forever. The kids are all tucked in bed and we're about ready to head there too. Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with Holt (our agency) and then a little touring in the afternoon. We heard it's supposed to be sunny too which will be nice because it's been very cloudy and rainy since we arrived.

Ok, never mind the end of the last post. I figured out how to show the comments after I read them. I guess I learn something new every day!

Hi Everyone!
We safely arrived in Beijing last night. We got to our hotel around 4:00pm (Beijing time) so that made it about a 24 hour trip from our house to our hotel. We are 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time so I guess that means we're living the future over here and I'm typing this after living though a day you haven't even woken up for yet!!
Everything is going well. We all slept fairly well and did some touring today. We first visited the Forbidden City and then the Summer Palace. It was a little rainy but I guess it's been really hot so we gladly took the rain because that also meant it was cooler outside.
Tomorrow we will go to the Great Wall and Hutong Lane (famous shopping street).
On Saturday we have a meeting with a Holt Rep. We fly up to Changchun on Sunday.
So, all is well. Everyone is healthy and happy. Jan took a family picture of us at the Summer Palace but Margaret insisted it wasn't really a family picture and we'd have to get one of those later in the trip when it's really a complete family. How sweet of her.
I think we are going to try to get some Peking Duck tonight. Yum!
Love you all, and thanks for commenting. For some reason the blog isn't showing the comments. If anyone can tell me how to change that so they show on the blog page, please let me know. We can read them but they just don't show by our posts.
Bye from Beijing,
Ann, Guy.....

We're off!!! Hoping to get a few hours sleep before the 4:15 am alarm...
Whatever we forgot we'll get in China (probably cheaper with no import necessary!).
Thanks everyone for your prayers. We truly appreciate it.
Hope to post again once we get in to Beijing on Weds. night.
Guy and Ann

Hi Everyone,
We're packing!! I'm going to get Maria and Katrina's clothes packed tonight. They're easy because their clothes are small. Hopefully we'll get Margaret and Jacob's packed tomorrow, then ours on Sunday. To add to it all we've got some projects around the house we're trying to finish! We'll be in Beijing in 4 days!

It's Tuesday, Sept. 4. Everyone started school today and everything went well, although we had some tired kids tonight! We are hoping to start packing tomorrow. In 11 days we'll meet our new son!!
We're trying to finalize travel arrangements and get things organized around here.
Thanks for visiting our blog! Please, leave us a message to let us know you were here!
Guy and Ann